Make Me an Offer | |
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Directed by | Cyril Frankel |
Written by | W. P. Lipscomb Wolf Mankowitz |
Based on | Make Me an Offer by Wolf Mankowitz [1] |
Produced by | W. P. Lipscomb |
Starring | Peter Finch Adrienne Corri Finlay Currie |
Cinematography | Denny Densham |
Edited by | Bernard Gribble |
Music by | John Addison |
Production company | |
Distributed by | British Lion Films |
Release dates |
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Running time | 88 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Make Me an Offer (also known as Make Me an Offer!) is a 1954 Eastmancolor British comedy film directed by Cyril Frankel and starring Peter Finch, Adrienne Corri, Rosalie Crutchley and Finlay Currie. [2] It is based on the 1952 novel of the same title by Wolf Mankowitz. [3] It was distributed by British Lion Films.
On a childhood trip to the British Museum, young Charlie falls instantly in love with the Portland Vase, and his passion for it leads to him eventually becoming a dealer in English pottery. Whilst still a boy he sees a newspaper cutting that describes the theft, 50 years before in 1886, of art treasures, including a perfect green Portland Vase created by Josiah Wedgwood in 1783. Years later and struggling in his profession, Charlie learns of a room full of Wedgwood in a country mansion up for demolition. Lacking funds, he turns to Abe Sparta, a successful businessman and the owner of the house in which Charlie, his wife Bella and their two children live. He takes the train to view the contents before the auction of the mansion's contents. To his great disgust, Charlie finds only French fakes.
When Nicky, a pretty (if absentminded and clumsy) redhead, walks to the neighbouring cottage, Charlie follows. He purchases a worthless porcelain piece from her, just because she needs two pounds. She invites him to look around to see if he might find something of value. Nicky is looking after Sir John, an aged relation with a wicked reputation. Charlie conceals his astonishment upon spotting two of the art objects stolen along with the vase. Then he finds the Portland Wedgwood vase gathering dust in the attic. Charlie offers Nicky £10 for it, but she wants £100 for a fur coat. He reluctantly agrees, but she refuses to accept a cheque.
Charlie arranges for other bidders to come to the auction, including Wendl (a long-time bitter rival of Sparta's) and Armstrong and Armstrong's American clients, Mindel and Sweeting. At the auction, Charlie starts playing off the three bidders against and with each other, to his great profit, obtaining enough in this underhanded way to pay Nicky. When she demands £150, however, Charlie goes to Sir John and persuades him to perform the first good deed of his life and give him the vase for nothing (the rightful owner having died and left no heir). Charlie does give a delighted Nicky the promised £100 anyway. With some of the rest, Charlie buys his wife a long-promised fur coat.
Make Me an Offer was Wolf Mankowitz's first novel and was autobiographical – he had been an antique dealer since 1947. [4] The book became a best seller. [5]
It was Peter Finch's first starring role in a British film. [6] In April 1954 Diane Cilento was announced as his co-star but she does not appear in the final film, [7] being replaced by Rosalind Crutchley. [8]
Filming started 22 April 1954 at Beaconsfield Studios. [9] The film's sets were designed by the art director Denis Wreford. They had the film finished by August 1954 when Finch called it:
Without a doubt the best film I've ever acted in. It is adult. One might say, if one weren't a little frightened of using words, truly artistic. It is the longest part I've ever had, since I'm in every scene but one. So if anyone takes a dislike to me in the first five minutes, he is in for a bad evening. Director Cyril Frankel is. I think, one of the most able and most stimulating directors I've ever worked for. In fact, the whole of 'Group Three' Studios, where we made the film, is exciting and alive with rising talent and new ideas. It is fun because they all know they're going somewhere. Rosalie Crutchley, who plays my wife in 'Make Me An Offer,' is a splendid actress. [10]
The film was screened for London critics in December 1954. [11]
The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "This new Group 3 production starts with the advantage of a fresh background – the antique business, which the author of the original novel, Wolf Mankowitz, knows well – and some ingeniously contrived situations. But it does not make very much of them. Both script and direction are somewhat laborious; the latter has a strenuous brightness, particularly in the scenes between Charlie and his wife, done with an ostentatious naturalistic and "intimate " technique which appears very false. Most of the dialogue is written for Jewish characters, which is why Meier Tzelniker, as a cunning old dealer, comes off much the best. Peter Finch does not seem altogether at ease as Charlie; Adrienne Corri and Rosalie Crutchley flounder as Nicky and Bella; and Ernest Thesiger, as the somnolent but wicked Sir John, contributes an authentically bizarre and entertaining character sketch." [12]
British film critic Leslie Halliwell said: "Mildly pleasant Jewish comedy with interesting sidelights on the antique business." [13]
In British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959 David Quinlan rated the film as "average", writing: "Strenuous comedy has some ripe character cameos, but a slow pace." [14]
Sky Movies called it an "Engaging comedy", with an "amusing script", concluding, "Far from least, there's that splendid veteran Ernest Thesiger, here as a great-great-grandfather whose past life has not been exactly without reproach...". [15]
The New York Times critic Bosley Crowther described it and another film on a double bill as "unpretentious British comedies." [16]
The novel was adapted into a musical with book by Mankowitz and music and lyrics by Monty Norman and David Heneker. Originally performed at Joan Littlewood's Theatre Royal Stratford East in October 1959, it transferred to the West End's New Theatre in December 1959. [17] [18] The original London cast featured Daniel Massey, Dilys Laye and Martin Miller. The musical was successful and there was talk it would be adapted into a film. [19] It received the Evening Standard Award for Best Musical of 1959. [20]
In 1966 the novel was adapted for the BBC as a play in two parts. [21]
Frederick George Peter Ingle Finch was an English-Australian actor of theatre, film and radio.
Devil Girl from Mars is a 1954 British second feature black-and-white science fiction film, produced by the Danziger Brothers, directed by David MacDonald and starring Patricia Laffan, Hugh McDermott, Hazel Court, Peter Reynolds, and Adrienne Corri. It was released by British Lion, and released in the United States the following year. A female alien is sent from Mars to acquire human males to replace their declining male population. When negotiation, then intimidation, fails she must use force to obtain co-operation from a remote Scottish village where she has landed her crippled flying saucer.
John Edward Hawkins, CBE was an English actor who worked on stage and in film from the 1930s until the 1970s. One of the most popular British film stars of the 1950s, he was known for his portrayal of military men.
Betty Evelyn Box was a prolific British film producer, usually credited as Betty E. Box.
Ernest Frederic Graham Thesiger, CBE was an English stage and film actor. He is noted for his performance as Doctor Septimus Pretorius in James Whale's film Bride of Frankenstein (1935).
Meier Tzelniker was a Yiddish-speaking actor born in Hotin County, Romania. He appeared mainly in Yiddish theatre, but was sometimes a character actor in English-language plays and films, such as It Always Rains On Sunday (1947) and Expresso Bongo (1959).
Rosalie Sylvia Crutchley was a British actress. Trained at the Royal Academy of Music, Crutchley was perhaps best known for her television performances, but had a long and successful career in theatre and films, making her stage debut as early as 1932, and her screen debut in 1947.
No Love for Johnnie is a 1961 British drama film in CinemaScope directed by Ralph Thomas. It is based on the 1959 book of the same title by the Labour Member of Parliament Wilfred Fienburgh, and stars Peter Finch.
Father Brown is a 1954 British mystery comedy film directed by Robert Hamer and starring Alec Guinness as the title character with Joan Greenwood, Peter Finch and Cecil Parker. Like the American film Father Brown, Detective (1934), it is based loosely on The Blue Cross (1910), the first Father Brown short story by G. K. Chesterton. It was shot at the Riverside Studios in London. The film's sets were designed by the art director John Hawkesworth. It was distributed by Columbia Pictures in both Britain and the United States where it was released as The Detective. It was screened at the 1954 Venice Film Festival.
Susan Shaw was an English actress.
Father Came Too! is a 1964 British comedy film directed by Peter Graham Scott and starring James Robertson Justice, Leslie Phillips and Stanley Baxter. It is a loose sequel to The Fast Lady (1962).
Value for Money is a 1955 British comedy film directed by Ken Annakin and starring John Gregson, Diana Dors, Susan Stephen and Derek Farr. It is based on the 1953 novel of the same name by Derrick Boothroyd.
Three Men in a Boat is a 1956 British CinemaScope colour comedy film directed by Ken Annakin, starring Laurence Harvey, Jimmy Edwards, David Tomlinson and Shirley Eaton. It was written by Hubert Gregg and Vernon Harris based on the 1889 novel of the same name by Jerome K. Jerome.
The Woman in Question is a 1950 British murder mystery film directed by Anthony Asquith and starring Jean Kent, Dirk Bogarde and John McCallum. After a woman is murdered, the complex and very different ways in which she is seen by several people are examined. It was loosely adapted into the 1954 Indian film Andha Naal.
As Long as They're Happy is a 1955 British musical comedy film directed by J. Lee Thompson and starring Jack Buchanan, Susan Stephen and Diana Dors. It is based on the 1953 play of the same name by Vernon Sylvaine. It was shot in Eastmancolor at Pinewood Studios near London with sets designed by the art director Michael Stringer.
No Time for Tears is a 1957 British drama film directed by Cyril Frankel in CinemaScope and Eastman Color and starring Anna Neagle, George Baker, Sylvia Syms and Anthony Quayle. The staff at a children's hospital struggle with their workload.
Snowbound is a 1948 British thriller film directed by David MacDonald and starring Robert Newton, Dennis Price, Stanley Holloway, Herbert Lom, Marcel Dalio and Guy Middleton and introducing Mila Parély. Based on the 1947 novel The Lonely Skier by Hammond Innes, the film concerns a group of people searching for treasure hidden by the Nazis in the Alps following the Second World War.
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Expresso Bongo is a 1959 British drama musical film directed by Val Guest, shot in uncredited black & white Dyaliscope and starring Laurence Harvey, Cliff Richard, and Yolande Donlan. It is adapted from the stage musical of the same name, which was first produced on the stage at the Saville Theatre, London, on 23 April 1958.
Make Me an Offer is a 1952 comedy novel by the British writer Wolf Mankowitz. It was his debut novel and was a success. The plot revolves around an antique dealer. It was published in the United States by Dutton. He followed it up with another success A Kid for Two Farthings in 1953.