Mr. Billion | |
---|---|
Directed by | Jonathan Kaplan |
Written by | Ken Friedman Jonathan Kaplan |
Produced by | Steven Bach Ken Friedman |
Starring | Terence Hill Valerie Perrine Slim Pickens William Redfield Chill Wills Jackie Gleason |
Cinematography | Matthew Leonetti |
Edited by | O. Nicholas Brown |
Music by | Dave Grusin |
Production company | Pantheon Pictures |
Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
Release date |
|
Running time | 89 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $4,590,000 [1] |
Box office | $1,300,000 (rentals) [2] |
Mr. Billion is a 1977 action comedy/action-adventure film [3] [4] directed by Jonathan Kaplan. It is notable as the Hollywood debut of Terence Hill. It's also the last film of actor William Redfield, who died before its release.
In the film, a mechanic becomes the sole heir of his recently-deceased uncle. But he has to sign a document within a deadline in order to receive his inheritance. His uncle's assistant and a private detective conspire to prevent him from claiming his inheritance.
Anthony Falcon, a multibillionaire, passes away in a strange accident and gives Guido Falcone, a laid-back Italian mechanic, the entirety of his estate. In order to claim his billion-dollar inheritance, Guido must reach San Francisco within twenty days to sign a document. His uncle's greedy assistant, John Cutler (Jackie Gleason), wants the money for himself, and hires female detective Rosie Jones (Valerie Perrine) to prevent Guido claiming his inheritance. [5]
The film was the idea of Dino de Laurentiis, who wanted to introduce Terence Hill, at that time one of the biggest movie stars in Europe, to international audiences. He signed director Jonathan Kaplan, just coming off the successful White Line Fever .
Kaplan says production was difficult - he wanted to cast Lily Tomlin but the studio insisted on Valerie Perrine. Shooting took place in Italy. Kaplan says the highlight was working with Jackie Gleason; despite his drinking problem, Kaplan says he could sober up Gleason by doing old routines from The Honeymooners and getting laughs from the crew. [6]
Mr. Billion was a major financial flop and Kaplan calls it the biggest failure of his career. [6] In a retrospective review, the critic Keith Bailey called it "yet another case of Hollywood bringing a foreign actor in, and getting him to do different material than what made him famous in the first place". [7]
Terence Hill is an Italian actor, film director, screenwriter and producer. He began his career as a child actor and gained international fame for starring roles in action and comedy films, many with longtime film partner and friend Bud Spencer. During the height of his popularity, Hill was among Italy's highest-paid actors.
Milton Berle was an American actor and comedian. His career as an entertainer spanned over eight decades, first in silent films and on stage as a child actor, then in radio, movies and television. As the host of NBC's Texaco Star Theatre (1948–1953), he was the first major American television star and was known to millions of viewers as "Uncle Miltie" and "Mr. Television" during the first Golden Age of Television. He was honored with two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his work in both radio and TV.
John Herbert Gleason, known as Jackie Gleason, was an American actor, comedian, writer, and composer also known as "The Great One". He developed a style and characters from growing up in Brooklyn, New York, and was known for his brash visual and verbal comedy, exemplified by his city bus driver character Ralph Kramden in the television series The Honeymooners. He also developed The Jackie Gleason Show, which maintained high ratings from the mid-1950s through 1970. The series originated in New York City, but filming moved to Miami Beach, Florida, in 1964 after Gleason took up permanent residence there.
Gallagher & Shean was a highly successful musical comedy double act in vaudeville and on Broadway in the 1910s and 1920s, consisting of Ed Gallagher (1873–1929) and Al Shean (1868–1949); Shean was the maternal uncle of the Marx Brothers.
"Caesar and Me" is episode 148 of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone starring Jackie Cooper as a ventriloquist. It is not to be confused with a similar episode "The Dummy", starring Cliff Robertson as a ventriloquist.
Plum Pie is a collection of nine short stories by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United Kingdom on 22 September 1966 by Barrie & Jenkins, and in the United States on 1 December 1967 by Simon & Schuster, Inc., New York. The collection's title is derived from P. G. Wodehouse's nickname, Plum.
Paul Bartel was an American actor, writer and director. He was perhaps most known for his 1982 hit black comedy Eating Raoul, which he co-wrote, starred in and directed.
Highway 61 is a 1991 Canadian film directed by Bruce McDonald. The film is an unofficial sequel to his 1989 film Roadkill; although focusing on different characters, it centres on a road trip beginning in Thunder Bay, Ontario, where the road trip depicted in the earlier film ended.
Leo Rossi is an American actor, writer and producer. A character actor with over 100 credits to his name, he is known for his role as foul-mouthed EMT Vincent "Budd" Scarlotti in the 1981 horror film Halloween II, as the serial killer Turkell from the 1990 horror sequel Maniac Cop 2, and as Detective Sam Dietz in the Relentless franchise. His other films include Heart Like a Wheel (1983), River's Edge (1986), The Accused (1988), Analyze This (1999), One Night at McCool's (2001), and 10th & Wolf (2006).
"In Camelot" is the 59th episode of the HBO original series The Sopranos and the seventh of the show's fifth season. Written by Terence Winter and directed by Steve Buscemi, it originally aired on April 18, 2004.
White Line Fever is a 1975 Canadian-American action crime neo-noir film directed by Jonathan Kaplan and starring Jan-Michael Vincent.
Gigot is a 1962 American comedy-drama film directed by Gene Kelly and starring Jackie Gleason.
Jonathan Kaplan is an American film producer and director. His film The Accused (1988) earned actress Jodie Foster the Oscar for Best Actress and was nominated for the Golden Bear at the 39th Berlin International Film Festival. His film Love Field (1992) earned actress Michelle Pfeiffer an Oscar nomination for Best Actress and was nominated for the Golden Bear at the 43rd Berlin International Film Festival. Kaplan received five Emmy nominations for his roles directing and producing the television series ER.
London Belongs to Me is a British film released in 1948, directed by Sidney Gilliat, and starring Richard Attenborough and Alastair Sim. It was based on the novel London Belongs to Me by Norman Collins, which was also the basis for a seven-part series made by Thames Television shown in 1977.
Boiling Point is a 1993 American action film starring Wesley Snipes and directed by James B. Harris, who was also the film's writer. The film co-stars Dennis Hopper, Lolita Davidovich, and Viggo Mortensen.
Eugene Oliver Edgar Stutenroth, known professionally as Gene Roth, was an American film actor and film manager.
Murder on the Blackboard is a 1934 American pre-Code mystery/comedy film starring Edna May Oliver as schoolteacher Hildegarde Withers and James Gleason as Police Inspector Oscar Piper. Together, they investigate a murder at Withers' school. It was based on the novel of the same name by Stuart Palmer. It features popular actor Bruce Cabot in one of his first post-King Kong roles, as well as Gertrude Michael, Regis Toomey, and Edgar Kennedy.
Alan Blumenfeld is an American character actor, best known for his role in NBC's TV series Heroes as Maury Parkman, the telepath father of Matt Parkman played by Greg Grunberg, and as Bob Buss in the telefilm 2gether. He has played Greg Grunberg's father in both Felicity and Heroes.
Equinox is a 1992 film written and directed by Alan Rudolph. It stars Matthew Modine in dual roles, along with Lara Flynn Boyle, Marisa Tomei and Fred Ward. The film was shot in Minnesota and Utah and is set in the fictional urban city of Empire. It was nominated for four Independent Spirit Awards.