Milton Berle's Lucky Callan works for the highly successful bookmaker Tony Miller (Caesar Romero). Callan is a gum chewing, fast talking fellow who used a disguise to place bets on the horses with Miller. He is caught out and owes Miller a bundle. The good news (at least for Callan, if not the uncle) is that his uncle has died and left him an art gallery; the bad news is that the art gallery is in dire financial straights. Miller falls for one of the gallery's curators, Helen Mason (Landis) and starts pouring money into the gallery. Mason tries to teach Miller the finer points of art collecting. Miller falls in with forgers and it soon becomes a question of what is real and what is a forgery. In a confused way, it all gets sorted out in the end. The supporting cast is marvelous especially Rose Hobart, J. Carroll Naish (as the forger), Elisha Cook Jr. and Milton Berle. The scenes between Berle and Cook (who plays a starving modern artist) are quite funny. I remember Berle from television and while I liked some of the interviews he gave later in his career, I never cared for his television comedy – in my mind's eye I always see him in a Carmen Miranda type outfit and simply don't understand that a lot of people found that funny. That said, I have much enjoyed the (pre-television fame) movies that I have seen him in and this movie is no exception. I thought he was right on. For me, this was a comedy so the lack of logic in a number of the plot elements is not bothersome. Besides, what's not to like about Caesar Romero?
Review of A Gentleman at Heart
