Ensofter Overrated and overhyped

Intcatinfo A Masterpiece!

Jonah Abbott There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Tobias Burrows It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Robert J. Maxwell The movie opens with a fully orchestrated epic march suggesting flags and a parade of glittering bayonets. The credits seem to be stamped on iron plaques. The narrator is a Reed Hadley clone who intones staggering facts about the resources and efficiency of the Secret Service. "The Secret Service Building in Washington houses ten million daltons of nanosieverts and contains twelve thousand long tonnes of files and fingerprints." If you've seen any of the popular semi-documentaries of the immediate post-war period, like "The House on 92nd Street," it will all be familiar to you.But -- that's not what it's about. The Intro is a fake. "All false pretenses, like flowers, fall to the ground; nor can any counterfeit last long." It's not about the staunch servants of the public weal at the Secret Service after all. It's about Burt Lancaster's pursuit of shabby old Edmond Gwen who runs off a couple of dozen one-dollar bills on the hand-cranked machine in his basement whenever an emergency arises.Gwen is so lovable, so huggable, so generous, that sometimes he slips one of his crummy old bills -- Washington is spelled Wahsington -- into the purse of his friend, the sophisticated Dorothy McGuire, and it's through her that Lancaster finds out what's going on. And the movie become a pleasant little romance with some cockle-warming humor thrown in.The setting is New York City. I was surprised to learn that their office is located at 90 Church Street because that's where I enlisted. The photography has been influenced by the noir style and it doesn't quite fit. Night-time streets are slick, wet, empty. Shadows are stark. Old paintings in rococco frames hang from the walls. Gwen lives in a basement apartment that looks like an episode of The Hoarders, filled with ancient and spooky junk.The imagery doesn't always mesh well with the narrative, but the director has added some nifty comic touches. There is, for instance, a silent scene, watched through a store-front window, in which Lancaster's pal pretends to hit on McGuire, so that Lancaster can come to the rescue and find out how she came to pass one of Gwen's phony bills. It's a perfectly performed two-minute silent movie.It's a reasonably pleasant way to while away an hour or two. The romance is perfunctory and doesn't get in the way of the plot too much. And most of the gooey sentimentality is left for the last fifteen minutes, when we hear "Auld Lang Syne" on the sound track.Let me put it this way: If you liked "Miracle on 34th Street," you'll like this because the similarities, taken together, stand out like a gastropod on its poduncle.

obrienpat It appears that TCM chopped the ending out of its showing of the Burt Lancaster movie, Mister 880 tonight, Nov. 20th. There must have been some programming problem, but it was startling. Lancaster was excellent and Edmund Gwenn was perfect in the part of the old man passing counterfeit money. Right now, we are frustrated. When you sign on to a TCM showing, you assume the network cares enough about its own choices to give you the entire story. Evidently not. At least not tonight. They chopped it and sailed on. Why? This is the first time that has happened when we've been watching. Will someone please tell us how the movie ended?

JasparLamarCrabb A good, albeit slight movie starring Burt Lancaster as a secret service agent pursuing the elusive counterfeiter Mister 880 (named for his case number). It's old fashioned and a bit too "nice," but still entertaining. Lancaster has terrific chemistry with Dorothy McGuire (as a UN interpreter who may or may not know more than she's willing to share with Lancaster) and Edmund Gwenn is really perfect. A clever script makes for a fun game of cat and mouse (or mice). Howard St. John is also in it. Director Edmund Goulding manages to create a feel for NYC in 1950 despite being studio-bound. It is a bit like Hitchcock-lite, but still very worthy entertainment.

irish44 Secret Service agent Steve Buchanan (Burt Lancaster) and the entire New York Field Office of the Secret Service have been trying for many years to track down an elusive counterfeiter who has been making poor imitations of $1 bills. The counterfeiter, called "Mister 880" by the Secret Service after the file number assigned to the case, has been passing the counterfeit $1's all over New York City for many years. Agent Buchanan notices a pattern of passing activity that follows a subway line from Manhattan to Brooklyn. He and his fellow agents "stake out" Coney Island (the next stop on the subway line) and soon develop "The Skipper" (Edmund Gwynn) as a suspect. He is a kindly old gentleman who prints only enough counterfeit money to survive. Agent Buchanan has a big heart and feels terrible about arresting The Skipper. He asks the U.S. Attorney and the Federal Judge to go easy on The Skipper. The movie is based on the true story written by St. Clair McKelway. Ironically, in real life, the Secret Service never identified the suspect, who was a "junk dealer", until a fire started in his apartment. The New York Fire Department responded and "threw out" of the apartment window all sorts of "junk" while putting out the fire. Among the items tossed out the window was a small hand operated printing press and plates for the counterfeit $1 bills. The press and the plates were found by the NYPD who called the Secret Service. But, as we know, the real story wouldn't have made such a good movie, and Lancaster and Gwynn (Oscar winner for this role) are terrific.