It has been a pretty intense month. First we had the appallingly abysmal Terror of Tiny Town which, sunk to new lows not yet fully understood by humans, then we had the 100mph mindblowing clusterfuck that was Killer Robots! Crash and Burn which was like the hyperactive fever dream of an overstimulated 10 year old. This week, I wanted to take things in a slightly different direction, whilst also introducing another new monthly theme to the blog: Disney week. I have a Disney+ subscription and a whole list of movies to work though, most of which don't conflict with the main project, so it feels like a good idea... We've already had Race to Witch Mountain and Secret of the Magic Gourd. This week: The Million Dollar Duck!
Dr Albert Dooley (Dean Jones) is a animal behavioural Scientist conducting experiments with various different animals, and when a duck being used as part of an experiment breaks out and gets itself irradiated, he takes it back home promising to find a home for it. Only to discover: the duck now lays solid gold eggs! Using their brains and enlisting the help of their Lawyer pal Fred Hines (Tony Roberts) they decide that the only way to benefit from the golden egg laying duck without getting in trouble is to take the eggs to a refinery and recruit Albert's wife Katie (Sandy Duncan) in carrying out the cashing in process. Meanwhile Jimmy (Lee Montgomery), Albert's son adopts the duck as a pet and as Katie goes about town cashing in gold eggs, the news quickly finds it's way to the US Treasury Department and, coincidentally the neighbours of the Dooley's and employee of the Treasury Department: Mr Hooper (Joe Flynn). Mr Hooper starts spying on his neighbours and catches Alert and Fred celebrating when, after a scare, the duck can still lay gold eggs, and reports it back to the Treasury department and after some convincing they decide to "move in". Calling at the house, Jimmy overhears the conversation that they want to seize the duck and runs away with it in his bicycle basket and then hitches a ride with his friends in... a dune buggy... cue a long car chase scene through the town which ends with Jimmy almost falling from the roof of the car park, Albert being arrested and the duck taken into protective custody. In court, Mr Hooper tries to get the duck to lay a gold egg to prove to the Judge of it's abilities but when the duck lays a normal egg, the Judge dismisses the case and Albert, deciding that the duck has more value to him if it makes his Son happy than it does laying gold eggs, let's Jimmy keep the duck forever. Forever forever.
Everything about this film was very 70's. I cringed a few times at how Albert spoke to his wife, but I guess that was the attitude of the time... which doesn't make it right, but it's a product of it's time I guess. Sandy Duncan's character was painted and portrayed in such a derogatory fashion: being too silly, too naïve. Fred Hines specifically picks her to be the one cashing in on the eggs because, to paraphrase: "when she tells them (the cashiers) they were laid by a duck, nobody will believe her", and I didn't enjoy that part. Especially because I felt like Sandy Duncan did a good job here and it's awful that at the time this was the best a woman could hope for in a movie role.
So the casual sexism of the 70's addressed, this wasn't too bad a movie. The whole premise: a golden egg laying duck is a bit silly, granted, but this movie actually played it out straight. The characters worked out that they couldn't just spend the eggs like money, they needed to capitalize from them correctly and not to overdo it and splash out lavishly on things. I appreciated that they took it in that direction rather than be lazy about it. The plot actually, generally, was pretty good. Things got a bit silly near the end with the car chase, but if it was a plot device to put Jimmy in danger for Albert to finally realise he values his Son more than a golden egg laying bird then so be it!
The special effects were also pretty decent for a 70's film. It was obvious in retrospect where they had deployed a green screen and it did look a bit goofy sometimes, but it gets a bit of a free pass because of how old it is and I've certainly seen worse special effects in movies the same age. Everyone put in a pretty decent job acting-wise as well. I'd have never have guessed it but this was Tony Roberts acting debut and he put in equally as a good a job as the leading actors. The cinematography too was perfectly passible, although they did tend to lean heavy on the 'character delivering dialogue to the bottom left corner' shot a whole bunch of times which damaged the immersiveness of the film a little bit. Not sure if it was the style at the time but they could have cut back on the close ups and kept the flow of the film going.
I love the way old 70's movies are filmed and part of the reason I started doing this blog was because I really want to watch more of them. Checking my Disney+ watchlist I don't think there are too many other 70's Disney films forming part of what will be Disney week, but who knows, a few others might creep in. There's just something about movies shot on film that makes them better and all the modern polish and pin sharpness of modern day digital is good enough, but it just doesn't have the same aesthetic as film recordings.
I read a handful of articles when I put my Disney+ watch list together; about the worst movies on Disney+, the worst must watch Sci-Fi's on Disney+, together with some of my own finds or picks literally just because I like the title (I'm looking forward to Mr. Boogedy! Maybe for Halloween month...) and I'm excited to explore more of the movies that Disney never talks about. This wasn't a perfect movie by any stretch: it was corny, it was cheesy and it was dated, but it was still enjoyable and it made me laugh at some of it's jokes, and discounting the 70's attitudes towards women; it's a fun, inoffensive little movie about a duck that lays golden eggs. 3 out of 5.
