The Wheeler Dealers
| The Wheeler Dealers | |
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| Directed by | Arthur Hiller |
| Produced by | Martin Ransohoff |
| Written by |
George Goodman Ira Wallach |
| Starring |
James Garner Lee Remick |
| Music by | Frank De Vol |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
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Release date
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Running time
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107 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $3,200,000 (US/ Canada) |
The Wheeler Dealers (a.k.a. Separate Beds in the UK) is a 1963 romantic comedy film from MGM, produced by Martin Ransohoff, directed by Arthur Hiller, that stars James Garner and Lee Remick and features Chill Wills and Jim Backus. The film was written by George Goodman and Ira Wallach, based on Goodman's novel.
Molly Thatcher (Lee Remick) is a stockbroker languishing in a company run by sexist Bullard Bear (Jim Backus). When the company does poorly, he will have to fire somebody; Molly is the obvious choice. To avoid charges of sex discrimination, he assigns her the seemingly impossible task of unloading shares of an obscure company called Universal Widgets; when she fails, he will have an excuse to dismiss her.
Molly meets Henry Tyroon (James Garner), an aggressive wheeler dealer who dresses, talks, and acts like a stereotypical Texas millionaire. He's more interested in her than in Universal Widgets, but decides to be of help in order to get closer to her. As they spend time together, Molly watches Henry make complicated business deals, often in partnership with his Texan cronies, Jay Ray (Chill Wills), Ray Jay (Phil Harris), and J.R. (Charles Watts). One such deal is a venture into dealing modern art, with the aid of Stanislas (Louis Nye), a cynical avant-garde painter.
Molly and Henry have trouble figuring out Universal Widgets' reason for existence; its only factory burned down around the time of the Civil War. It manufactures nothing and provides no service. (Widgets, apparently, had something to do with horse-drawn carriages.) It's just a corporation on paper whose sole asset is a huge block of shares in AT&T, bought long, long ago when the stock was ridiculously cheap. Now it pays hefty, regular dividends to its complacent shareholders.
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Wikipedia