There is a scene in "Hot Millions" that sort of typifies the relaxed attitude and the level of humor in the film. Peter Ustinov plays an ex-con trying to break into the computer of a giant American corporation in order to reprogram it to mail out phony checks which Ustinov, ultimately, will collect for himself. But he can't figure out how to crack the security system. Then one day, one of the secretaries opens a panel on the top of the mainframe (remember, this is 1968, the computers were the size of refrigerators) and sets a pot of boiling tea atop the heat generated by the machine, and this gives Ustinov the answer. "Hot Millions" is in the vein of this type of charming, urbane English humor that most suits its creator, Ustinov himself. The plot is devilishly simple, as I described. Ustinov defrauds the corporation and heads for the tropics with bumbling secretary Maggie Smith, although there's a bit more that happens at the end. It is a nice movie. It has nice people in it, and tells a nice story that will please everyone at the end. Ustinov is wonderful as always, as are Maggie Smith and Karl Malden and Bob Newhart, who has some genuinely funny moments as a disgruntled office clerk who also has an eye for Maggie. That said, I can recommend "Hot Millions" not as a zany laugh-out-loud comedy, but a well-mannered bit of fluff that has all the ease and comfort of lighting up a cigarette in a holder while wearing a smoking jacket or of the great Ustinov conducting a symphony orchestra, which, he does, in fact, do, in the final minutes of the film. 3 *** out of 4
Review of Hot Millions
