Product Description

Epifania (Maggie Smith) is glamorous clever...and also the richest woman in the world. After yet another row with her spendthrift husband Epifania meets an intriguing Egyptian doctor (Tom Baker). But she faces the challenge her money-mad father imposed on her before his death: She can only consider for marriage a man who can convert 150 pounds into 50000 pounds within six months. Coincidentally the good doctor has a similar challenge from his mother and can only consider for a wife a woman who can make her own living for six months with only 35 pence to start. Will Epifania be able to prove her profitability? And is the good doctor even interested in the challenge of a woman used to getting whatever she wants?Running Time: 115 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA UPC: 794051253828 Manufacturer No: E2538

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #15806 in DVD
• Brand: Warner Brothers
• Released on: 2006-05-16
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 100 minutes

Amazon.com
Though Bernard Shaw's The Millionairess may rank among his lesser works, it is given a top-drawer staging in this 1972 BBC production. Maggie Smith (The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, California Suite) is priceless as Epifania Ognisanti di Parerga Fitzfassenden, a woman every bit as impossible as her name. Epifania, "a woman brought up on seven figures" is, as her amused lawyer observes, "a comic figure in her misery." Her feckless husband has taken up with a more affectionate younger woman. Epifania's own "Sunday wife" (Charles Gray from Rocky Horror Picture Show) is an equally worthless chap. But she meets her match in a principled and idealistic English doctor (Tom Baker of Dr. Who fame) who challenges her to transform 35 shillings into her own fortune. The play's farcical first act is best, with the assorted couples and companions descending on the lawyer's office. Things bog down a bit with the introduction of the good doctor, but to watch the incomparable Smith tackle this most juicy of roles as "the most interesting woman in England," for whom money means power, security, and freedom, is "legitimate bliss." --Donald Liebenson

Customer Reviews

The Millionairess-less is better !
"The Milionairess" is a stage play that did not translate well onto the silver screen. The filming was done many years ago and the acting is "over-the-top" to the point of haming-it-up. The story line is good, but presented in a somewhat hysterical and at times almost frenzied style. As a stage play it would have been good, but as a film, I do not recommend unless you are interested in the history of theatre and acting. I do not think G.B. Shaw would have been pleased with this production. The typical British humour seems lost in the frenzy of the acting.

Poorly written play
I order two copies of The Millionairess - one for myself and one for a gift. After watching it, I was too embarassed to give it as a gift. The play is simply poorly written and not up to the standard I've come to expect from English comedy. There are a couple of clever lines here and there but it drags on and on. Maggie Smith is a brilliant actress but even she couldn't save it.

Maggie steals the show
The Millionairess has always been one of my favorite plays by Bernard Shaw (along with Pygmalion and Caesar and Cleopatra) and this BBC production of it is definitely worth your money.

Dame Maggie Smith is absolutely perfect as Epifania and, as expected, steals the show and runs away with it. The rest of the cast is perfect as well, with the possible exception of Charles Gray as Adrian, who didn't really fulfil my expectations of the character.