It seems as if 1971 (the year I was born) is just as in financial dire straights as 2009. These economic times have hit hard the home of Scientist Albert Dooley, played once again by Disney Giant Dean Jones. The bills are piling up, the bank is getting anxious and Albert can’t afford the dog his son wants. Plus work is not going so great, until a genetic experiment enables Albert’s experimental lab duck to lay golden eggs.
The laughs pile up rather duckily with many clever gags and witty dialogue delivered by a variety of interesting and funny characters. Katie (Sandy Duncan) is Albert’s dim-witted wife who thinks nothing of taking the golden eggs to the bank to exchange them for cash. She doesn’t understand why they don’t except the gold. Finley Hooper (Joe Flynn) is Albert’s next door grumpy U.S. Treasury worker neighbor, who wishes he had a reason to audit him. Albert's friend Fred Hines (Tony Roberts), is happy to become Albert’s partner and legal advisor, advising him not to wildly spend the money they get from the golden eggs, while he buys himself a brand new car. There is Albert’s hippie teenage neighbors who almost on a daily basis crash their dune buggy into his environmentally hazardless car. And then there is Albert and Katie’s son Jimmy (Lee Harcourt Montgomery) who is the least interesting character in the film but is happy with his new pet duck Charlie instead of a lousy cute puppy. He actually likes him and care less that he is a rich gold mine waiting to happen. There is a amusing scene where Charlie is brought to a duck farm and gets lost amongst the ducks. As Albert tries to find his golden duck, he lets loose all the ducks in the duck farm, letting them waddle to the pond in freedom. Charlie is one great duck of an actor. Every time a dog barks or someone pretends to bark like a dog, the duck lays his golden nuggets inside the egg shell.
Because Albert and Katie have been exchanging gold for currency, the U.S. Treasury Dept. has gotten wind of this and believes it to be some criminal operation that ends up making headlines around the globe. Hooper spies on his next door neighbors to find out how they harvest their gold. His wife thinks he is just being a noisy peeping tom and feels no sympathy when he falls out of a tree as part of his spying effort. But his snooping pays off and soon he tells his buddies back at the U.S. Treasury that is the Duck that brings in the golden eggs. Word gets around about the Million Dollar Duck, and even gets back to president Nixon who says “ I want that Duck”.
As Hooper and the boys comes to take the duck away, Jimmy takes Charlie and jets off with the hippies. What results is the standard no-holds barred Disney slapstick all out chase scene. It’s pretty wild and lives up to the expectations of all other Disney chase scenes. Then comes the pretty standard ending. The ending is not as exciting as the rest of the picture but it makes sense in the context of the story. This is one of the few movies that Gene Siskel walked out of, in his long carrier as a movie critic. I’m not sure why. Because the Million Dollar Duck is a Million laughs and despite the very tyical ending, is a film that is deserves a place in the Family library.
Finally, somebody else who likes this movie! Gene Siskel, what was your problem?
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