Cash McCall

Plot synopsis:
Grant Austen (Dean Jagger), the head of Austen Plastics, yearns for retirement. So when Schofield Industries, his largest customer, threatens to take its business elsewhere, Austen considers selling his company. He hires a consulting firm, which finds an interested potential buyer, the notorious businessman Cash McCall (James Garner).
Cash meets with Austen and his daughter Lory (Natalie Wood), who owns part of the company. Austen conceals the problem he has with Schofield Industries. Afterwards, Cash speaks to Lory privately. It turns out they met the previous summer and became instantly attracted to each other. However, when Lory showed up at his cabin soaking wet from a summer rain storm later that night, Cash, not ready for a serious relationship, turned her away. Mortified by the rejection, she fled back into the storm. Upon further thought, not being able to get Lory out of his mind, Cash realized he had made a big mistake. Not really interested in the company, he overpays for Austen Plastics just so he can talk to her again.
Before the deal is finalized, Cash's assistant Gil Clark (Henry Jones) discovers that Austen Plastics holds patents essential to Schofield Industries. Its alarmed boss, retired Army General Danvers (Roland Winters), tries to buy Austen Plastics himself. Cash then decides that he could run Schofield more profitably and starts buying up the controlling interest in the second company.
In the middle of all the deal making, Cash proposes marriage to Lory, and she accepts. However, the assistant manager of the hotel where Cash resides, Maude Kennard (Nina Foch), wants Cash herself and tricks Lory into believing that she is Cash's girlfriend. Meanwhile, one of Austen's business acquaintances convinces him that Cash swindled him and paid much less than the company is worth, prompting Austen to decide to go to court. Eventually, after Austen, Cash, and Lory talk at the Austen home, everything is cleared up, and Cash and Lory reconcile, marrying soon thereafter.

Tags: romantic

Review:
James Garner has always had a knack for making every character he's played his own.
In this story directed by Joseph Pevney, he plays Millionaire tycoon, Cash McCall who's amiable gift for buying and quickly selling industrial real estate is surprisingly lucrative.
That is until he meets with eye-candy Natalie Wood who plays Lory Austen, the beautiful daughter of Grant Austin (Dean Jagger) a retiring designer.
With a top successful group of businessmen led by Winston Conway (E.G. Marshall), Gilmore Clark (Henry Jones) and Harrison Glenn (Edward Platt), he plans to reap a rich bonus with the biggest deal of his life.
However, small incidents like his personal housekeeper Maude Kennard (Nina Foch) wrongly believing McCall is seeking her as a wife and his number one business competitor, General Danvers (Roland Winters) believes McCall is trying to cheat him, are becoming more than annoying.
All in all, this Garner vehicle is fun in a number of ways, but all end up creating the correct imagines originally written by author Cameron Hawley.
James Garner makes a dashing young entrepreneur of the business world in Cash McCall, the second of two films made from Cameron Hawley's business world novels, the other being the acclaimed Executive Suite.
Hawley certainly knew how to capture the business world well and put a proper face on it.Usually it's not a real good idea to mix business with pleasure, but in Cash McCall, Garner succeeds quite well.
If you'll remember John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John have a summer fling which ends, but then find themselves in the same school in different social circles.Cash McCall begins with Garner already having had that fling with Natalie Wood on vacation in Maine and he discovers she's the daughter of Dean Jagger, president of a plastics firm he's looking to acquire.
Those bumps are what the film is all about.James Garner has played so many con men on the big and small screen it would have been an easy matter for him to slip into that familiar characterization for him.
Natalie was just radiant in her role as the Philadelphia Main Line princess, a bit more human than Tracy Samantha Lord of The Philadelphia Story.Besides Dean Jagger, the leads are backed by an established group of players portraying various business types as Edward Platt, E.G. Marshall, Otto Kruger, Parley Baer, and Roland Winters.
Two performances that are really outstanding are Nina Foch as the hotel chief housekeeper at the place where Garner resides occupying an entire floor and part of another and Henry Jones as an efficiency expert who Garner recruits.
I'm surprised that Cash McCall was not taken up as material for a prime time soap opera in the Eighties, the decade of such.
It certainly has all the ingredients.Still it remains as one of James Garner's best early film performances and usually on the top 10 list for his fans..
When Natalie Wood was in her prime, she was at the top of the biz, stunningly beautiful, sharp, but accessible.
And no one played the all-american stud better than Jim Garner.Call it a bedroom farce if you like but Cash McCall combines a lot of wheeling and dealing with a good old fashioned boy-meets-girl to make a very pleasing movie.At first glance, McCall (Garner) is part playboy,  part ruthless businessman, but we know better; that his heart of gold belongs only to Lory Austen (Wood), a woman he met last Summer, and he's thought of nothing but her since.Standard fare, well done with attractive stars, that alone puts it in the upper 20% as far as I'm concerned.
The best part of this Technicolor exercise is the light it shines on high-power business dealings and how these were treated in the Production Code 1950's-- and is worth a quick few words.In that Cold War decade, Hollywood discovered the drama of corporation boardrooms and big business in such films as the ruthless Patterns (1956), the intrigues of Executive Suite (1954), and the comedic Solid Gold Cadillac (1956).
The trick for films of this type was to be realistic enough with the big money scheming to hold audience interest without at the same time indicting the upper tiers of capitalism.
As a result, in such movies conscience or a force for good usually prevails at the last minute over ruthless business connivings no matter how unconvincing the abrupt triumph.
And that's very much the case in the otherwise routine Cash McCall.At first, McCall is characterized as a corporate vulture—a wheeler-dealer who buys up struggling companies, disassembles them for profit, and then walks away from whatever communities he may have destroyed in the process.
But, of course, it's hard to make a sympathetic lead out of such a ruthless character, even for such a likable personality as James Garner.
And finally, after a thorough conversion, he becomes a full-fledged business humanitarian putting communities first for reasons that also remain rather unclear, but does, of course, produce a happy ending.
Thus, the ends of the Production Code, the Cold War, and audience expectations are duly served.The movie itself is pretty unmemorable.
Then too, Garner suppresses his charming Maverick side in the interests of getting into McCall's character, but in the process gives up his special appeal as an actor.
Anyway, the movie's a decent enough entertainment, but outside of its wheeler-dealer instruction manual, remains pretty forgettable..
When you first hear of this flick, you think it is like most of Garner's "Light Comedy" from the 60's - Not so.
This film shows the a steamy underside of the Big Business "Scene" and the kind of trickery that goes on...
And how even an honest down to earth deal could be made to look like a swindle, with a little jealousy and backstabbing added when least expected- And for that you have to give proper credit to Nina Koch for playing a kind of reverse "Erica Martin" from Executive Suite.Garner is surrounded with some of the great character actors of the time: Dean Jagger, E.
G. Marshall (From "12 Angry Men"), Otto Kruger (From Hitchcock's "Saboteur" and "Magnificent Obsession"), Edward Platt ("Chief" from "Get Smart").And of course Natalie Wood, and in this film she gives one of her best...
I like the fact that the interaction between Garner and Wood is a little subdued.One thing that is amazing, is that this was directed by Joe Pevney, who directed some of the best episodes of Star Trek Original Series..
In many respects this looks like a 1980s film that has been moved through a hole in the time/space continuum into 1959.
From a cynical 1990s perspective, much of it is probably a touch too sweet, especially the romance, but the way high-flying business is portrayed was way ahead of its time.
Great fun film, why the heck isn't it on a widescreen DVD?.
This is a great, fun film with the feel of similar films of the era such as 1962's "That Touch of Mink," whose plot bears more than a passing resemblance to this film's.James Garner is great as usual, as is the radiant Natalie Wood.
Dean Jagger's performance as the plastic company patriarch strikes just the right note and Henry Jones does his usual excellent job as the somewhat smarmy assistant.But one of the real stars of the film is its 1960 decor.
Look at her face in the close-ups, when the movie flashes back to their meeting in the rain at his mountain cabin!
Such a romantic movie, and Ms. Woods' clothes are fabulous examples of 50s high fashion.
And Cash Mc Call's penthouse is a perfect high-tech palace for the times.Natalie has the doting parents we all wished we had back then and a mother who is worried this beautiful creature will be an old maid at 23.
Ah, life was simple then.The business oriented plot is engaging, the dialogue springy and believable for the times.
Though marraige and family are still the only acceptable goals for good girls in this story,  you don't care as you root for true love to conquor all and the cold business man to see the light and let the good guys win.Rent it, if you have never seen it.
I wish I had told Ms. Wood how much I liked the film, the one time I met her in the late sixties, but she was rather pregnant at the time and not terribly concerned with her career..
There's endless discussion about business dealings that is not the least bit interesting, which is a shame because this one has a nice cast.
Garner is well suited to the title role, although his wardrobe looks rather comical.
The supporting cast features many familiar faces, including Foch, Jagger, Marshall, Jones, Kruger, and Platt..
James Garner and Natalie Wood star in this comedic Executive Suite.
Cameron Hawley's novel about the politics inherent in corporate boardrooms became the essential business drama Executive Suite (1954).
Folsey) and supporting actress (Nina Foch) as well as Dean Jagger and character actor Edgar Stehli, this one was made into a comedy featuring James Garner (in the title role) and Natalie Wood.
Coffee and Marion Hargrove, and directed by Joseph Pevney.The story has enough misdirection (and at least one dead end) in it to keep it interesting, even if (at times) it gets somewhat confusing, but Garner's charm and Wood's natural beauty makes it eminently watchable.The cast also includes E.G. Marshall, Henry Jones, Otto Kruger, Roland Winters and Edward Platt as key players in the various dealings by McCall, an elusive character whose reputation is not unlike Wall Street (1987)'s Gordon Gekko.McCall wants to buy Grant Austen's (Jagger) plastics company, in part because Austen's daughter is Lory (Wood), a woman with whom he has an unrequited past.
Jones (whose boss is Platt) plays McCall's associate, Marshall his lawyer and Kruger his banker.
I watched this solely because James Garner was in it and I thoroughly enjoyed it!
Natalie Wood was beautiful!
If you like this movie, rent "Wheeler-Dealers" with Mr. Garner and Lee Remick.
The characters are interesting and the insight into big business is as current now as then (except for salaries) I would give it two thumbs up.
The movie includes bits of spice from jealousy and envy to seduction and romance.
It has all the makings of a good family movie as well as strong personalities, with James Garner and Natalie Wood giving the movie much grace and charm.
This movie would appeal to both men and women as it has such an active business side as well as a romance side, so it would make a great date movie and does not include any violence..
James Garner Gets Stock in Natalie Wood.
Stock market tycoon James Garner (as Cash McCall) pursues pretty children's book illustrator Natalie Wood (as Lory).
Previously, they had something of a summer romance, when Ms. Wood's character fell hopelessly and head over heels for Mr. Garner (as you will surely notice in the character's demeanor).
Older divorcée Nina Foch (as Maude Kennard) is also hot for the "Maverick" TV star.
Complicating matters, Wood is the daughter of businessman Dean Jagger (as Grant Austen), who owns the "Austen Plastics" company Garner hopes to acquire.
The cast, color, and sets are attractive - but, the story is amazingly obvious, and dully performed by the co-starring couple.
Listen up for Garner to tell the General he's "up the well-known creekwithout a paddle." **** Cash McCall (1/20/60) Joseph Pevney ~ James Garner, Natalie Wood, Nina Foch, Dean Jagger.
Dean Jagger was Elvis' father in King Creole, and he is Natalie Wood's father in Cash McCall.
This movie is from 1960, right about the time James Garner left the Maverick TV series due to his contract dispute with Warner Brothers.
Garner is a young wheeler dealer who buys Jagger's plastic company, then sets his sights on Natalie.
Garner says he thoroughly enjoys making money, so his character has something in common with Bret Maverick, although Bret made his playing poker.
Cameron Hawley's book about ruthlessness and romance in the world of high finance becomes well-dressed but tepid star-vehicle for James Garner (then riding high on TV's "Maverick") and perpetual second-biller Natalie Wood (even after spending years in the business, Wood got stuck in the role of the 'love-interest' and had a tough time carving out her niche as a leading lady).
Garner, pushing too hard as Cash McCall, probably had a lot more at stake with this film than his co-star did; playing the money-hungry tycoon in love with his business partner's daughter, Garner looks the part but isn't very exciting a presence.
Elsewhere, Nina Foch is highly effective (and creepy) as an older lady who harbors a semi-fatal attraction for Cash, while Wood is attractive and feisty in a one-dimensional role.
Natalie Wood drives a beautiful white, 1959 Mercury convertible with the top down and at the end of the movie, she and James Garner drive off in a more beautiful, white 1959 Lincoln Continental also with the top down.
As a vintage car collector, I love spotting those beauties in those old films.
Talky, TV-style business/romance played out in discount sets..
(It seems like Warner Brothers were trying to make a movie star out of James Garner, who was the lead in their TV western series 'Maverick', but they've confined him to a low budget and lashings of TV-type dialogue.) He's suitably smarmy as a dodgy businessman, but not particularly convincing, neither are the sets.
Much attention from wardrobe and make-up departments is lavished on Natalie Wood (his love interest) and she looks gorgeous.
Her father Dean Jagger is supposed to be a successful businessman who has built up a plastics business from nothing, but he plays it (as written) like a sweet old uncle.
Henry Jones is nicely ironic, and Nina Foch, as always, is delightful.
There's a flashback encounter between Natalie and James: they meet at a dance in Maine; later she suddenly appears in Maine cabin, soaked from the torrential rain outside, he goes into the bathroom to get her a robe, and she takes off all her clothes - knowing that he's coming back.
The rest of the film is not silly, just dull: well-paced business dealings, some romance,some pithy lines and tons of talk, in a completely artificial world..
Cash McCall is a business tycoon who has been taking over various corporations through buy-outs without regards for the people he works for him goes after a plastics company owned by Dean Jagger so he can resume a relationship with Jagger's daughter, Natalie Wood.
James Garner plays the title character, and Natalie Wood is the girl.
Wood looks a bit older here than she does in several films she did shortly after (particularly "Splendor in the Grass", "West Side Story", and especially "Gypsy").
Her hair style is probably the main reason, and the character appears to be a bit older too, even though she still lives with her folks.
While Garner and Wood are undoubtedly gorgeous together, they don't share the same spark that Rock Hudson and Doris Day did in the previous year's big romantic comedy hit "Pillow Talk", or even the two films that Garner later did with Ms. Day.
Wood, who as "Queen of Warner Brothers" after Ms. Day departed, probably thought it looked good on paper, and while it has some amusements, it actually looks better than it actually plays.
The lead characters, even Garner's rather ruthless businessman, are likable, and Garner indulges McCall with a sense of standards of decent business practices that other hot young actors of the time might have.This is an unfortunate film choice for poor Nina Foch, who must suffer all sorts of indignities as an embittered divorcée who develops a crush on McCall and is humiliated by him after she ruthlessly tries to break him and Wood up.
She also has the misfortune to wear probably the ugliest hat in film history, one that's actually feathered but looks like a fruit bowl turned upside down.There have been much better films on big business, including one by the same author ("Executive Suite").
It features a wonderful supporting cast, most notably Henry Jones (who will never be confused here with his role of LeRoy in "The Bad Seed") and Eli Wallach.
Cash McCall is a fun and entertaining early 60s flick that, sad to say, doesn't cure cancer!
James Garner and Natalie Wood are easy on the eyes and give passable performances for the genre.
I think they had fun making this movie.
The business dealings are sharply delineated and remind one of the anti-corporation feelings that are in the news today.
The thing to do is to munch some popcorn, grab a soda and watch a vintage American film that entertains and makes you smile.
There is a wonderful description of ethical business standards and practices in the film.The cast is just wonderful and is led by James Garner as the cool business man who does learn some business humility in the end.
Natalie Wood is wonderful as a former summer flame who becomes involved when Garner attempts to buy out Dean Jagger, her father in the film.Nina Foch shows her mettle as a managing assistant, bitter from her ex-husband's escapades, only to misinterpret Garner's lines to her.Business ethics has never been better..
The cast is first-rate, from Garner on down, but why this sharp, brisk business drama had to turn into a romantic farce (complete with misunderstandings) is a mystery to me.
Nina Foch, always very welcome to see, is wasted in an unbelievable role as a hotel manager who develops an unfounded crush on Garner, which messes up his romance with Natalie Wood, yadda yadda.
I have to wonder if the movie wouldn't have been vastly improved by dropping the whole Garner-Wood romantic subplot altogether, and just having it be about businessmen dealing with each other - the cast was certainly good enough to carry that sort of story and make it interesting.