The dashing Cesar Romero and funny man Milton Berle are running their art show like a horse race, finding a fast way to a big buck, but they may end up on their keesters faster than a rodeo participant on a bucking bronco. Berle is in debt up to his big teeth and must involve Romero in the profits he might get when he inherits a posh Fifth Avenue art gallery. But fine art is expensive, so selling paintings happens only on occasion, that is until they discover a knockoff artist who can paint the classics as if they were reproduced by the original painter. While the gallery appraiser Francis Pierot is an expert at recognizing phonies, clerk Carole Landis believes them to be on the up and up, and after falling in love with Romero, discovers the truth.
This cleverly written comedy mixes the world of gambling with the world of fine art, and if not completely believable, is sophisticated enough and enjoyable, even to non-art lovers like me. The cast is great, with Elisha Cook Jr. very funny as an eccentric struggling painter and J. Carroll Naish as the expert forger among the standouts. Berle is only moderately broad here, with the dashing Romero and the beautiful Landis not being upstaged. In a sense, this is a bit of Damon Runyeon mixed in with a higher society than he's ever known, and it's all perfectly top drawer.
This cleverly written comedy mixes the world of gambling with the world of fine art, and if not completely believable, is sophisticated enough and enjoyable, even to non-art lovers like me. The cast is great, with Elisha Cook Jr. very funny as an eccentric struggling painter and J. Carroll Naish as the expert forger among the standouts. Berle is only moderately broad here, with the dashing Romero and the beautiful Landis not being upstaged. In a sense, this is a bit of Damon Runyeon mixed in with a higher society than he's ever known, and it's all perfectly top drawer.