This was a tier-B Warner Bros. production starring lesser WB contract players.
The plot: bedridden, miserly millionaire, "Jonathan Turner" (Cecil Kellaway), has been informed by his doctors that he should already be dead due to some unknown malady. With death fast approaching, he orders his put-upon attorney, "Timothy Bull" (Ernest Truex), to give working-class secretary "Jane Barker" (Joyce Reynolds) one million dollars as an anonymous gift. He refuses to inform Bull how he knows Jane or why he wants to give her this money. Thus, Bull can't inform the disbelieving Jane as to the why of this spectacular change of fortune.
Jane has a boyfriend, struggling writer "Donn Masters" (Robert Hutton), whom she supports on her meager paycheck and wants to marry. Despite already providing Donn funds, she's convinced that he'll leave her if he learns that she now has a million dollars due to supposed male pride and society looking down upon men who let women support them. So, she keeps her good fortune secret and allows Donn to believe that they can be married on the $250 royalty check that he received for one of his stories. After their marriage, she surreptitiously keeps Donn mystified how that $250 continues to carry their finances. Yet, she fails to account for two things: 1) Donn never did mind being supported by a woman and 2) millionaire Turner miraculously recovered and has turned "Indian Giver" about that million dollars. Alleged hilarity ensues.
This is a very lightweight romantic comedy. Its plot is beyond silly. Why didn't Turner just add Jane to his will or, at least, make that million dollar gift conditional on his actually dying? Or if Donn was happy to share her $37.50/week paycheck then why would Jane think he'd have an issue with sharing her $1 million? However, this is NOT the kind of film that was meant to be taken seriously or think much about. It's a low budget B-film churned-out to hopefully draws quick smiles, make a quick buck and test whether its stars had an appeal with audiences. It served those purposes.
It does have some entertaining gimmicks. Jane is a big movie fan and we're shown her watching scenes of movies in which actual Warner Bros. A-listers are shown in over-the-top melodramatic moments: Jack Carson, Alexis Smith, Dennis Morgan, and Humphrey Bogart all make cameos as themselves. Bogart has the comic highlight by recreating Barbara Stanwyck's famous final scene from the 1937 weepie "Stella Dallas." Also, Jane has a couple of dream sequences in which she envisions her future, but these scenes have her and Donn as actors on a TV screen ludicrously over-acting poorly-written dialogue. (Hollywood getting some early digs at the alleged poor quality of nascent TV programming.)
Overall, this is easy and forgettable entertainment. Its stars are serviceable with Robert Hutton likeable and Joyce Reynolds cute (especially in those 1940's outfits!) However, their careers never rose and Warner Bros. dropped them after their initial contracts. Hutton would soldier on for another twenty years doing any acting gig for a paycheck until a debilitating injury ended his career. Meanwhile, Reynolds would quit Hollywood. Supposedly, she went to college and then started-up a preschool. Hollywood has always been very tough on most actors.
The plot: bedridden, miserly millionaire, "Jonathan Turner" (Cecil Kellaway), has been informed by his doctors that he should already be dead due to some unknown malady. With death fast approaching, he orders his put-upon attorney, "Timothy Bull" (Ernest Truex), to give working-class secretary "Jane Barker" (Joyce Reynolds) one million dollars as an anonymous gift. He refuses to inform Bull how he knows Jane or why he wants to give her this money. Thus, Bull can't inform the disbelieving Jane as to the why of this spectacular change of fortune.
Jane has a boyfriend, struggling writer "Donn Masters" (Robert Hutton), whom she supports on her meager paycheck and wants to marry. Despite already providing Donn funds, she's convinced that he'll leave her if he learns that she now has a million dollars due to supposed male pride and society looking down upon men who let women support them. So, she keeps her good fortune secret and allows Donn to believe that they can be married on the $250 royalty check that he received for one of his stories. After their marriage, she surreptitiously keeps Donn mystified how that $250 continues to carry their finances. Yet, she fails to account for two things: 1) Donn never did mind being supported by a woman and 2) millionaire Turner miraculously recovered and has turned "Indian Giver" about that million dollars. Alleged hilarity ensues.
This is a very lightweight romantic comedy. Its plot is beyond silly. Why didn't Turner just add Jane to his will or, at least, make that million dollar gift conditional on his actually dying? Or if Donn was happy to share her $37.50/week paycheck then why would Jane think he'd have an issue with sharing her $1 million? However, this is NOT the kind of film that was meant to be taken seriously or think much about. It's a low budget B-film churned-out to hopefully draws quick smiles, make a quick buck and test whether its stars had an appeal with audiences. It served those purposes.
It does have some entertaining gimmicks. Jane is a big movie fan and we're shown her watching scenes of movies in which actual Warner Bros. A-listers are shown in over-the-top melodramatic moments: Jack Carson, Alexis Smith, Dennis Morgan, and Humphrey Bogart all make cameos as themselves. Bogart has the comic highlight by recreating Barbara Stanwyck's famous final scene from the 1937 weepie "Stella Dallas." Also, Jane has a couple of dream sequences in which she envisions her future, but these scenes have her and Donn as actors on a TV screen ludicrously over-acting poorly-written dialogue. (Hollywood getting some early digs at the alleged poor quality of nascent TV programming.)
Overall, this is easy and forgettable entertainment. Its stars are serviceable with Robert Hutton likeable and Joyce Reynolds cute (especially in those 1940's outfits!) However, their careers never rose and Warner Bros. dropped them after their initial contracts. Hutton would soldier on for another twenty years doing any acting gig for a paycheck until a debilitating injury ended his career. Meanwhile, Reynolds would quit Hollywood. Supposedly, she went to college and then started-up a preschool. Hollywood has always been very tough on most actors.