Tom Michael wrote to ask…
Reading your repost of your article on actors who get fixated on people not knowing what they've done, I was reminded that you're also a fan of one of my favorite films, Who's Minding the Mint? I saw it in a theater (possibly a drive-in) when I was 6 or 7, and watched it a few more times over the years. It still holds up, and, as you've noted elsewhere, what a cast! Even at my young age I knew who a lot of them were — Victor Buono from Batman was a personal favorite — and in later years when I saw Jamie Farr on M*A*S*H and Jim Hutton as Ellery Queen, I recognized them from the film.
You've told a couple of stories about the film in other posts — how Jack Gilford got the deaf safecracker part, that Joey Bishop and Howie Morris did not get along (minus details), and a few mentions of actors having been in it; but given that you've worked with or known many of the cast, and had a long association with Mr. Morris, you've got to have more! Please share more about this film that, at about the age of six, had me considering a career with the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.
I don't want to oversell this movie because it's a modest little low-budget "caper" comedy but I liked it a lot…and I did get to know its producer (Norman Maurer), its director (Howie Morris) and several of its cast members. Norman, of course, was a former comic book artist and the manager for the Three Stooges. He was also a clever, nice gentleman and I worked with him on the Richie Rich cartoon show.
Before I forget: I am not providing an Amazon link to the DVD because it's not a good DVD — poor transfer, no extras, etc. I hope someday someone will do it right. If you want to buy it anyway, go ahead but I'm not going to help.
Howie Morris was a very good director when it came to getting the actors to say and do the right things. By his own admission, he had a little trouble dealing with the aspects of his job like schedules and budgets and dealing with studio or network interference. To hear him tell it, this film was woefully underfunded by a studio that expected him to film X number of pages per day like clockwork, regardless of whatever technical problems they encountered. A lot of his stories about its making were about fighting to have enough time to do things right.
He was very proud of the film but wished, for example, he'd gotten certain cast members he wanted. He thought Jim Hutton was very good in the lead but the person Howie really wanted for the part was a TV star who'd never been in a movie…and the studio said no. The actor's name — maybe you've heard of him — was Bill Cosby.
The role of Luther (the pawn shop owner) was written for Phil Silvers but this was during a period when Silvers was having on again/off again medical problems — it's all in his autobiography — and they couldn't get him. Howie had other actors in mind but the studio went behind his back and hired Milton Berle for the part. Berle got a number of roles on TV and movie that way…intended for Phil but Phil was unavailable. That was, for example, how Berle got into Anthony Newley's very strange 1969 film with a very strange title, Can Heironymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness?. They wanted Silvers. He wasn't available.
Mssrs. Berle and Silvers had a very strong but odd relationship which I got to observe firsthand one day at Nate 'n' Al's Delicatessen in Beverly Hills. I've mentioned it from time to time on this blog and should someday write a whole post about it.
Howie did not want Berle in his picture. As with Joey Bishop and a few others, the studio just hired the person and told the director, "You're using him," end of discussion. This is getting kinda long so I think I'll cut it off here and tell that story here tomorrow…or the next day. In fact, I'll do a few posts about this movie. Thanks, Tom.
