Despite the toothsome grin and shock of wavy hair, the youthful Burt Lancaster is badly miscast in this gentle comedy which provides no real laughs as such, but does possess a light-hearted tone and a terrific performance from Edmund Gwenn.
Gwenn plays Skipper Miller, a kindly old man beloved by all his neighbours who, whenever money gets tight, prints off a few (misspelled) one dollar bills on an old hand press to make ends meet. He's been doing it for over a decade, but the treasury department has always been too busy chasing organised counterfeit rings to go after small fish like Mister 880. That is, until they draft in hot-shot agent Steve Buchanan (Lancaster) in the vague hope that he might be able to track the elusive counterfeiter down. It's difficult to see why Lancaster would have chosen to play such a role as he does here. He doesn't really have that much to do other than woo a young female friend of Skipper's (Dorothy Maguire) who was briefly in possession of one of the old man's dud notes. Lancaster had the type of frame and character that demanded roles with some action and vitality, but here he's bound within the confines of a collar and tie and he rarely looks comfortable.
With Hollywood still under the thumb of the Hays Code, there's never any doubt that the whimsical Skipper will one day have to face the music, and it's a surprise that the film's finale follows pretty closely the punishment meted out to the real counterfeiter upon whose story this film is based. It seems it's OK if a sweet old guy only steals from you one dollar at a time.
The film is OK, but it's nothing memorable, and it will fade pretty quickly from your memory.
Gwenn plays Skipper Miller, a kindly old man beloved by all his neighbours who, whenever money gets tight, prints off a few (misspelled) one dollar bills on an old hand press to make ends meet. He's been doing it for over a decade, but the treasury department has always been too busy chasing organised counterfeit rings to go after small fish like Mister 880. That is, until they draft in hot-shot agent Steve Buchanan (Lancaster) in the vague hope that he might be able to track the elusive counterfeiter down. It's difficult to see why Lancaster would have chosen to play such a role as he does here. He doesn't really have that much to do other than woo a young female friend of Skipper's (Dorothy Maguire) who was briefly in possession of one of the old man's dud notes. Lancaster had the type of frame and character that demanded roles with some action and vitality, but here he's bound within the confines of a collar and tie and he rarely looks comfortable.
With Hollywood still under the thumb of the Hays Code, there's never any doubt that the whimsical Skipper will one day have to face the music, and it's a surprise that the film's finale follows pretty closely the punishment meted out to the real counterfeiter upon whose story this film is based. It seems it's OK if a sweet old guy only steals from you one dollar at a time.
The film is OK, but it's nothing memorable, and it will fade pretty quickly from your memory.