Main Cast: James Garner, Lee Remick, Phil Harris, Chill Wills, Jim Backus, Louis Nye, John Astin, Charles Watts
Release Year: 1963
Country: US
Run Time: 100 minutes
Plot
This comical farce is a lighthearted lampoon of Wall Street and the vibrant trading and selling on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Henry Tyroon (James Garner) is the chameleonic broker who changes his colors and ethical standards to fit every deal. Molly (Lee Remick) is the novice trader competing in a largely male profession who catches Henry's eye. Her boss is Bullard Bear (Jim Backus), the slick financial veteran Henry runs up against. Chill Wills, Phil Harris, and Charles Watts are the Texas triumvirate who play their parts of super rich good old boys to the pinnacle of stereotypical eccentricity. John Astin is the vigilant government agent just dying to uncover some dirt and blow the whistle at the slightest hint of impropriety. Louis Nye plays an abstract artist who wishes to expand his stock portfolio. Plenty of jabs are taken at Wall Street, Madison Avenue and idle rich blue bloods at the mercy of unscrupulous opportunists. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
George W. Davis - Art Director, Addison Hehr - Art Director, John Calley - Associate Producer, Norman Norell - Costume Designer, Arthur Hiller - Director, Tom McAdoo - Editor, Frank De Vol - Composer (Music Score), Randy Sparks - Songwriter, William J. Tuttle - Makeup, Charles B. Lang - Cinematographer, Ivan Volkman - Production Manager, Martin Ransohoff - Producer, Keogh Gleason - Set Designer, Henry W. Grace - Set Designer, Ira Wallach - Screenwriter, George J.W. Goodman - Book Author
Molly Thatcher (Lee Remick) is a stockbroker languishing in a company run by sexist Bullard Bear (Jim Backus). When the company does poorly, he has to fire somebody. Molly is the obvious choice, but to avoid charges of sex discrimination, he assigns her the seemingly impossible task of unloading shares of an obscure company called Universal Widgets, figuring that when she fails, he will have an excuse to dismiss her.
Molly meets Henry Tyroon (James Garner), an aggressive wheeler dealer who dresses, talks, and acts like a stereotypical Texas millionaire. He's more interested in her than in Universal Widgets, but decides to help in order to get closer to her. As they spend time together, Molly watches Henry make complicated business deals, often in partnership with his Texan cronies, Jay Ray (Chill Wills), Ray Jay (Phil Harris), and J.R. (Charles Watts). One such deal is a venture into dealing modern art, with the aid of Stanislas (Louis Nye), an avant-garde painter.
The couple finds out that Universal Widgets seems to have no purpose; its only factory burned down around the time of the Civil War, it manufactures nothing and provides no service. (Widgets apparently had something to do with horse-drawn carriages.) It's just a corporation on paper... whose sole asset is a huge block of shares in AT&T, bought long, long ago when it was ridiculously cheap. Now it pays hefty regular dividends to its complacent shareholders.
When Henry makes an attempt to take control of the undervalued company by questionable methods, over-enthusiastic government regulator Hector Vanson (John Astin) takes him to court. Further complications arise when Jay Ray, Ray Jay, and J.R. get Molly fired so she can spend more time with Henry; she thinks Henry is responsible. The case is dismissed when it is determined that all the shares are in the hands of a few people, not the general public. The Texans are bought out (at a sizable premium). Once the Texas trio confess that they got Molly fired, she and Henry make up. (She even discovers that he's really an Easterner and an Ivy League university graduate to boot; the fake Texan act helps him with his dealmaking.)
