The Cheaters

The Cheaters (1945)

The Picture That Can Change Your Life!

An eccentric wealthy family facing bankruptcy schemes to steal an inheritance, but an alcoholic ex-actor they take in for Christmas charity complicates their plan.

Date of release
1945-07-15
TMDB
6.2 / 10 (14)
Runtime
1h 27m
Genres
Comedy, Drama
Director
Joseph Kane

Casting

Interesting facts

The Cheaters (1945), also known as MR. M. and the Pigeons, The Amazing MR. M., The Magnificent Mr. M. and The Magnificent Rogue, is a Christmas "screwball comedy" tale about a has-been actor invited to Christmas dinner by a rich family. The film was atypical of the Republic Pictures studio, directed by Joseph Kane and starring Joseph Schildkraut. The film was re-released in 1949 under a new title, The Castaway, and when the Republic film catalogue was sold in the 1950s as late night television fodder, it appeared consistently for years as a Christmas staple throughout the 1960s and 1970s.

Production

The original story by Frances Hyland and Albert Ray was written in 1941 as a vehicle for Binnie Barnes, a comedian known for supporting roles at major studios and leading roles for "low-rent" studios like Republic. The Cheaters was bought by Paramount as a comeback vehicle for John Barrymore and Carole Lombard, but was shelved and later recast after the deaths of both stars; ultimately, the story was sold to Republic Pictures.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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