I would write, "wow, this is a bad movie" but it would require more enthusiasm than the movie deserves. It's also hard to care enough to consider what's wrong with it, but I'll try.
The sets make no sense. They are a collection of things clinging to the edge of the soundstage. The intent was to present wealth, but the result is lots of dead space in front of a backdrop, like a 70s era variety show skit. In some instances, the lighting is so poor that the image is flat with no distinction between foreground and background.
The cast makes little sense. How does Eugene Pallette, an acceptable character actor, get cast in such a prominent role? His range extends from gruff to somewhat less gruff. The "writer" (yes, the quotes are meant to be bitchy) wrote her version of a Billie Burke character (she played the same character in the similarly plotted, but excellent, Merrily We Live), so Billie Burke makes sense. The problem is that the writing is so weak. Or her enthusiasm is so faint, even her talent can't carry it. Joseph Schildkraut doesn't seem to know why he is there. The script allows him to alternate between proto-Shakespearean soliloquies and sleeping - could they not afford his full salary so his contract allowed him sleep through a portion of his screen time?
The story does not seem connected to the character's development. This is another version of poor person teaches the meaning of life to rich people plot but, in this case, we get two poor people. This isn't just an abundance of magical poor people, it is a sign that the writer could not determine what story she wanted to tell. Neither of the poor people seem particularly wise or seem changed or influenced by their interaction with the rich family. And, the rich family are just devices and not developed characters. Whereas Scrooge required visits from four ghosts to understand the error in his ways, this rich family needs only 90 seconds of an actor describing the plot of A Christmas Carol to shift their perspective 180 degrees.
In the end, the rich family admits that they are trying to steal five million dollars from the poor actress and, since she has known them for 24 hours and heard the same description of the A Christmas Carol plot, she agrees to split the fortune 50/50. Then the two poor character types laugh manically and my wife and I look at each other and think WTF!
The sets make no sense. They are a collection of things clinging to the edge of the soundstage. The intent was to present wealth, but the result is lots of dead space in front of a backdrop, like a 70s era variety show skit. In some instances, the lighting is so poor that the image is flat with no distinction between foreground and background.
The cast makes little sense. How does Eugene Pallette, an acceptable character actor, get cast in such a prominent role? His range extends from gruff to somewhat less gruff. The "writer" (yes, the quotes are meant to be bitchy) wrote her version of a Billie Burke character (she played the same character in the similarly plotted, but excellent, Merrily We Live), so Billie Burke makes sense. The problem is that the writing is so weak. Or her enthusiasm is so faint, even her talent can't carry it. Joseph Schildkraut doesn't seem to know why he is there. The script allows him to alternate between proto-Shakespearean soliloquies and sleeping - could they not afford his full salary so his contract allowed him sleep through a portion of his screen time?
The story does not seem connected to the character's development. This is another version of poor person teaches the meaning of life to rich people plot but, in this case, we get two poor people. This isn't just an abundance of magical poor people, it is a sign that the writer could not determine what story she wanted to tell. Neither of the poor people seem particularly wise or seem changed or influenced by their interaction with the rich family. And, the rich family are just devices and not developed characters. Whereas Scrooge required visits from four ghosts to understand the error in his ways, this rich family needs only 90 seconds of an actor describing the plot of A Christmas Carol to shift their perspective 180 degrees.
In the end, the rich family admits that they are trying to steal five million dollars from the poor actress and, since she has known them for 24 hours and heard the same description of the A Christmas Carol plot, she agrees to split the fortune 50/50. Then the two poor character types laugh manically and my wife and I look at each other and think WTF!