''The Boy Who Stole a Million'' is a 1960 British comedy thriller film directed by

Charles Crichton Charles Ainslie Crichton (6 August 1910 – 14 September 1999) was an English film director and editor. Born in Wallasey, Cheshire, he became best known for directing many comedies produced at Ealing Studios and had a 40-year career ...

. The film was shot on location in the Spanish city of

Valencia Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, Valencia and the Municipalities of Spain, third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is ...

, with an international cast list. With multiple street locations it acts as an excellent showcase for the city and a good historical record of the city in the late 1950s (when filmed).

Plot

When he learns that his father needs to find 10,000 pesetas (approximately £60) to finance repairs to his taxi, or face losing his business and livelihood, naïve young Paco decides to "borrow" a million pesetas from the bank where he has a small part-time job after school. He is forced to hide around the city when he starts to be pursued not only by the police, but also seemingly by all the criminal low-life of the city, all eager to get their hands on the cash. Paco finds himself on the run all through Valencia, from the most elegant quarters with their wide streets and squares in the midst of fiesta time, to the city's most squalid and dangerous slums. Paco has no concept of money in the adult sense. When he is hungry he tells a street vendor that he "has no money" and has to beg for the food. Hiding beside a blind beggar the man leads him to an abandoned basement and attacks him, as he too has heard of the child and missing money. The package of money gets thrown in a garbage truck and Paco ends up scraping through piles of rubbish with local street urchins who do this to survive. He finds it and spends some time with the group. Meanwhile his father drives around the city with two friends, also searching for him. When his father eventually finds him Paco explains that he heard his father say he would disown him if he ever stole. After one final fight with the pursuing thugs they take the cash back to the bank. The bank manager is very understanding and merely charges Paco 168 pesetas interest for the 24 hours he had the money. They agree the bank will take this interest charge out of Paco's wages at the rate of 2 pesetas per week.

Cast

* Maurice Reyna as Paco * Virgilio Teixeira as Miguel * Marianne Benet as Maria *

Harold Kasket Harold Kasket (26 July 1926 – 20 January 2002) was an English actor in theatre, films and later television from the 1940s. Kasket usually played Arabs or mainland European types in many films and TV programmes such as ''Maigret'', ''The Saint ...

as Luis *

George Coulouris George Alexander Coulouris (1 October 1903 – 25 April 1989) was an English film and stage actor. Early life Coulouris was born in Manchester, Lancashire, England, the son of Abigail (née Redfern) anNicholas Coulouris a merchant of Greek o ...

as Bank Manager *

Warren Mitchell Warren Mitchell (born Warren Misell; 14 January 1926 – 14 November 2015) was a British actor. He was a BAFTA TV Award winner and twice a Laurence Olivier Award winner. In the 1950s, Mitchell appeared on the radio programmes ''Educatin ...

as Pedro *

Tutte Lemkow Tutte Lemkow (born Isak Samuel Lemkow; 28 August 1918 – 10 November 1991) was a Norwegian actor and dancer, who played mostly villainous roles in British television and films. His chief claims to mainstream familiarity were his roles as ...

as Mateo *

Edwin Richfield Edwin Richfield (11 September 1921 – 2 August 1990) was an English actor. Career Richfield starred in the television series ''Interpol Calling'' (1959). He was ''The Odd Man'' in Granada Television's series of the same name in the early 196 ...

as Commissionnaire *

Bill Nagy Bill Nagy (born October 26, 1987) is a former American football center and guard who played in the National Football League (NFL) for the Dallas Cowboys. He played college football for the University of Wisconsin. He was also a member of the ...

as Police Chief * Barta Barri as Gang Leader *

Paul Whitsun-Jones Paul Whitsun-Jones (25 April 1923 – 14 January 1974) was a Welsh character actor. Born in Newport in Monmouthshire, he was educated at Merchant Taylors' School in Northwood in Middlesex. He started his acting career in 1948 with two years a ...

as Desk Sergeant *

Robert Rietti Robert Rietti, (born Lucio Rietti; 8 February 1923 – 3 April 2015), was an actor, and Oscar-nominated director of Anglo-Italian descent. With over 200 credits to his name, he had a highly prolific career in the American, British and Ita ...

as Detective *

Cyril Shaps Cyril Leonard Shaps (13 October 1923 – 1 January 2003) was an English actor of radio, television and film, with a career spanning over seven decades. Early radio Shaps was born in the East End of London to Polish-Jewish parents; his father ...

as Bank Clerk * Xan Das Bolas as Knife Grinder

Production

The film was originally budgeted at £100,000 - £49,500 coming from Lloyds Bank/Barclays, £49,500 coming from Paramount and £1,000 deferred from Paramount. The film went over budget and the rest was made up by the guarantor, Film Finances.

Reception

Box Office

The film recorded a loss to Bryanston of £52,330.Petrie p 8

References

External links

*
''The Boy Who Stole a Million''
at BFI Film & TV Database {{DEFAULTSORT:Boy Who Stole A Million, The 1960 films 1960 comedy films British comedy films Films directed by Charles Crichton British chase films British black-and-white films 1960s chase films Films shot in Valencia Films set in Spain 1960s English-language films 1960s British films