Talk of a Million

☆ Save On Wikipedia ↗
Talk of a Million
U.S. poster
Directed byJohn Paddy Carstairs
Written byFrederick Gotfurt
Based onthe play They Got What They Wanted by Louis D'Alton[1]
Produced byAlex Boyd
StarringJack Warner
Barbara Mullen
CinematographyJack Hildyard
Edited byEdward B. Jarvis
Music byLeighton Lucas
Production
company
Distributed byAssociated British-Pathé (U.K.)
Release date
  • March 1951 (1951-03)
(U.K.)
Running time
77 minutes[2]
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Box office£96,963 (UK)[3]

Talk of a Million (also known as You Can't Beat the Irish, Smiling Irish Eyes and When Irish Eyes Are Smiling[4]) is a 1951 British comedy film directed by John Paddy Carstairs, starring Jack Warner and Barbara Mullen.[4][5] It was written by Frederick Gotfurt based on the 1947 play They Got What They Wanted by Louis D'Alton.[6]

Premise

Shakespeare-loving Bartley Murnahan, is a likeable, work-shy idler, who allows creditors and others to believe that he's due a half-a-million pounds inheritance. Using only his wits and the new estimation in which his creditors and others then form of him, their sudden good-will and business co-operation allow him to write-off his debts, establish his impoverished family in business, and to marry his daughter to the son of a local landowner, whose Father had formerly scorned her. How long shall it take before everyone sees through his blarney?

Cast

Critical reception

Kine Weekly wrote: "Rich, natural humour, stoutly underpinned by popular romance, artfully conceals the length of its tongue. Wordy, yet refreshing, it's a welcome change from orthodox fare."[7]

The Daily Film Renter wrote: "Stage Irish comedy of the sort which only stops short of bejabbers, it puts over endearing and amusing characters. The rural setting is pretty, so that, all in all, it adds up to a sunny picture with never a punchy moment."[8]

Picturegoer wrote: "The film's a pleasant enough little number with a hint of the theatre about it. Although the scriptwriting is quite competent, it hasn't been able to disguise entirely the story's stage origin."[9]

The New York Times wrote: "a pleasantly garrulous little item that turned up at the Park Avenue yesterday...The plot, it might be noted, is closer to contrivance than ingenuity but the performances are uniformly fine. Jack Warner is excellent as the cultured but lazy father, who is anxious to help his brood and just as ready to quote the Bard at a moment's notice. Barbara Mullen does equally well in the role of his persevering wife. Acting honors, however, go to Michael Dolan, an Abbey Theatre veteran, as the designing village grocer, whose schemes to bilk our hero backfire. Only Barry Fitzgerald could approximate his characterization and it would take a poteen-filled denizen of a Dublin shebeen to equal his brogue and delivery. Add too, the explosive performance of Noel Purcell as an irascible farmer."[10]

TV Guide, reviewing the film as You Can't Beat the Irish, gave two out of five stars, calling it "Pleasantly whimsical, as expected from the title."[11]

References

  1. Goble, Alan (1 January 1999). The Complete Index to Literary Sources in Film. Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 9783110951943 – via Google Books.
  2. "TALK OF A MILLION - British Board of Film Classification". Archived from the original on 28 November 2016.
  3. Vincent Porter, 'The Robert Clark Account', Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, Vol 20 No 4, 2000 p496
  4. "Talk of a Million". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 16 May 2026.
  5. "Talk of a Million (1951)". BFI. Archived from the original on 28 November 2016.
  6. "Talk of a Million". Irish Theatre Institute: Playography Ireland. Retrieved 16 May 2026.
  7. "Talk of a Million". Kine Weekly. 411 (2294): 20. 14 June 1951. ProQuest 3306977486.
  8. "Talk of a Million". The Daily Film Renter (6185): 11. 7 June 1951. ProQuest 3130687071.
  9. "Talk of a Million". Picturegoer. 22 (844): 16. 7 July 1951. ProQuest 1705091560.
  10. "Movie Reviews". The New York Times. 6 May 2022.
  11. "You Can't Beat The Irish". TV Guide. Archived from the original on 23 July 2020.