40 Pounds of Trouble

40 Pounds of Trouble
Theatrical release poster
Directed byNorman Jewison
Written byMarion Hargrove
Based on
Little Miss Marker
by Damon Runyon
Produced byStan Margulies
StarringTony Curtis
Suzanne Pleshette
Larry Storch
CinematographyJoseph MacDonald
Edited byMarjorie Fowler
Music byMort Lindsey
Production
company
Distributed byUniversal-International Pictures
Release date
  • December 31, 1962 (1962-12-31)
Running time
106 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Box office$2,750,000 (US/ Canada)[1]

40 Pounds of Trouble is a 1962 comedy film directed by Norman Jewison and starring Tony Curtis, Suzanne Pleshette, Larry Storch and Phil Silvers. It is a retelling of Damon Runyon's 1932 short story Little Miss Marker,[2] filmed in 1934 as Little Miss Marker, in 1949 as Sorrowful Jones and in 1980 as Little Miss Marker.

Plot

At Stateline, Nevada, Villa D'Oro casino gambling manager Steve McCluskey and its club singer Chris Lockwood find their hands full when they agree to take in a troublesome young girl named Penny Piper, left behind in the casino by her gambling father.[3] The little girl hinders the manager's plans to keep his gaming license. Penny thinks that Steve needs to get married and settle down, so she starts trying to bring him and Chris together. Steve is still reeling from his failed first marriage and is apprehensive about remarriage.

Cast

Production

40 Pounds of Trouble marked Norman Jewison's feature-film directorial debut after several years as a television director.[4] It was also Stan Margulies'[5][6][7] feature-film debut as a producer debut after having been executive producer on the television series Tales of the Vikings for Brynaprod.[8][9]

Tony Curtis and Margulies, the owners of the film-production company Curtis Enterprises, sent Walt Disney a copy of the script and were surprised when Disney phoned them three days later to grant his approval, with only a minor alteration to the script.[10] The film was shot on location at Disneyland and at Harrah's Club near Lake Tahoe.[11][12] It was the first motion picture to receive permission from Disney to film at the park; he had previously rejected about 20 film requests because he did not like the scripts. In return, he received a bonus and the rights to use the film footage for any purpose as long as it did not show the actors. The Disneyland footage was shot over six days in late April 1962.[13][14]

The producers faced a challenge with the legal requirement to provide schooling for the 75 to 100 child extras who would appear in the Disneyland sequence. Margulies sought to rent a nearby warehouse to serve as a makeshift classroom,[13] but a theater within the park was used.[15]

40 Pounds of Trouble was the only released film completed by Curtis Enterprises, as Curtis and Margulies formed a new company, Reynard Productions, shortly afterward.

Release

40 Pounds of Trouble had a limited one-day-only New Year's Eve screening at select theaters across the United States on the night of December 31, 1962.[16][17] Theaters showed the film as many as three times that night in celebration of the new year.[18] The film had its official world premiere on January 18, 1963, at the Carib-Miami-Miracle Theaters in Miami, Florida,[19] and the next day at Harrah's Club's South Shore Room in Lake Tahoe, Nevada.[20][21] The film then opened to the rest of the United States during the last week of January and first week of February 1963. It was a success, and the film was nominated for a Golden Laurel Award for Top Comedy and Curtis was nominated for a Golden Laurel Award for Top Male Comedy Performance.

Critical reception

In a contemporary review for The New York Times, critic Bosley Crowther called 40 Pounds of Trouble a "bluntly promotional film" with a "slapdash and witless script" and wrote:

Considering that the first part of the picture is pretty much an illustrated plug for Harrah's Club at Lake Tahoe, Nev., where much of it was brightly photographed, one might reckon it a television picture, with obvious commercials built in. And considering that its first-time-out director, Norman Jewison, is straight from television, it's no wonder that it has a video look. Mr. Curtis, Suzanne Pleshette as the singer and Claire Wilcox as the baby-talking child are as banal as spot-commercial hawkers of headache tablets or crunchy breakfast foods. The trouble with "40 Pounds of Trouble" is that it is just too hackneyed and dull.[22]

References

  1. ↑ "Top Rental Features of 1963", Variety, January 8, 1964, p 71. Please note figures are rentals as opposed to total gross.
  2. ↑ Bosley Crowther (January 24, 1963). "Screen: '40 Pounds of Trouble': Film Is Witless Remake of a Runyon Story; Blunt Promotion, Thin Humor Fill Script 'Sodom and Gomorrah'". The New York Times. Retrieved April 10, 2021.
  3. ↑ "'Forty Pounds of Trouble' : synopsis". tcmdb. Retrieved July 24, 2026.
  4. ↑ "february 12, 1962 in (Jan-Mar 1962)". Boxoffice. New York. 1962. Retrieved July 24, 2026 – via archive.org.
  5. ↑ Stack, Vanessa (March 6, 2001). "Stan Margulies". Variety. Retrieved July 24, 2026.
  6. ↑ "Stan Margulies; Producer of TV Hits 'Roots,' 'Thorn Birds'". Los Angeles Times. March 1, 2001. Retrieved July 24, 2026.
  7. ↑ "Roots Producer Stan Margulies Dies - CBS News". www.cbsnews.com. March 1, 2001. Retrieved July 24, 2026.
  8. ↑ "Messenger-Inquirer from Owensboro, Kentucky on February 3, 1963 · 23". Newspapers.com. Retrieved July 9, 2021.
  9. ↑ "Margulies to Europe Fri. On 'Vikings', 'Spartacus'". Motion Picture Daily. Quigley Publishing Company. July 29, 1959. p. 5 – via MBRS Library of Congress.
  10. ↑ "Valley Times". North Hollywood, California. May 14, 1962. p. 6. Retrieved July 5, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ↑ "40 Pounds of Trouble (1962) - IMDb". IMDb.
  12. ↑ Gettell, Oliver (May 23, 2015). "'Tomorrowland' and 5 more Disneyland movies to mark the park's 60th". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved May 24, 2015.
  13. 1 2 Schumach, Murray (April 19, 1962). "Disneyland Gets First Major Role". The New York Times. p. 35.
  14. ↑ "DISNEYLAND OPERATION 'TROUBLE'". nytimes.com. June 10, 1962. Retrieved July 24, 2026.
  15. ↑ McDonald, Thomas (June 10, 1962). "Disneyland Operation 'Trouble'". The New York Times. p. 7, Section 2.
  16. ↑ "Argus-Leader from Sioux Falls, South Dakota on December 28, 1962 · Page 21". Newspapers.com. Retrieved July 9, 2021.
  17. ↑ "Deseret News from Salt Lake City, Utah on December 29, 1962 · 3". Newspapers.com. Retrieved July 9, 2021.
  18. ↑ "The Lima News from Lima, Ohio on December 20, 1962 · 23". Newspapers.com. Retrieved July 9, 2021.
  19. ↑ "The Miami Herald from Miami, Florida on January 18, 1963 · 82". Newspapers.com. Retrieved July 9, 2021.
  20. ↑ "The Miami News from Miami, Florida on January 19, 1963 · 9". Newspapers.com. Retrieved July 9, 2021.
  21. ↑ "Hartford Courant from Hartford, Connecticut on January 20, 1963 · 28". Newspapers.com. Retrieved July 9, 2021.
  22. ↑ Crowther, Bosley (January 24, 1963). "Screen: '40 Pounds of Trouble'". The New York Times. Retrieved February 28, 2026.

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