i must have seen a different film!!

A Masterpiece!

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

I'm sure not too many of the kids or even the parents that took their kids to see The Million Dollar Duck back in 1971 would realize that the British film Mister Drake's Duck was the inspiration for this Disney film. Nevertheless the British film of 1951 and the Disney film of 1971 are remarkably similar. Only the British had Mister Drake's Duck lay uranium eggs whereas this Disney duck lays gold ones after a bit radiation exposure and a concoction that Sandy Duncan makes and gets fed to the duck. The British film was not one of their better comedies, but Mister Drake's Duck had some good moments and nice satire on the government of Great Britain in those post war Labour Days. This one just has a lot of good players looking very silly.Two of them are stars Dean Jones and Sandy Duncan as a research scientist and his wife who are barely scraping by financially. The duck in question is part of a research project conducted by head scientist Jack Kruschen. When the duck flunks the intelligence test Kruschen gives him to Jones and his young son Lee Harcourt Montgomery becomes attached to it also. Of course when it starts laying those golden yolks inside the egg at that point Jones and car pooling neighbor Tony Roberts think they've hit the leprechaun's pot. But then in 1971 America as now ownership of gold is most restrictive. Not to mention that ducks that can just squat and those orbs can ruin the monetary structure of the world. That sends neighbor Joe Flynn into action who works for the Treasury Department and Flynn's supervisor James Gregory.The Million Dollar Duck has far more silliness than genuine humor in it. Far from gold, it's not even good sounding brass.

This movie, also known by the alternative title "The $1,000,000 Duck", isn't clearly one of Disney's most solid films. It's not a great movie, but has its fun and originality.The movie stars Dean Jones and Joe Flynn, both from "The Love Bug". The movie happens to be about an animal, but here's where its biggest originality is: it's not about a cat or a dog or other familiar animals in movies, but a duck! The duck is a cute and likable chap, but very strange. After wandering into a radiation lab, the duck becomes irradiated and many unusual things happen to it, such as to lay golden eggs. Before that, it was already a poor dumb duck.Dean Jones portrays Professor Albert Dooley, the guy who takes the duck home to offer his son. His son becomes attached to the duck. But because of the whole golden eggs story, Albert Dooley becomes obsessed with the idea of becoming rich thanks to that, proving how people can get so easily greedy for money.Then again, it's not a super movie, but has its moments, such as Dooley's giant car polluting the air like that and doing those engine noises when it stops (very much like Uncle Buck's car) and some moments with Joe Flynn. I also liked that nice and beautiful yellow sports car.Almost at the end of the movie, there is a sequence that is all about a chase. The whole sequence is really nuts yet hilarious! While watching it, I couldn't help myself thinking «Damn, what a chase!».

...too bad I'm not 6 any more.Not one of Disney's better efforts. If you want to watch an enjoyablemovie, this isn't it - it's just too silly. Not that I have anything againstsilly movies, but this one isn't funny-silly, it's just silly.It has the usual cast of Disney stock characters: the kind butflawed - in this instance avaricious - male hero, the giddy andempty-headed female hero, the cute kid, the nosy neighbours andthe stupid officials. Oh, and don't forget the cute animal, this time agoose that has about as much personality as a blank page.It may be possible to make a good movie about a goose that laysgolden eggs - and this isn't it.

Hard pressed scientist Albert Dooley has little money to spend as his work with animals isn't proving as profitable as he hoped it would be. However one day his worthless duck is exposed to high levels of radiation. Taking the duck home with him he finds that it can be stimulated to lay eggs – eggs made of solid gold. The more eggs it lays the more Albert becomes consumed with it and also the more attention the sudden increase in gold deposits in the local reserves draws from the Treasury Department.This film is a good example of the films Disney made around this time, in the same way as animation with songs and smart-ass sidekicks are of the 90's. This is typical of the period but not the best example of when it works well. The plot is goofy and sets the tone for the sense of humour but it isn't used very well. Instead of laughs it really only produces energy and `wackiness'. There are a few laughs but not many. Most of the action has dated badly – with clichéd hippies, All-American happy families and forced physical routines.Jones is OK, accustom as he is to roles such as this. He carries it well but the subject has less charm than some of his better films (Herbie for one). Of the rest of the cast only Tony Roberts really sticks in the mind as he has almost all of the good lines. The duck is cool though!Overall this is a passable family film but it will not be `great' for any member of the family. There are better Disney films out there from this period – this one just lacked a certain spark to make it work better.