If I Had a Million was the granddaddy of later films that strung together little vignettes and drew all-star casts for box office appeal. This one has a pretty clever impetus in the plot: A dying millionaire doesn't want to leave his money to his family, so he picks out eight random people out of a telephone book and gives a million dollars to each of them. Each of the eight handles their check differently, most with tragic consequences but some with smart decisions. The overall lesson is that money changes people and most people don't know what to do with it. In the midst of the Great Depression, it was a very smart lesson to espouse. People in the audience could go home and dream about what they'd do with their million dollars, and then when they remembered they weren't getting a check from a mysterious benefactor they could relax and say, "The folks in the movie weren't any better off with the money."
George Raft, Gary Cooper, W.C. Fields, Charles Ruggles, Richard Bennet, Mary Boland, Jack Oakie, Charles Laughton, May Robson, and Alison Skipworth make up the cast, but this collection of short stories isn't very good. Mostly it's depressing and cynical, so unless you're in the mood to watch something like that, you're better off renting O. Henry's Full House.
George Raft, Gary Cooper, W.C. Fields, Charles Ruggles, Richard Bennet, Mary Boland, Jack Oakie, Charles Laughton, May Robson, and Alison Skipworth make up the cast, but this collection of short stories isn't very good. Mostly it's depressing and cynical, so unless you're in the mood to watch something like that, you're better off renting O. Henry's Full House.