What a waste of my time!!!

Purely Joyful Movie!

Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

Who's Minding the Mint? is a very amusing comedy with unforgivable flaws.The entire portion of the film of them going into the sewer till they're out of the sewer is absolute gold, haven't found a film so funny in a quite a while. However, the Harry character was really obnoxious and at times annoying. How it all started with Harry knocking the fifty thousand dollars into the bag, then taking the bag home and putting it in the garbage disposal thinking it is fudge cannot be forgiven. Then once you have stolen the money and are home free, everybody going and sitting in a room leaving the money outside for the foreign guy they don't know to move it, is too stupid to be funny and really ruins the end for me. If they had just lost it by some accident or random occurrence it would be so much better. All the other characters are terrific, especially the captain played by Victor Buono. I absolutely love the beagle being carried around on the heist, reminding me of my little buddy that has passed. A good film, despite its flaws.

It's a cute movie alright. I recalled it from a viewing 40-plus years past as closer in spirit and cumulative effect to It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World than a recent look back seemed to confirm.The difference between the two films seems clear to me now. With Mad Mad, the force of the narrative is centrifugal. You have a sense as you watch it that anything might happen. Think of the demolition of the gas station by Jonathan Winters. Edie Adams and Sid Caesar dynamiting their way out of the locked hardware store, then hiring a sputtering antique plane to carry them perilously to Timbuktu and back. Mickey Rooney and Buddy Hackett trapped in a private plane they can't fly as the owner lies drunk on the floor behind them. The collision with the control tower. On and on.The energy of Who's Minding is centripetal. As with any good caper film, everything finally stops down to focus on a single glimmering instant of opportunity. In many ways, Mad Mad World vs Who's Minding The Mint? is Around the World in 80 Days vs. Asphalt Jungle or Rififi. There are no set pieces here the equal of Mad Mad World's. There is some fine slapstick silliness, perhaps best exemplified by the single take, deep-focus scene of a long hallway with a series of near misses between guard, pregnant beagle and Uncle Miltie in drag as the father of our country played out on different levels. I enjoyed the ingenuity of that scene probably more than any other moment in the film, although Victor Buono's dignity going down with the dinghy is also pretty funny.My real joy seeing this film now is in watching these actors work. Period. Not every film was great or golden. But it WAS a golden age.Not very long after this film, the way movies looked, in terms of thinking about cutting and camera placement, the lighting and the film stock and the focal lengths -- changed forever. Not long after this, the only place you could see a film shot in the manner of a film like Who's Minding was on series television. Films went the way, visually, of the seminal Midnight Cowboy. And eventually, TV stopped looking like this film. Today, I think I miss the stars more than the film style.

I consider "Who's Minding the Mint?" THE 1960s comedy. Directed by that certifiable genius Howard Morris it's fast and funny with a marvelous premise, witty lines, and sight-gags that are impeccably set-up and pulled off by a director who knows funny and a fine ensemble cast.Jim Hutton is Treasury worker Harry Lucas, a fellow who knows all the angles. After hours he lives the life of a minor playboy on no budget by scamming department stores. A superior, played with officious glee by David J. Stewart, suspects Harry of criminal methods and Harry is up against it when he accidentally looses $50,000. However, it shouldn't be too difficult to replace the lost bills with the help of retired printer "Pop" played by Walter Brennan, who aches to get his hands on the presses.Questions arise as to how to get the plates, how to get into the building, how to cut the bills, et cetera, and before he knows what's happening Harry is the leader of a gang with designs on more than replacing $50,000.Milton Berle oozes larceny out of every pore. Bob Denver is adorable as a would-be ladies man opposite Jackie Joseph as a bohemian who may be more than he can handle. Victor Buono is simply outstanding as an outlandishly accented "ships captain". Joey Bishop is dry and funny as a gambler and Jamie Farr as his non-English speaking cousin. Dorothy Provine, the 60s comedy go-to-gal, is a nice girl who'd do anything for Harry. And what could go wrong when you have a deaf safe cracker played by Jack Gilford?Adding to the fun is Lalo Schifrin's sprightly score reminiscent of his famous Mission Impossible theme.Honestly, this is a movie that keeps me chuckling and laughing throughout its tidy 97 minutes. Highly recommended.

I've got a slight bone to pick. I remember seeing this. back in '67 in a Saturday afternoon matinée. Twenty-eight years later I began working for the Treasury Dept. There is no Mint in Washington D.C. Jim Hutton works for the Bureau of Engraving & Printing which ain't the Mint. The Mint produces coins, but I suppose having the ever-scheming Hutton walk out of the Mint with a 52 lb bag of quarters wrapped in fudge would suspend disbelief a little too far. The under-rated director, Howard (Ernest T. Bass) Morris did a pretty decent job with the material and it sort of plays like a somewhat less frenetic It's a Mad, Mad, Mad (etc.) World. 3 out of *****.