British Comedy Guide
Make Me An Offer!. Image shows from L to R: Sir John (Ernest Thesiger), Charlie (Peter Finch)
Make Me An Offer!

Make Me An Offer!

  • 1955 film

A hard-up antique porcelain dealer attempts to pull off the purchase of a lifetime in search of a near-mythical piece of Wedgwood. Stars Peter Finch, Adrienne Corri, Rosalie Crutchley, Finlay Currie, Ernest Thesiger and more.

F
X
R
W
E
Make Me An Offer!. Image shows from L to R: Nicky (Adrienne Corri), Charlie (Peter Finch)

Key details

Genre
Film
Released
1955
Stars
Peter Finch, Adrienne Corri, Rosalie Crutchley, Finlay Currie, Ernest Thesiger, Wilfrid Lawson, Anthony Nicholls, Guy Middleton and more
Writers
Wolf Mankowitz and W. P. Lipscomb
Director
Cyril Frankel
Producer
W. P. Lipscomb
Company

Diverting slightly from his father's trade as a market seller of whatever goods he can come across, Charlie has found himself enamoured with English pottery - Wedgwood in particular - and boy, does he rue himself for it!

Forever chasing a seemingly diminishing market, his bank manager is on his back, his wife feels their home is more like a warehouse, and trade at his shop is slow. However, he cannot shake his love for the craft, which began by chance on a visit to the British Museum as a boy, where a particular Portland vase caught him spellbound, and now sees him forever in hope of finding a similar specimen. Stolen from an aristocratic collection almost a century ago, he keeps a picture of the near-mythical missing green Portland vase in his wallet, longing that one day he might come across it - not to sell, just to keep, and to look upon, as a thing of utter beauty.

Now an adult with a son of his own, a chance tip-off of an old country house being stripped and sold-off - said to include a fine, panelled Wedgwood room - looks set to lead Charlie on a merry dance of his own. Travelling to visit the largely abandoned pile, he meets the flighty, hard-up niece of its last resident, Sir John, where she cares for the supposedly wicked old man - now aged 90 - in a small cottage on what was once the grand family estate. As she attempts to sell him his pick of the remaining trinkets from around the small home, a few small porcelain statuettes catch Charlie's eye ... might the fabled vase be right under his nose?

Additional details

UK certificate
U
Duration
89 minutes
Produced
1954
Production
Studio
Camera set-up
Single camera
Picture
Colour

Website links

Broadcast details

Most recent repeats
  • Sunday 30th May 2021 at 6:00am on TPTV
  • Monday 8th February 2021 at 12:30pm on TPTV
  • Tuesday 2nd June 2020 at 7:45am on TPTV

Recording details

  • Beaconsfield Studios

Share this page