The Jackpot (1950)

A father and husband (James Stewart) employed in a midwestern department store wins big on a radio quiz program. He is ecstatic until he realizes he will have to sell most of the prizes so he will be able to afford the taxes on them. That's only the beginning of the disasters that will follow. Based on a New Yorker article by John McNulty and directed by Walter Lang (STATE FAIR). What should have been an amusing comedy becomes instead a laborious exercise in ineptitude. This is James "aw, shucks" Stewart at his worst with every tic and mannerism in full force, everything I dislike about him as an actor. I'll be upfront about it. Outside of his work with Hitchcock and Anthony Mann, I'm not much of an admirer of the man. Still, audiences of the day lapped it up and it showed up in 20th Century Fox's profit column. With Barbara Hale, Natalie Wood, Fred Clark, Patricia Medina, Alan Mowbray and Tommy Rettig.