IMDb RATING
6.9/10
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A dying tycoon gives million-dollar windfalls to eight people picked from the city directory.A dying tycoon gives million-dollar windfalls to eight people picked from the city directory.A dying tycoon gives million-dollar windfalls to eight people picked from the city directory.
Charles Ruggles
- Henry Peabody
- (as Charlie Ruggles)
Hooper Atchley
- Hotel Desk Clerk
- (uncredited)
Irving Bacon
- China Shop Salesman
- (uncredited)
Eddie Baker
- Second Desk Clerk
- (uncredited)
Reginald Barlow
- Otto K. Bullwinkle
- (uncredited)
Ada Beecher
- Idylwood Resident
- (uncredited)
Vangie Beilby
- Idylwood Resident
- (uncredited)
Clara T. Bracy
- Idylwood Resident
- (uncredited)
- Directors
- James Cruze(segment Death Cell)
- H. Bruce Humberstone(segment The Forger)
- Ernst Lubitsch(segment The Clerk)
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThree sequences intended for the movie were not in the final print: "The Pheeneys" with Cary Grant, Richard Arlen and Miriam Hopkins, "The Man Who Drops Dead" by Oliver H.P. Garrett, directed by Thornton Freeland with Tallulah Bankhead, and Clive Brook, and "The Randall Marshalls" with Sylvia Sidney, Carole Lombard, Randolph Scott and Fredric March, and directed by Lothar Mendes. It is not known if the first two segments were filmed and dropped or simply not filmed. The last sequence was partially filmed, but dropped because March would not participate in retakes without salary.
- GoofsDiscovering he's about to die, millionaire Glidden decides to leave his money to names he's randomly selected from the phone book. But when first name he chooses turns out to be John D. Rockefeller, he flips a few pages further into directory and selects someone named Peabody - a name that would actually have appeared in the book before Rockefeller.
- Quotes
Mrs. Mary Walker: There ain't any jail of steel or stone that can hold a body prisoner as tight as one built of old age... and lack of money.
- Alternate versionsSome local censors deleted objectionable scenes in the "Violet" and "Death Cell" segments. In "Violet," when she throws off the covers and removes her stockings, and in "Death Cell," the preparation for execution and the opening of the door to the execution chamber.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Woman of Tokyo (1933)
- Soundtracks(I'll Be Glad When You're Dead) You Rascal You
(1931) (uncredited)
Written by Spo-De-Odee
Sung by an unidentified male voice on a record
Featured review
A great batch of short stories
Thank heavens for fans of W.C. Fields, because it is they who have kept this diamond in the public forum after all these years. The film certainly does not belong to Fields, as his Road Hog routine is just one of eight stories of varying lengths. But fortunately, his fans discovered this film so the rest of us can truly enjoy everything else it has to offer, as well. A collection of writers presented eight stories of people who get an unexpected windfall from a steel tycoon. Some are funny, some are touching, some are brilliant in their brevity, some just make you think. Just desserts is the main theme. The Eddie Jackson (George Raft) segment is twistedly ironic enough to be a "Twilight Zone" episode. And EVERYBODY wants to be Phineas Lambert (Charles Laughton). Great writing, great cast - a good time.
helpful•144
- ROCKY-19
- Oct 7, 2006
Details
- Runtime1 hour 28 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1
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