NOTES

powered by AFI

DVDs from TCM Shop Brewster's Millions A veteran has to spend $1... MORE > $15.95

Regularly $19.95 buy now

Grant Whytock's onscreen credit reads: "Assistant to producer and supervising film editor." The picture includes a brief animated sequence. According to Hollywood Reporter news items, radio star Garry Moore was to make his screen debut in this picture, and Jimmy Durante, who appeared with Moore on his radio show, was to play a role as well. Moore was replaced by Mischa Auer in early September 1944. Hollywood Reporter news items list Sherry Hall as a cast member, but his appearance in the final film has not been confirmed. In April 1945, Motion Picture Herald reported that the Memphis Board of Motion Picture Censors, headed by Lloyd T. Binford, had banned showings of the film on grounds that it was "inimical to the public welfare" because the servant character played by African-American actor Eddie "Rochester" Anderson had "too familiar a way about him." The Board complained that the picture presented "too much social equality and racial mixture" for Southern audiences, and expressed fear that the film would "encourage" racial problems. Lou Forbes received an Academy Award nomination in the Music (Music Score of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture) category.

George Barr McCutcheon's novel and Winchell Smith and Byron Ongley's play have been the source for four other films, all titled Brewster's Millions. In 1914, Jesse L. Lasky released the first silent version, directed by Cecil B. DeMille and Oscar C. Apfel, and starring Winifred Kingston and Edward Abeles (see AFI Catalog of Feature Films, 1911-20; F1.0477). A 1921 Paramount version was directed by Joseph Henabery and starred Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle and Betty Ross Clark (see AFI Catalog of Feature Films, 1921-30; F2.0592). A British version, starring Jack Buchanan and Lili Damita, directed by Thornton Freeland, was released by United Artists in 1935 (see AFI Catalog of Feature Films, 1931-40; F3.5294). In 1985, Walter Hill directed Richard Pryor and John Candy in Universal's version of the story.