Review of Make Mine a Million

I'm old enough to have seen this on its first release in 1959 and still derive a lot of enjoyment from re-watching it on TV. It compares very favourably with the smutty innuendo-laden Carry On Nurse released in the same year. Acting honours go to Sidney James as the soap powder salesman who persuades hapless BBC make-up assistant Arthur Askey and cameraman Bernard Cribbins to sneak an advert for his product onto a top BBC TV show. The BBC Governors are predictably outraged and further upset when it happens again at Ascot Races and the Edinburgh Festival. The satire is gentle but spot on. Jack Hylton, who financed the film, was a theatrical impresario who had every reason to fear the growing power of television. A large cast including some familiar faces in cameo roles - not to mention the Television Toppers and the Dagenham Girl Pipers - is headed by Askey, who appears to have been allowed to build his part - one scene for example in which, disguised as a nurse, he is ordered by police to help deliver a baby, is superfluous. Sadly the film rather runs out of steam towards the end but it's an enjoyable ride on the way. Note that there are two violent attacks involving the use of clubs.