Did Peter Ustinov make a living out of playing bumbling criminals in caper comedies?
A few years after winning an Oscar for "Topkapi," he was at it again in "Hot Millions," co-writing and starring in this pretty funny movie about a man using computers to embezzle money from his company. Maggie Smith is young and fetching as the woman he marries and who ends up having more brains than her sex kittenish demeanor would suggest. Karl Malden and Bob Newhart are also in the cast, as Ustinov's boss and arch rival, respectively, and Newhart, though playing a straight man and not really given any jokes, manages to make his character hilarious nonetheless.
But it's Ustinov who's the star of the show here, and you're either going to find his brand of mumbly, muttering comedy -- and by extension, the movie -- funny or you're not.
Ustinov shared a Best Original Story and Screenplay Oscar nomination with co-writer Ira Wallach.
Grade: A-
A few years after winning an Oscar for "Topkapi," he was at it again in "Hot Millions," co-writing and starring in this pretty funny movie about a man using computers to embezzle money from his company. Maggie Smith is young and fetching as the woman he marries and who ends up having more brains than her sex kittenish demeanor would suggest. Karl Malden and Bob Newhart are also in the cast, as Ustinov's boss and arch rival, respectively, and Newhart, though playing a straight man and not really given any jokes, manages to make his character hilarious nonetheless.
But it's Ustinov who's the star of the show here, and you're either going to find his brand of mumbly, muttering comedy -- and by extension, the movie -- funny or you're not.
Ustinov shared a Best Original Story and Screenplay Oscar nomination with co-writer Ira Wallach.
Grade: A-