Mr. Glidden, millionaire, is dying. Everyone wonders who will get his money. His relatives hang around the mansion but he keeps changing his will. "I'm dying," he complains, "and I don't know of one man in all the thousands that I employ that's fit to leave in charge of a peanut stand."
So he comes up with a great idea: picking people out of the phone book and giving them $1,000,000 each—thus introducing an entertaining series of episodes showing various recipients and how their lives are affected.
The episodes vary in tone as well as length; overall it's a mostly lighthearted picture that doesn't overwhelm in any way but does offer a chance to see a number of Hollywood stars and character actors in unique roles:
W.C. Fields and Alison Skipworth have trouble with a road hog; Charlie Ruggles has a ball smashing up a china shop; Charles Laughton gives his boss the raspberry. Wynne Gibson is memorable in one poignant story as a rescued dance hall girl who climbs into a fancy hotel bed and tosses the second pillow into a closet.
The final story features May Robson trapped in a home for elderly ladies. They won't let her make biscuits, won't allow card playing
they won't even let her have a kitten because cats are disease carriers. ("Disease carriers, then why ain't I dead?" Robson retorts. "I've had cats all my life.") It's all pretty melodramatic but made worthwhile by the joyous transformation brought about by Mr. Glidden's gift. Robson is excellent.
Richard Bennett is energetic (especially for someone allegedly on death's door) and really quite appealing as the old Mr. Glidden. Also featured in separate stories are Gary Cooper as a Marine and George Raft as a counterfeiter.
While it's no masterpiece, it's certainly worth a look, particularly for fans of Fields and Robson.
