weezeralfalfa The most dominating character role I've seen irascible grandfatherly Charles Coburn play. This is definitely his movie, whatever the official credits suggest. He also dominated, again playing a tycoon, in "The Girl Who Took the West", where again he was concerned how his fortune would fare after he was gone. Coburn, as Samuel Fulton/alias John Smith, having no close kin, wants to bequeath his fortune, especially in gold and oil companies, to the descendants of the one woman he loved, back when he was poor and struggling. He wants to express his gratitude to her for refusing him, which stimulated him to travel around the US, looking for investment opportunities. But first, he wants to test if this family can handle his fortune responsibly. He fakes an advertisement from them for a roomer, then shows up on their doorstep with the paper in hand, badgering them into accepting him as the roomer.Mrs. Blaisdell(Lyn Bari) is characterized as the worst offender in spending the test money lavishly on a mansion with fancy furnishings, expensive car and clothes, etc.. She even demands they trade in their personable Airedale for a pair of French poodles. In large part, she wants these things in order to be accepted as an equal by the town upper crust, so that her daughter, Millie, is better qualified to marry the son of a rich family. Meanwhile, son Charles tries to multiply their fortune by gambling at cards, but instead loses all his money, necessitating Coburn to use his expertise at card gambling to win it back for him anonymously. Meanwhile Mr. Blaisdell gambles a good share of the money on a stock, which then collapses. Daughter Millie is the only one of the adults who is conservative in her demands with the money. Her mother wants her to marry a rich man she doesn't love. Now that they are rich, Millie's boyfriend Dan(Rock Hudson), a mere soda jerk, feels out of place as her boyfriend, so breaks off their engagement. But later, when the family is flat broke, he resumes his interest in Millie, while her rich fiancé suddenly loses interest in her.We don't learn whether Coburn decided to will the rest of his fortune to the family. He took a special interest in Millie. If I were him, I would have all securities, companies and cash put in a trust fund, from which they can draw so much per year. with Millie getting the most. This comedic drama is played against a background of 1920s culture, including raccoon coats and a number of songs. In fulfilling his role as a snooper and aid to the Blaisdells, Coburn is arrested several times for frequenting a speak-easy or a gambling den, and reprimanded for allegedly necking in a movie theater with Millie. He is talked into working in the Blaisdell's pharmacy as a soda jerk, after an inauspicious training period. At night, he has to sleep with the family dog.The aspect that deserves the most criticism is the excessively feel good ending, which has the family returning to their old house and old business(which they had sold),as if they had never received the money and hadn't gone bankrupt. Should Coburn have revealed himself before leaving , or disappeared incognito.Lyn Bari, usually typecast as "the other woman" or loser, has a different role here, but still clearly comes across in a negative light who, along with the others, loses their fortune because of their greed. Also, she champions "the other man" to marry her daughter.

Richard Burin Has Anybody Seen My Gal (Douglas Sirk, 1952) is a winning comedy from the soon-to-be master of romantic melodrama, Douglas Sirk, who went on to make the smash-hit "women's pictures" Magnificent Obsession and All That Heaven Allows. Just as those films pack a notable satirical bite, so Has Anybody Seen My Gal has a few choice things to say about greed and the worship of money, even if Sirk gets his message across in an overly broad manner. Charles Coburn, who could do "crustily avuncular" like no-one else in Hollywood, plays a multi-millionaire with a novel idea about what do with his will. Having made his fortune after losing the only girl he ever loved, he resolves to give the money to the late woman's family: daughter Lynn Bari, her husband Larry Gates - who runs a grocery store - and their likable children, Piper Laurie, William Reynolds and Gigi Perreau. But he wants to make doubly sure he's doing the right thing, and inveigles his way into their household posing as a surrealist painter.The film is extremely entertaining and the scriptwriters generally make the right decisions within scenes, knowing when to play for laughs (almost always), when to deliver a little jolt of emotion (like Coburn seeing a portrait of his lost love) and when to curtail an encounter. It's also genuinely funny, with Coburn an absolute joy as the film's good-hearted centre, alternately omniscient and naive. The scenes where he's reprimanded by judge Paul Harvey for supposedly immorality are particularly strong and there's a hilarious, ridiculous sequence in which the paternal old cove is accused of necking with young woman Laurie in a cinema that's masterfully-handled. Coburn, in career-best form, also generates an easy chemistry with both the wide-eyed, red-headed Laurie (later of The Hustler, Carrie and Return to Oz) and the charming Perreau, who reminds me of Margaret O'Brien. Being a Douglas Sirk film, this one looks absolutely great, while it's also significant in movie history as the director's first teaming with frequent collaborator Rock Hudson (playing Laurie's soda jerk boyfriend) and for a blink-and-you'll-miss-it turn from James Dean as a kid ordering a soda. That's if it takes you 10 seconds to blink.But the film falls short of greatness in several ways. The narrative, which sees Bari turn into a nouveau riche monster, is apt to offend people of all political persuasions, with the idea that money is evil being a socialist concept and the suggestion that poor people can't handle the paper stuff an old-fashioned right-wing one. There's also the problem of Bari's character, who is crucial to our investment in the story. Familiar as the "other woman" from countless Fox films of the '30s and early-'40s, the actress is poorly-cast in a badly-written role and delivers a one-dimensional and unsympathetic performance. Though the '20s setting is enthusiastically utilised, it's also a little synthetic, while little jokes about rising prices and changing fashions are largely meaningless today to all those without a PhD in early-20th century American history. Perhaps most frustratingly, the film ends in an unorthodox manner that doesn't suit the material, taking the peculiar decision to keep the identity of Coburn's millionaire a secret. A climactic unmasking has obvious comic and dramatic potential, but instead all we get is Coburn walking down the street and out of his adopted family's lives.Has Anybody Seen My Gal is top entertainment, powered by Charles Coburn's lovely performance and packed with good jokes. But it's let down by the simplistic, slightly negative central message, Bari's weak characterisation and a refusal to play ball with its audience, which would have turned this period piece into prime Americana.Trivia note: The film's title refers to a '20s hit, sung here by a bunch of kids at a soda fountain. It's one of several tunes tossed into the mix, apparently at random.

edwagreen This wonderful film has often been described as a wonderful piece of Americana and so it is.It is beautifully realized thanks to a wonderful cast, terrific pacing and a story line that we can repeat over and over: money isn't everything.Charles Coburn gives another wonderful performance. This versatile actor, who moved from drama to comedy with ease, is fantastic as the elderly gentleman who visits the family of the woman who turned him down years before when he proposed to her. While the woman herself is now deceased, Coburn finds her family in the ideal American town of the 1920s.Lynn Bari is wonderful as the status seeking mother married to a soda store owner-Larry Gates. Then there is Gigi Perreau who is as precocious as ever.A young and beautiful Piper Laurie appears as their elder daughter who becomes engaged to Rock Hudson, a soda jerk at Gates' store.When Coburn goes to live with family, posing as a border, all hell breaks loose when he gives them anonymously $100,000. The money changes all of them drastically.There are wonderfully comic turns everywhere and there is a short but memorable Charleston done by Laurie and Hudson. Even, Coburn figures in the dancing.You will be upset when the movie ends because Coburn, on the verge of being found out, announces to the family that he may never see them again as he leaves. Nevertheless, this is a feel good movie; it conveys the American ideal and values so well and with great comedy along the way.

proffate Great fun!I just caught this on AMC and loved it immediately. A millionaire (Charles Coburn) gives $100,000 to the family of the woman who rejected him when he was young. Set in the 1920's when steak was 56 cents a pound, that's a lot of cash!The money immediately goes to the family's head and Coburn has to step in anonymously to set things right.A wonderful period piece, and Coburn doing the Charleston is an incredible sight!