Who's Minding the Mint?

Harry Lucas (Hutton) lives beyond his means, driving expensive cars and living in a fancy apartment.  However, he does not own any of it... gliding through life on test drives to free trials.  His boss, Mr. Link (Stewart), takes notice and keeps close tabs on Harry to pounce on any problems.  Besides avoiding Mr. Link, Harry is dodging advances, and fudge, from co-worker Verna (Provine).  One day, Harry accidentally takes a bundle of money out of the U.S. Mint (where he works) and destroys it in a garbage disposal.

Panicking, he comes up with a crazy scheme: break into the mint, with the help of Pop (Brennan), a former Mint employee, and reprint the $50,000.  However, Pop and Harry need more people to successfully print the money.  They bring in Mint currency cutter Verna Baxter (Provine) who is interested in Harry, pawn shop owner Luther Burton (Berle) to front the money, Willie (Denver) the ice cream man to transport the money, Avery (Gilford) to crack the safe, the Captain (Buono) to get them to the money, and Ralph Randazzo (Bishop).  Can they print the money, plus a little extra for each participant, without getting caught?

The film is in the same vein as It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines, etc.  The film starts slow, but builds to a mad-cap adventure, featuring big names in comedy... with Jim Hutton serving as the straight man.  Hutton plays a boring character, but he gets better as the film goes on.  Dorothy Provine continues to prove her comedy chops, after superb turns in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and The Great Race.  She stands her ground along-side the men, in a small part.

The men do an excellent job... each bringing something specific to the table, and performing their tasks well.  The funniest sequences occur during the heist: everything that could go wrong, does... including a pregnant dog.  Their are some great visual gags, like the above picture of the team riding in the boat, and the hallway confusion.  Good times.

Good luck renting the film... it isn't available through Netflix.  But you can find it on Amazon.

Who's Minding the Mint? (1967) 97 minutes
Director: Howard Morris
Starring: Jim Hutton as Harry Lucas
Dorothy Provine as Verna Baxter
Milton Berle as Luther Burton
Joey Bishop as Ralph Randazzo
Bob Denver as Willie Owens
Walter Brennan as Pop Gillis
Victor Buono as Captain
Jack Gilford as Avery Dugan
Jamie Farr as Mario
David J. Stewart as Samson Link