Mister 880

Mister 880 is a 1950 American comedy film about an amateurish counterfeiter who counterfeits only one dollar bills, and manages to elude the Secret Service for 10 years. It was directed by Edmund Goulding, and stars Burt Lancaster, Dorothy McGuire, Edmund Gwenn, and Millard Mitchell. The film is based on the true story of Emerich Juettner, known by the alias Edward Mueller, an elderly man who counterfeited just enough money to survive, was careful where and when he spent his fake dollar bills, and was therefore able to elude authorities for ten years, despite the poor quality of his fakes, and despite growing interest in his case.[3]

Mister 880
Directed byEdmund Goulding
Produced byJulian Blaustein
Screenplay byRobert Riskin
Based onTrue Tales from the Annals of Crime & Rascality
by St. Clair McKelway
Narrated byJohn Hiestand
Music bySol Kaplan
CinematographyJoseph LaShelle
Edited byRobert Fritch
Production
company
Distributed by20th Century Fox
Release date
  • September 29, 1950 (1950-09-29)
Running time
90 min
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Box office$1,750,000[1][2]

The film was based on an article by St. Clair McKelway that was first published in The New Yorker and later collected in McKelway's book True Tales from the Annals of Crime & Rascality.

Edmund Gwenn, who played "Skipper" Miller (only a supporting role in the film), won a Golden Globe Award and was nominated for an Academy Award for his performance.

In real life, Juettner was caught and arrested in 1948, and served four months in prison.[3] Juettner made more money from the release of Mister 880 than he had made in his entire counterfeiting career.[3]

Cast

Awards and nominations

References
  1. "Top Grosses of 1950". Variety. January 3, 1951. p. 58.
  2. Aubrey Solomon, Twentieth Century-Fox: A Corporate and Financial History Rowman & Littlefield, 2002 p 223
  3. Bryk, William (February 16, 2005). "Little Old Moneymaker". New York Sun.
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