"Million Pound Sterling" is a novella written by the famous American writer Mark Twain in 1893. It tells the story of a poor American boy Henry Adam who got a check for a million pounds in London because of a chance encounter, and many interesting things happened in his life.
To add a little, the million pounds at the time were at least equivalent to a billion or more today. Due to the rising prices and the specific historical period at that time, 1 million was already an incomparably huge fortune in that era. The main reason why this work is famous is that the core content of its story has been remade or borrowed or quoted many times.
The gist of the story is that two rich people suddenly want to make a bet: what will happen to a poor, honest man if he receives a million pounds from the sky? The older brother thought he would starve to death because he could not prove that the money was his own, and would not only be suspected by others, but even the banks would not let him save; the younger brother thought he would be fine, because many money worshippers would constantly curry favor with him. So the brothers lent a check for a million pounds to the poor man named Henry Adam and went abroad for thirty days.
Henry's plight was also very interesting, people first looked down on him from his clothes, but when he took out a million pounds to let others find money, people not only nodded at him and bowed their knees, but even some of the more expensive expenses for Henry did not need him to pay immediately, and even some people were willing to directly do not want money. In this short month, people desperately tried to woo this rare rich man who suddenly became rich: from free meals, clothes shopping, to free accommodation, one by one, he was pleasing to him like a beggar, and constantly improving his social status, all the way to the highest duke outside the royal family! Not only that, but he also got a good wife and thirty thousand pounds of bank interest, and finally got a good job from the two brothers who bet. Live a very happy life.
The story was later quoted or recreated in various literary forms, and the 1954 film of the same name starred the famous actor Gregory Pike, who was one of his few color films. In the film, he plays Henry Adam as a very dignified gentleman, but creates a comedic effect with various accidental and coincidental plots.
Another novel from 1902, Brewster's Million Dollar Windfall, which has a large degree of joking in its name, was also adapted into a film in 1985, but it did not have much impact.
However, a few years ago, the directors of the twist team, Yan Fei and Peng Damo, bought the copyright, made into a movie and released it in 2018...
This is the cause of the comedy movie "The Richest Man in Xihong", Shen Teng's role is actually Henry Adam, changing the place where the story takes place to a fictional domestic city "Xihong City", but the core plot of the story is consistent.
Before that, there was a movie called "One Million" starring Zhu Yuchen and Yang Xue, which was also the same theme content.
Soon it will be the Spring Festival stall again, and there will be many wonderful works in the fiercely competitive film market.