''Who's Minding the Mint?'' is a 1967 American

crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a State (polity), state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definiti ...

comedy film The comedy film is a film genre that emphasizes humor. These films are designed to amuse audiences and make them laugh. Films in this genre typically have a happy ending, with dark comedy being an exception to this rule. Comedy is one of the o ...

directed by Howard Morris and starring Jim Hutton, Dorothy Provine,

Walter Brennan Walter Andrew Brennan (July 25, 1894 – September 21, 1974) was an American actor and singer. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for ''Come and Get It (1936 film), Come and Get It'' (1936), ''Kentucky (film), Kentucky'' (19 ...

and

Milton Berle Milton Berle (born Mendel Berlinger; ; July 12, 1908 – March 27, 2002) was an American actor and comedian. His career as an entertainer spanned over eight decades, first in silent films and on stage as a child actor, then in radio, movies and ...

. The screenplay, concerning a group of individuals who break into a

United States Treasury The Department of the Treasury (USDT) is the national treasury and finance department of the federal government of the United States. It is one of 15 current U.S. government departments. The department oversees the Bureau of Engraving and ...

building to print currency, was written by R. S. Allen and Harvey Bullock. The movie was produced by

Norman Maurer Norman Albert Maurer (May 13, 1926 – November 23, 1986) was an American comic book artist and writer, and a director and producer of films and television shows. He is best known for his longtime professional and personal association with Th ...

for

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc., Trade name, doing business as Columbia Pictures, is an American film Production company, production and Film distributor, distribution company that is the flagship unit of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group ...

and is Morris’

directorial debut This is a list of film directorial debuts in chronological order. The films and dates referred to are a director's first commercial cinematic release. Many filmmakers have directed works which were not commercially released, for example early work ...

. The supporting cast features

Joey Bishop Joseph Abraham Gottlieb (February 3, 1918 – October 17, 2007), known professionally as Joey Bishop, was an American entertainer who appeared on television as early as 1948 and eventually starred in his own weekly comedy series playing a Talk ...

and

Bob Denver Robert Osbourne Denver (January 9, 1935 – September 2, 2005) was an American comedic actor who portrayed beatnik Maynard G. Krebs on the 1959–1963 series '' The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis'' and Gilligan on the 1964–1967 television serie ...

Plot

Harry Lucas ( Jim Hutton) works at the

Bureau of Engraving and Printing The Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP) is a government agency within the United States Department of the Treasury that designs and produces a variety of security products for the Federal Government of the United States, United States governm ...

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

He has an admirer in sweet co-worker Verna Baxter ( Dorothy Provine), who tries to woo him by giving him home-made, yet famously inedible

fudge ''Fudge'' is a generic role-playing game system for use in freeform role-playing games. The name "''FUDGE''" was once an acronym for ''Freeform Universal Donated'' (later, ''Do-it-yourself'') ''Gaming Engine'' and, though the acronym has since b ...

, but he avoids her because he doesn't feel ready for anything serious. He also has a nemesis in co-worker and supervisor Samson Link ( David J. Stewart), who can't understand how Harry manages to live beyond his means. Unbeknownst to Link, Harry relies on free trials that enable him to take luxury apartments and ride in chauffeured cars, enjoying the good life, including romance with a sexy neighbor. After Harry inadvertently drops $50,000 in new currency into a bag with Verna's fudge and leaves the mint with it, he unknowingly destroys the newly minted money when he dumps the entire contents of the bag into his garbage disposal. Realizing what he has done, he now fears Link and an audit at the mint. In desperation, Harry turns to Pop (

), a former mint employee forced into retirement just before getting the chance to operate the presses he always maintained, and now has little to live for except the company of his pregnant

beagle The Beagle is a small breed of scent hound, similar in appearance to the much larger foxhound. The beagle was developed primarily for hunting rabbit or hare, known as beagling. Possessing a great sense of smell and superior tracking inst ...

, Inky. Pop agrees to help Harry sneak into the mint after hours and print up replacement currency. Harry learns that they will need help from others to succeed. One by one, he has to offer a partnership to a

safecracker Safe-cracking is the process of opening a safe without either the combination or the key. Physical methods Safes have widely different designs, construction methods, and locking mechanisms. A safe cracker needs to know the specifics of whicheve ...

named Dugan (

Jack Gilford Jack Gilford (born Jacob Aaron Gellman; July 25, 1908 – June 4, 1990) was an American Broadway, film, and television actor. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for '' Save the Tiger'' (1973). Early life and ...

); Luther (

), a

pawnbroker A pawnbroker is an individual that offers secured loans to people, with items of personal property used as Collateral (finance), collateral. A pawnbrokering business is called a pawnshop, and while many items can be pawned, pawnshops typic ...

who can front expenses; Ralph (

), a

public works Public works are a broad category of infrastructure projects, financed and procured by a government body for recreational, employment, and health and safety uses in the greater community. They include public buildings ( municipal buildings, ...

employee who can navigate a secret passage to the mint through D.C.'s sewer system; an amusement park boat captain ( Victor Buono) who can build a boat that can fit down a

manhole A manhole (utility hole, maintenance hole, or sewer hole) is an opening to a confined space such as a shaft (civil engineering), shaft, utility vault, or large container, vessel. Manholes, typically protected by a manhole cover, are often used ...

, and an

ice cream truck An ice cream van (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English) or ice cream truck (North American English) is a commercial vehicle that ice cream products are sold from, usually during the spring and summer. Ice cream vans ...

driver named Willie (

) who has the means to distract the one resident on the street whose apartment overlooks the manhole. Harry ultimately winds up asking Verna to help once Pop reminds him that a professional cutter will be needed to cut the printed sheets of bills. To his surprise, she agrees to help. Unknown to Verna, however, the other conspirators accept an offer of $2,000 apiece at first, but as they rehearse for the big night, they decide to help Harry only on the condition that he and Pop will print them a million dollars apiece. An unexpected change at the mint forces the caper to be moved up. The group has to drop what they are doing and go in immediately. Despite the rehearsals, many things go wrong, including Ralph bringing along his straight-off-the-boat Italian cousin Mario (

Jamie Farr Jamie Farr (born Jameel Joseph Farah; July 1, 1934) is an American comedian and actor. He is best known for playing Corporal Maxwell Klinger, a soldier who tried getting discharged from the army by cross-dressing, on the CBS sitcom '' M*A*S*H'' ...

), and Inky going into labor. Verna is upset when she discovers that far more than $50,000 is being printed. After several setbacks, the group manages to leave with the money — over seven million dollars — only to have Mario mistakenly allow uniformed garbage collectors (whom he mistakes for police officers) to haul away the cardboard boxes containing the bills, placing them on a barge to be dumped into the ocean. Harry is defeated. He goes to the mint to confess to Link, knowing that he likely will lose his job and be sent to prison on a variety of felony charges. Pop saves the day when, on the steps of the mint, he turns up with $50,000 in extra bills that were printed and used to line the box in which Inky gave birth. Harry can replace the missing currency now, and he also has a new appreciation for the pure-hearted Verna. Later, the rest of the gang, including Inky, are seen searching for the lost currency with

scuba diving Scuba diving is a Diving mode, mode of underwater diving whereby divers use Scuba set, breathing equipment that is completely independent of a surface breathing gas supply, and therefore has a limited but variable endurance. The word ''scub ...

equipment.

Cast

* Jim Hutton as Harry Lucas * Dorothy Provine as Verna Baxter *

as Pop Gillis *

as Luther Burton *

as Ralph Randazzo *

as Willie Owens *

as Avery Dugan * Victor Buono as the Captain *

as Mario * David J. Stewart as Samson Link * Jackie Joseph as Imogene Harris *

Erin Moran Erin Marie Moran-Fleischmann (October 18, 1960 – April 22, 2017) was an American actress, best known for playing Joanie Cunningham on the television sitcom ''Happy Days'' and its spin-off ''Joanie Loves Chachi''. Early life Erin Marie ...

as little girl on tricycle (uncredited)

Production notes

The score was composed by

Lalo Schifrin Boris Claudio "Lalo" Schifrin (born June 21, 1932) is an Argentine-American pianist, composer, arranger, and conductor. He is best known for his large body of film and TV scores since the 1950s, incorporating jazz and Music of Latin America, Lati ...

. The opening titles sequence, designed by the prolific

Wayne Fitzgerald Wayne Fitzgerald (March 19, 1930 – September 30, 2019) was an American film title designer. Over a career that spanned 55 years, he designed close to five hundred motion picture and television main and end title sequences for top directors such ...

, displays the credits over images of

Federal Reserve Note Federal Reserve Notes are the currently issued banknotes of the United States dollar. The United States Bureau of Engraving and Printing produces the notes under the authority of the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 and issues them to the Federal Re ...

s, which were still in use for official transactions at the time, starting with a $1 bill and ending with a $100,000 bill. (Everything larger than $100 has since been withdrawn.) Over $1,000,000 of real United States currency was used in the movie, but was carefully watched by armed guards. Most of the currency shown being printed was larger by half than actual United States currency and had obvious printing errors, so there was no chance the money could be passed as genuine.

Dell Dell Inc. is an American technology company that develops, sells, repairs, and supports personal computers (PCs), Server (computing), servers, data storage devices, network switches, software, computer peripherals including printers and webcam ...

published a 12-cent

comic book A comic book, comic-magazine, or simply comic is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panel (comics), panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are often accompanied by descriptive prose and wri ...

version of this movie as a tie-in.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Who's Minding The Mint? 1967 films 1960s crime comedy films 1960s heist films American crime comedy films American heist films Columbia Pictures films Films scored by Lalo Schifrin Films adapted into comics Films directed by Howard Morris Films set in Washington, D.C. 1967 directorial debut films 1967 comedy films 1960s English-language films 1960s American films English-language crime comedy films

Plot

Cast

Production notes

See also

References

External links