Strike It Rich (1990 film)


Strike It Rich is a 1990 romantic comedy film directed by James Scott, who also adapted the screenplay based on the 1955 novella Loser Takes All by Graham Greene, and starring Robert Lindsay, Molly Ringwald, and John Gielgud.

Plot

In the 1950s, a young American woman living in London, Cary Porter, starts working at a large multinational firm where she meets accountant Ian Bertram. He falls head over heels in love with her and soon proposes. The head of the company, Herbert Dreuther, offers them a wedding and to pay for a honeymoon in Monte Carlo, as well as the use of his yacht.
Unfortunately, the well-meaning Herbert soon forgets all about the couple and his promise to send his yacht. When it does not arrive, Ian decides he has a sound way to win at roulette in order to pay their large hotel bill. As he becomes involved at the gambling tables, he leaves Cary to herself, and although his plan works and he wins big, enough to pay their bill, get them home, and have plenty money left over, their marriage is in big trouble.

Production

Ringwald wrote in The New Yorker that the film was partly rewritten at the behest of Harvey Weinstein after she had signed on to it, and that she felt that she and Lindsay "were essentially asked to turn our backs on and film scenes that were not what we had agreed to"; she also alleges that she was eventually forced to sue Weinstein for her promised share of the gross. Lindsay largely corroborated this story to the BBC, and asserted that he had confronted Weinstein over the script changes and lost career opportunities as a result.