Cash McCall (1960)

As Good As It Gets

Absolutely Brilliant!

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

Dean Jagger was Elvis' father in King Creole, and he is Natalie Wood's father in Cash McCall. This movie is from 1960, right about the time James Garner left the Maverick TV series due to his contract dispute with Warner Brothers. The movie is very businessy and very New Yorkish, white men in suits and ties. Garner is a young wheeler dealer who buys Jagger's plastic company, then sets his sights on Natalie. Garner says he thoroughly enjoys making money, so his character has something in common with Bret Maverick, although Bret made his playing poker. Bret was not the marrying kind, while Cash McCall is. I was 14 when this movie was in theaters and remember it being advertised in the local paper. I finally watched it online.

James Garner has always had a knack for making every character he's played his own. From his early T.V. days as western star Brent Maverick to the last series, The Rockford files. His ease to become the center attraction is a natural pose for such a talented individual. In this story directed by Joseph Pevney, he plays Millionaire tycoon, Cash McCall who's amiable gift for buying and quickly selling industrial real estate is surprisingly lucrative. That is until he meets with eye-candy Natalie Wood who plays Lory Austen, the beautiful daughter of Grant Austin (Dean Jagger) a retiring designer. With a top successful group of businessmen led by Winston Conway (E.G. Marshall), Gilmore Clark (Henry Jones) and Harrison Glenn (Edward Platt), he plans to reap a rich bonus with the biggest deal of his life. However, small incidents like his personal housekeeper Maude Kennard (Nina Foch) wrongly believing McCall is seeking her as a wife and his number one business competitor, General Danvers (Roland Winters) believes McCall is trying to cheat him, are becoming more than annoying. All in all, this Garner vehicle is fun in a number of ways, but all end up creating the correct imagines originally written by author Cameron Hawley. ****

Cash McCall is a business tycoon who has been taking over various corporations through buy-outs without regards for the people he works for him goes after a plastics company owned by Dean Jagger so he can resume a relationship with Jagger's daughter, Natalie Wood. It appears that the year before, they had a brief romance which somehow soured, and now he wants to marry her. James Garner plays the title character, and Natalie Wood is the girl. Wood looks a bit older here than she does in several films she did shortly after (particularly "Splendor in the Grass", "West Side Story", and especially "Gypsy"). Her hair style is probably the main reason, and the character appears to be a bit older too, even though she still lives with her folks. While Garner and Wood are undoubtedly gorgeous together, they don't share the same spark that Rock Hudson and Doris Day did in the previous year's big romantic comedy hit "Pillow Talk", or even the two films that Garner later did with Ms. Day. Wood, who as "Queen of Warner Brothers" after Ms. Day departed, probably thought it looked good on paper, and while it has some amusements, it actually looks better than it actually plays. The lead characters, even Garner's rather ruthless businessman, are likable, and Garner indulges McCall with a sense of standards of decent business practices that other hot young actors of the time might have.This is an unfortunate film choice for poor Nina Foch, who must suffer all sorts of indignities as an embittered divorcée who develops a crush on McCall and is humiliated by him after she ruthlessly tries to break him and Wood up. It's sad to see this pathetic creature pine after a man who obviously doesn't love her. The scene where she begins to think he is just isn't convincing enough to make us believe that she would think he was talking about her in the first place, when it was very clear he was talking about someone else. She also has the misfortune to wear probably the ugliest hat in film history, one that's actually feathered but looks like a fruit bowl turned upside down.There have been much better films on big business, including one by the same author ("Executive Suite"). It features a wonderful supporting cast, most notably Henry Jones (who will never be confused here with his role of LeRoy in "The Bad Seed") and Eli Wallach. It's colorful and beautifully designed, but ultimately superficial and weak.

When Natalie Wood was in her prime, she was at the top of the biz, stunningly beautiful, sharp, but accessible. And no one played the all-american stud better than Jim Garner.Call it a bedroom farce if you like but Cash McCall combines a lot of wheeling and dealing with a good old fashioned boy-meets-girl to make a very pleasing movie.At first glance, McCall (Garner) is part playboy, part ruthless businessman, but we know better; that his heart of gold belongs only to Lory Austen (Wood), a woman he met last Summer, and he's thought of nothing but her since.Standard fare, well done with attractive stars, that alone puts it in the upper 20% as far as I'm concerned. Enjoy it.