Hot Millions (1968)

Comedy Caper. - Hot Millions review by Steve

Droll British caper which (maybe) features the first cybercrime on film. Peter Ustinov plays a socially awkward computer programmer who has just served time and then fraudulently takes a senior post with a big American corporation. While falling for a lonely secretary (Maggie Smith), he sets about diverting cash into bogus business accounts.

It's one of those London films of the period which opens with a shot of a red bus passing a famous tourist destination. It was made with the American market in mind. Sadly this didn't lead to greater opportunities for Maggie Smith, who is superb. If the British film industry hadn't collapsed around this time, surely she'd have become a huge film star.

And this impression of national malaise is the principal theme of the film. This is a Britain surviving on foreign money, carrying a defunct aristocracy. A country of defecting idealists and the brain drain. What else is an enterprising hacker going to do but but shake the last few coins from the pockets of the body? Which makes the film feel quite contemporary.

But while there's a mood of cynicism, it's still a funny, modest film; and the slight bitterness is sweetened by the optimism of these two isolated people coming together. Ustinov does his usual bumbling schtick, but he and Smith make an adorable couple. And everything turns out for the best in the end, because it's a comedy.