Cash on Delivery
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Muriel Box
Shelley Winters
Peggy Cummins
John Gregson
Wilfred Hyde White
Mona Washbourne
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
In New York, singer Myrtle La Mar learns from a lawyer that her rich but childless uncle Joe is dead and has bequeathed Myrtle's husband two million dollars on condition that he produce a son before the upcoming one-year anniversary of Joe's death. Myrtle, who was estranged from her disapproving uncle, is outraged by the will, as she and her husband, composer Tony Robinson, have not seen each other in years. After the lawyer assures her that she will inherit the money if she can prove that Tony has no sons, Myrtle heads for London, Tony's last known whereabouts. There, Myrtle meets a lawyer named Starke, whose firm has been hired to track down Tony. Myrtle admits that she and Tony divorced three years before in Bolivia and concedes the possibility that he has since remarried. Revealing that Tony could still legally inherit if he has a son, Starke places a vaguely worded advertisement in the newspapers, soliciting information about Tony. Unknown to Myrtle and Starke, Tony has changed his name to Tony Rapallo and is living in a cottage in Suffolk with his pregnant wife Dorothy. Although Dorothy, who is overdue and bedridden, points the ad out to the financially strapped Tony, he assumes that Myrtle is after money and ignores it. Frustrated by the ad's lack of success, Myrtle hires down-and-out private detective Livingstone Potts to find Tony, and the two of them begin telephoning every Tony Robinson in the greater London area. While Myrtle and Livingstone chase down leads in London, Tony struggles to finish the score to a film documentary, plagued by frequent interruptions and one false labor alarm. Stuck in a London traffic jam, Myrtle turns on her car radio and recognizes an orchestra playing "You're the Only One," one of Tony's compositions. After Livingstone obtains Tony's new name and address from the BBC, Myrtle races to Tony's Suffolk cottage. There, Myrtle smothers Tony with kisses and tells him about her uncle's money, not mentioning the will's peculiar stipulations. In turn, Tony admits that he is married and childless, but fails to reveal Dorothy's pregnancy. While Tony is outside bringing in the wash, Myrtle telephones Starke in London to report that Tony is childless, and her conversation is overheard by Dorothy. In private, a jealous Dorothy tells Tony about Myrtle's conversation, and Tony then tells Myrtle about his impending fatherhood. Upset, Myrtle heads for the local inn, intending to stay near Tony until the will's deadline has passed. On the way, Myrtle meets Starke, who has driven from London with news. That evening, Myrtle shows up at Tony's cottage and informs him that their Bolivian divorce was never finalized and they are, therefore, still legally married. Already agitated, Dorothy screams when she hears about Tony's apparent bigamy, and the next day, Tony goes to the inn to ask Myrtle for a quick divorce. Myrtle refuses, but when Tony returns to his cottage, he finds Starke, who tells him that he will inherit the money if he has a son by nine the next morning, regardless of the mother's identity. At 8:40 the next morning, Myrtle, now desperate to ingratiate herself, appears at the cottage with a basket of food and pays the repossessers who have come to reclaim Tony and Dorothy's furniture. Just then, Dorothy's nurse, Miss Appleby, announces that Dorothy has gone into labor, but as Tony is about to call the doctor, Miss Appleby declares another false alarm. Nine o'clock arrives with no baby in sight, and Myrtle departs, happy. Soon after, however, Dorothy recalls that New York is five hours behind England, and Tony telephones Myrtle at the inn to tell her the deadline has not yet passed. Myrtle races back to the cottage, where Tony attempts to explain the concept of time zones to her. Starke then arrives to announce that further investigation has revealed that Tony and Myrtle's wedding in Tonga was invalid because of a seven-day residency requirement they failed to meet. Before Tony can react to the news, Dorothy goes into labor for real, and the baby is born shortly before two o'clock. When the baby is revealed to be a girl, Myrtle is relieved, but moments later, a second baby, a boy, is born. After Myrtle concedes defeat, Dorothy and Tony agree to give her half of the inheritance. Myrtle then receives a call from her boyfriend in New York, who tells her that because of daylight savings time, New York is only four hours behind England and therefore the boy's birth was an hour late. Touched by Tony and Dorothy's earlier generosity, Myrtle decides to return the favor, offering the couple half of her inheritance.
Director
Muriel Box
Cast
Shelley Winters
Peggy Cummins
John Gregson
Wilfred Hyde White
Mona Washbourne
Hartley Power
Martin Miller
Anthony Oliver
Joan Sims
Hal Osmond
Aubrey Mather
M. Kaufman
John Warren
Fred Berger
Nicholas Parsons
Dorothy Bramhall
Ronald Adam
Marjorie Rhodes
Alfie Bass
Campbell Singer
Joan Hickson
Charles Hawtrey
Meredith Edwards
Crew
Jacques Abram
Sydney Box
Joan Ellacott
Jim Hydes
Al Marcus
Molho
Fred G. Morill
Ernest Morris
Peter Noble
George Provis
Paddy Roberts
Peter Rogers
Peter Rogers
Alfred Roome
Cliff Sandal
Ben Schrift
Donald Sharpe
Ernest Steward
Robert Thomson
Fred Turtle
Barbara Wainwright
Eileen Warwick
Lambert Williamson
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
Cash on Delivery was made in Great Britain and opened there under the title To Dorothy, a Son in November 1954. British sources list Englishman Sydney Box, director Muriel Box's husband, as producer with American Ben Schrift. Onscreen credits and U.S. reviews list Schrift and screenwriter Peter Rogers as producers. New York-based MacDonald Pictures Corp. was headed by Schrift. Welbeck-Gina, a corporate name apparently only used for Cash on Delivery, was a composite of "Welbeck," a company owned by Muriel and Sydney Box and "Gina," a company named after Shelley Winters' daughter. Although some contemporary sources include George Thorne, lyricist of the song "You're the Only One," in their credits, only the song's composer, Jacques Abram, is listed onscreen. The song is heard as an instrumental in the picture. Modern sources give Martin Miller's character name as "Brodcynsky."
Miscellaneous Notes
Released in United States 1956
Released in United States 1956
