You cannot hit the target perfectly every time, and this is true of dramatist as the rest of us.

George Bernard Shaw gave us MAJOR BARBARA, PYGMALION, ST. JOAN,HEARTBREAK HOUSE, MAN AND SUPERMAN, ... but he could do mediocre work. I think he had become a bit of an old fogy. His mind had gotten set into certain thought patterns that he would not give up. Whether this was due to disenchantment in the failure of the political Labor Party movement to improve England I can only leave to his biographers to fight out.

He retreated into a fantasy world. It sometimes succeeds with flashes of his wit but for the most part he falls on his face. In this period Shaw demonstrated a remarkable belief in "strongmen". He looked at those dynamic dictators abroad in Russia, Italy, and Germany, and the result was GENEVA (1935) a play that is rarely considered for revival today - the audience might riot at it's apologia for Stalin, Mussolini, and Hitler. Shaw felt that one could not look at these men and their actions without seeing the total aim that they were pushing. The problem with Shaw's vision was he was buying their aims for efficiency and for better economic standards for the bulk of their peoples. Certainly they were dynamic but Shaw ignored huge political crimes.

He had always favored the work of a great person who cut to the chase ignoring the damage left and right. Undershaft in MAJOR BARBARA was typical of this - he fights poverty by giving good wages and housing and health care to the people who work in his armaments plants. That he might encourage war is nonsense - "Make war on war" is how he sees it.

Only in the Great War had Shaw questioned this. He created Boss Mangan in HEARTBREAK HOUSE, who is really Undershaft up to date (1916). Undershaft had a ready, self-congratulatory statement and answer for everything. Mangan seems that way but his feet of clay are shown. He whines about his business policies that have helped lead to the present disaster to Britain. He can't undue them, for fear of losing his "Boss" position due to his shareholder's anger. And in the end, Mangan is killed (by an enemy bomb, ironically enough). It would take World War II to finally make Shaw realize how misplaced his faith in "Great Men" was. Notably he did not write that much after 1939.

He showed he hope that private philanthropy by the wealthy might help. His plays keep suggesting solutions by the rich like BOUYANT BILLIONS. THE MILLIONAIRESS is a similar play. It actually can succeed as a comedy - Katherine Hepburn played Epifania successfully on stage. But it's point of view is hard to take.

SPOILERS COMING UP

Epifania has just become the richest woman in the world. She is seeking fulfillment in love. Her father (whose painting looks like Peter Sellers in a beard) has set the standard for whomever she will marry in the long run. It's hard to match. She asks for the assistance of the family lawyer (Sagamore - Alistair Sim),who introduces her around. Naturally the first person she dates seriously is that notorious fortune hunting scoundrel Dennis Price - but that relationship soon ends. Epifania decides to commit suicide. She approaches Sagamore, and Sim without blinking an eye hands her the recipe for a fool proof instantaneous, painless poison. Disgusted she goes to the Thames and throws herself in. And she meets Sellers, playing Dr. Kabir from India.

Sellers is as mother fixated as Loren is father fixated (Seller's mother's picture looks like Loren). Loren falls for him, but he seems more concerned about his indigent patients and his clinic. What follows is Loren's attempts to win Sellers, first as a desperate patient, then as a would-be financial angel. Nothing she does stimulates him (he is rather surprised). Finally she does get him to agree to taking a test her father set up: can Sellers make a fortune out of 500 pounds (in three months),and Sellers gives her a test his mother set up for the woman he was to marry: can she live on 500 pounds for three months.

We watch Loren go to work for small restaurant owner, Victorio De Sica, for three months - she ends up making it into a nightspot for the rich, and De Sica admits that he thinks he will sell it and then find a side street to start a nice small family restaurant again.

Sellers tries to get rid of the money as quickly as he can - he puts out a tray with the money on it, and a sign saying "Free Money". His patients thinks it's a joke and don't take it. Finally he manages to unload it on fellow physician Noel Purcell, after a dinner they attend (where they both get drunk). This is disappointing to Loren, who decides that as Sellers has failed she will enter a convent (one that she has funded). Sim, not liking such a waste, contacts Sellers that Loren is going to commit suicide. This finally rouses Sellers, who shows up to prevent such a catastrophe.

Sim actually gave the best performance of the three actors, but I feel it is because his Mr. Sagamore was just reacting to the activities of the other two. He was like a breeze of fresh air in the film's actions. Also the work by Purcell and De Sica was quite good, as small as both performances were. Loren and Sellers did well. There is some chemistry. Sellers read too much into this. Reputedly he thought Loren and he would become an item, but Loren never saw it that way.

London-based Millionairess Epifania (Sophia Loren) has ended a bad marriage and feels that the only thing she still needs to fullfill her life is a good husband . Then Epifania is attracted to Indian Dr. Kabir (in the person of Peter Sellers) and she sets out to enmesh , but he is more intent on treating patients . As the wealthy heiress finds he evades her every effort to snare him . When she persists , he confides in her that he had made a commitment to his late widowed seamstress mother , as the humble doctor from India submitted to a series of conditions to marry , as his wife has to live in poor salary . She finds out that this sum is equivalent to just 35 shillings but readily accepts this challenge . She also informs him that her late father had also imposed a condition that she must wed a male who will turn £500 into £15000 within the same period. Racy Revelations of the Richest Girl in the World...And Her Wild, Wonderful Ways! The revealing revels of a very rich redhead who lives for pleasure...A beautiful babe in Balmain gowns and her wild wonderful ways...

An amusing and fun comedy about a silly premise : a millionairess and a doctor cannot marry until they meet conditions set-up by their respective parents . Sophia Loren and Peter Sellers are adequate foils for each other in their respective roles . Resulting in a charming message , as in the complex process she learns that , money can't buy everything . From a play by George Bernard Shaw , this simple and agreeable comedy is attractive and enjoyable but mediocre . Lavishly filmed with top-notch actors , gorgeous costumes but excessively stagy , containing a colorful cinematography in Technicolor by cameraman Jack Hildyard , as well as lively musical score by Georges Van Parys . Beautiful Sophia Loren in her top splendor gives a likeable acting as an incredibly rich woman , while Sellers is nice playing in his usual style as a peculiar doctor who will wed any woman who will manage to survive on just a few money , for ninety days . This great duo starring being accompanied by notorious actors giving pretty good interpretations , such as : Alastair Sim , Vittorio De Sica , Dennis Price , Gary Raymond , Alfie Bass , Graham Stark , Noel Purcell and uncredited Roy Kinnear .

This 20th Century-Fox motion picture was regular but professionally directed by Anthony Asquith , though marred by its really theatrical origin . Asquith was a good actor and filmmaker , directing films of all kinds of genres with penchant for comedy and drama , as he made the following ones : I stand condemned , Pygmalion , Cottage to let , We dive at dawn, The demi-paradise , The Winslow boy , Man of Evil , The woman in question, The Browning version , The importance of being Earnest , Carrington , The VIPSs , The Yellow Rolls-Royce , among others . Rating : 5.5/10 . Acceptable and passable but average . The flick will appeal to Sophia Loren and Peter Sellers fans.

Sophia Loren plays the only daughter of a wealthy Italian tycoon in London who dies and leaves his fortune to her; she's indifferent to the money and only wants love, but all her suitors are duds. Enter Peter Sellers as a doctor from India who treats the poor; he could use Sophia's money, but he's indifferent to her! Why the good doctor is uninterested in the woman is the weak link of the material, especially with Loren so glamorous. She even builds him his own state-of-the-art hospital, which of course he refuses. Sellers doesn't quite register as the saintly, don't-touch-me type, and his apprehension just stretches out this charade, but he is an interesting personality (especially when acting in a lower key). It's possible that Sophia's aggressive flirtations could scare doctor Peter away, but the deal they make here is a dull one, leading to a silly conclusion. Fine art direction, costumes and photography--and the leads make an intriguing movie-pair--but this George Bernard Shaw play is obviously not one of his better efforts. It collapses like a fancy but overworked soufflé. ** from ****