Perfect for Matthau

Shirley Temple was the original Miss Marker in 1934 in an old fashioned movie that was an adaptation of a Damon Runyan story. This new remake keeps those old-fashioned sensibilities and is so cute and breezy that not a single conflict in it feels all that pressing. Yet there is something about it that connects with us and that is Walter Mtathau, who the movie very much seems to be fashioned for this time.

Shuffling through the film as he often does with his surly, hangdog demeanor and less than amused voice, he plays Sorrowful Jones. Jones is a bookie in the world of horse racing who often wins or loses big but eventually just winds up home alone in his small little apartment with a pull out bed in the wall.

Most of the people he comes into contact with are degenerate gamblers and one of the funny things about the movie is that they are people you wouldn’t initially suspect. But one day a father comes in, and having no other collateral, winds up leaving his daughter (Sara Stimson) until he can come up with the money. Long story short- dad never comes back and Sorrowful gets stuck with the kid and a possible kidnapping charge.

So Sorrowful winds up going about his business with the kid in tow, which concerns him dealing with shady mobsters (led by Tony Curtis) looking to Sorrowful for help in financing a casino. Sorrowful and the girl wind up spending time in hotel rooms alone and surprisingly once people learn he is not her father, they seem to just leave it at that, no questions asked. Such a story would set off all kinds of red flags today which makes the sweetness fashioned from this feel almost from a bygone era.


Unsurprisingly, the girl breaks through Sorrowful’s defenses and into his heart. She becomes something he actually needs to be responsible for and in that it changes the man. And there are good laughs along the way like when she wants a bedtime story about horses and he winds up reading her a racing form. Or when he hires his reprobate clients to help him with his apartment and with cooking, forgiving their debt in the process.


Matthau works so well with this sentimental pap because he’s always too stubborn and ornery to just fall in line with it. He pushes back, his off the cuff snide remarks and sourpuss mugging is very funny, only allowing little by little for a complete change. Stimson is fine, too, with her sad, innocent eyes seemingly piercing right through but much of the time she is just playing the one-note of sad innocence.

The real winsome presence in the film comes from Julie Andrews, as a widow in debt to Curtis to keep her horse. She winds up falling in love with Matthau and the way she shines a light on his misery is even more delightful than with his scenes with the little girl.

And the gangsters in this movie are also pretty enjoyable in that old-fashioned “Guys and Dolls” kinda way. Curtis and the rest all look hilariously shifty and the movie has spared no expense in the old 1930’s cars, costuming, ect. Other than some choice segments concerning dead dogs and suicide, this movie plays like corny, lightweight family movie stuff and thanks to Matthau, it’s surprising just how lovable it can be.