MovieChat Forums > The Million Pound Note (1954) Discussion > Am I Missing Something?

Am I Missing Something?

posted 9 years ago by gribfritz2
2 replies | jump to latest

They gave him a one million pound bank note. If he keeps it intact for a month, he gets any job he wants. Wow. He even assumes this job will be worth 500 pounds a year. Why not just take the one million pound bank note (which would be equivalent to 2 millenia wages by his estimation) and cash it in? It says it's payable to the bearer, just like cash. But rather than have a million pounds, he'll go through hell to achieve a 500 pound-a-year job.

Further, carrying that sucker around no one had the idea to steal it (I mean steal it and keep it not steal it and hide it for an idiotic reason)?

Incidentally, after it's all said and done, I know Peck's character is better off, but I don't remember those two old coots giving him any job at all. Just a thanks for settling the bet and bye.

[–] zwot 9 years ago

What you missed were the handwritten terms the two old coots included in the envelope with the million pound banknote. The terms stated that the banknote was on loan to Adams for one month. The opening scenes of the film took pains to establish Adams as an honest man so that we would believe he'll honor the terms and return the banknote after one month. After all, he had repeatedly said that all he wanted was a job so he could earn his own way, and the terms of the loan offered that.

As for anyone stealing the note, well, that's exactly why Adams hired the strongman. Adams explicitly told him that his job was to make sure the banknote didn't go astray. (Unfortunately, he didn't perform his job as well as he could.)

Lastly, the terms stated that the old guys would give Adams any job he could name that was within their power to give. But Adams didn't name a job because he didn't need one after getting rich on the stock market, so there wasn't any job for the old guys to give.

[–] Cranmer (139) 5 years ago

OK four years on but I'll reply anyway. Adams could not cash the bank note because, as was mentioned in the cafe scene, only two are in existence. If he took the note to the Bank of England (the only institution able to tender gold for the note) the governor would hear about it and inform the two brothers.