| Mr. Billion | |
| Director: | Jonathan Kaplan |
| Producer: | Steven Bach Ken Friedman |
| Starring: | Terence Hill Valerie Perrine Slim Pickens William Redfield Chill Wills Jackie Gleason |
| Music: | Dave Grusin |
| Cinematography: | Matthew Leonetti |
| Editing: | O. Nicholas Brown |
| Studio: | Pantheon Pictures |
| Distributor: | 20th Century Fox |
| Runtime: | 89 minutes |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Budget: | $4,590,000[1] |
| Gross: | $1,300,000 (rentals)[2] |
Mr. Billion is a 1977 action comedy/action-adventure film[3] [4] directed by Jonathan Kaplan. It is notable as the Hollywood debut of Terence Hill. It's also the last film of actor William Redfield, who died before its release.
In the film, a mechanic becomes the sole heir of his recently-deceased uncle. But he has to sign a document within a deadline in order to receive his inheritance. His uncle's assistant and a private detective conspire to prevent him from claiming his inheritance.
Anthony Falcon, a multibillionaire, passes away in a strange accident and gives Guido Falcone, a laid-back Italian mechanic, the entirety of his estate. In order to claim his billion-dollar inheritance, Guido must reach San Francisco within twenty days to sign a document. His uncle's greedy assistant, John Cutler (Jackie Gleason), wants the money for himself, and hires female detective Rosie Jones (Valerie Perrine) to prevent Guido claiming his inheritance.[5]
The film was the idea of Dino de Laurentiis, who wanted to introduce Terence Hill, at that time one of the biggest movie stars in Europe, to international audiences. He signed director Jonathan Kaplan, just coming off the successful White Line Fever.
Kaplan says production was difficult - he wanted to cast Lily Tomlin but the studio insisted on Valerie Perrine. Shooting took place in Italy. Kaplan says the highlight was working with Jackie Gleason; despite his drinking problem, Kaplan says he could sober up Gleason by doing old routines from The Honeymooners and getting laughs from the crew.[6]
Mr. Billion was a major financial flop and Kaplan calls it the biggest failure of his career.[6] In a retrospective review, the critic Keith Bailey called it "yet another case of Hollywood bringing a foreign actor in, and getting him to do different material than what made him famous in the first place".[7]