Talk of a Million

1951 British film

March 1951 (1951-03)

(U.K.)

Running time

77 minutes^[2]CountryUnited KingdomLanguageEnglishBox office£96,963 (UK)^[3]

Talk of a Million (also known as You Can't Beat the Irish) is a 1951 British comedy film directed by John Paddy Carstairs, starring Jack Warner, with an early appearance from Sid James.^[4]^[5]

Premise

Shakespeare-loving Bartley Murnahan, (Jack Warner), 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

Jack Warner as Bartley Murnahan
Barbara Mullen as Bessie Murnahan
Joan Kenny as Sally Murnahan
Elizabeth Erskine as Norah Murnahan
Ronan O'Casey as Derry Murnahan
Vincent Ball as Jack Murnahan
Noel Purcell as Matty McGrath
Paul Connell as Joe McGrath
Michael Dolan as Tubridy
Niall MacGinnis as Tom Cassidy
Alfie Bass as Lorcan
Sid James as John C. Moody
Anita Sharp-Bolster as Miss Rafferty
Tony Quinn as Sacristan
John McDarby as Porter
Milo O'Shea as Signwriter
Michael Trubshawe as church groundsman - (uncredited)

Critical reception

The New York Times noted "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."^[6] TV Guide gave the film two out of five stars, calling it "Pleasantly whimsical, as expected from the title (You Can't Beat the Irish)."^[7]

References

^ Goble, Alan (1 January 1999). The Complete Index to Literary Sources in Film. Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 9783110951943 – via Google Books.
^ "TALK OF A MILLION - British Board of Film Classification".
^ Vincent Porter, 'The Robert Clark Account', Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, Vol 20 No 4, 2000 p496
^ "Talk of a Million". 30 April 1952 – via IMDb.
^ "Talk of a Million (1951)". Archived from the original on 28 November 2016.
^ "Movie Reviews". The New York Times. 6 May 2022.
^ "You Can't Beat The Irish".