I reserved this for the very day marking Vincent Price's centennial on account of its being reportedly his favorite role (playing a slick tycoon typically surrounded by yes-men but also liable to go into a trance without warning!): it is possibly the very first instance of the actor's subsequent tendency towards hamminess (though for a mild comedy with matching low-key credentials – director Whorf was a former actor – such excess actually proves doubly effective!). Plot-wise, it concerns ageing book-worm Ronald Colman looking for work and being snubbed by the soap-manufacturing company run by Price; the latter also sponsors a TV quiz show, so our intelligent hero decides to get even by going on the program and winning a fortune!
His ruse is all-too-successful so, before allowing him to cop the grand prize of $40 million, Price engages a woman (Celeste Holm, then still playing 'siren' roles) to distract Colman from his goal! On the big day, however, both he and sister Barbara Britton (who, in the interim, had struck a relationship with the show's bland comic host!) realize that their suitors probably had the money that would be coming to them in mind, so they not only break off their respective engagements but Colman even deliberately gives the wrong answer on the live show (which obviously sends Price in an ecstatic fit)! In the end, however, the two parallel romances are rekindled; Price himself comes 'down to earth' enough to visit Colman at his home where, upon encountering the amiable parrot of the title (voiced by Mel Blanc and referencing his fondness for alcohol!), he states the bird had actually belonged to him before flying away!
His ruse is all-too-successful so, before allowing him to cop the grand prize of $40 million, Price engages a woman (Celeste Holm, then still playing 'siren' roles) to distract Colman from his goal! On the big day, however, both he and sister Barbara Britton (who, in the interim, had struck a relationship with the show's bland comic host!) realize that their suitors probably had the money that would be coming to them in mind, so they not only break off their respective engagements but Colman even deliberately gives the wrong answer on the live show (which obviously sends Price in an ecstatic fit)! In the end, however, the two parallel romances are rekindled; Price himself comes 'down to earth' enough to visit Colman at his home where, upon encountering the amiable parrot of the title (voiced by Mel Blanc and referencing his fondness for alcohol!), he states the bird had actually belonged to him before flying away!