The Million Pound Bank Note
"The Million Pound Bank Note" is a short story by the American author Mark Twain, published in 1893. 电影拍摄于1953年，1958年译至中国
The story takes place in Victorian London, where the story's protagonist/narrator, Henry Adams, has ended up penniless and in rags after a boating accident in the U.S. swept him out to sea. Two very rich and eccentric brothers spot him and give him an envelope with no information. Seeing money inside the envelope, Henry immediately heads for a cheap dining house, and he pulls the money out of the envelope after he eats (in the presence of the proprietor). Inside the envelope is a single peerless bank note for one million pounds of money. Without knowing it, Henry is the subject of a bet: Brother B believes that the mere possession of this symbol of wealth, without any other means of
support, will enable someone to survive for the month. Brother A, on the other hand, feels that the prohibition against exchanging the note for cash will render it useless. After he recovers from being stunned, Henry asks the dining house proprietor (named Harris) for change; Harris tells him not to worry about payment. Afterwards, Henry reads the note from the brothers, which explains that they have made a bet on him and that he is to return to the house in 30 days; the writer of the note stated that, if Henry wins the bet for him, Henry can have any situation that he is qualified to fill. Henry realizes that he would not be easily able to exchange that note in the bank without being questioned about how he had come to have it, charged with theft and arrested. He would also not be able to spend it since no ordinary person would be able to change it. Finally, in desperation, Henry decides to see if he can use the note to get a cheap suit to replace his rags, similar to the way he got his meal; when he pulls out the million-pound note to pay, the store manager gives him an entire wardrobe on credit. Ultimately, he becomes a celebrity in London as the "vest pocket million-pounder" or the "vest-pocket monster", and Harris' dining house becomes so famous that Harris actually lends Henry money, but Henry tries to keep his borrowings under control so that he will be able to pay everyone back over time when he gets his situation.
After 10 days of growing fame, Henry reports to the U.S. ambassador in London, whom Henry learns was a classmate of his father's at Yale. He is invited to a dinner party that night where he meets a young British woman, Portia Langham, with whom he is instantly smitten. During flirting, he tells her the entire story of the gentlemen and their bet, which
she finds hilarious. Also at the party was a good friend of Henry's from San Francisco named Lloyd Hastings, who was in London to sell shares in a mine for a commission of ?400,000, or $2 million US, but had been unable to find any rich Londoners willing to buy and is about to return to the U.S. without making a sale. Henry offers to use his celebrity to endorse the investment for Hastings in return for 50% of the commission; the shares sell out by the end of the month, although Henry does not tell Portia of his new wealth.
At the end of the month, Portia insists on going with Henry to see the brothers. Henry's success entitles him to a situation from Brother B, but Henry turns it down, showing the brothers his profits from the mining deal. At that, Portia reveals that Brother B is her stepfather, and Henry then asks him for the "situation" as his son-in-law.
。《百万英镑》真实地向我们展现出了在拜金主义盛行的社会大背景下,人们对生活的那种尖酸、刻薄、冷漠的社会现实。在《百万英镑》中,作者马克·吐温通过叙述一件不合理的社会现象向我们展示了人性的丑陋,于幽默之处见讽刺,于叙事之中见真实,于泼辣之中见智谋,极具现实代表意义。本文通过详细研究《百万英镑》的创作背景,深刻地分析和探讨了《百万英镑》的写作手法,以期有助于提高读者对于小说的情感认知,促进欣赏能力的形成,实现情感的升华。
所谓“马太效应”，来自《新约·马太福音》：“凡有的，还要加给他叫他多余；没有的，连他所有的也要夺过来。”人们一般用这段话描述贫者愈贫、富者愈富的“两极分化”现象，常用它来感叹社会的不公。但实际上，“马太效应”反映出了管理的一个基本法则，即资源向高效率者倾斜。
看完电影《百万英镑》后，我们在对美国作家马克.吐温对于资本主义“金钱至上，金钱万能”的社会的无情讽刺以及他所特具有幽默笔法和深刻社会洞察力而折服的同时，我们不能不注意到这个故事片中隐藏的这样的一个社会经济现象：就是在市场经济下，良好的信誉本身就是一种无形的资产。
电影中流落英国街头的美国人亨利.亚当身无分文，贫困潦倒时，却因为偶然的机遇，得到两个富翁兄弟给予的一张面值为100万英镑的票子，在一个月内没有花一分钱，却得到英国上层社会的所给予的种种“免费”的高贵待遇，结果还用这一百万的票子赚了20万英镑，从此改变了自己的命运：得到了美丽善良贵族小姐作为他的妻子。亚当亨利最终能够不花一分钱而得到这么多的厚遇：难道仅仅就是人们所谓的“金钱至上，金钱万能”的低俗观念所起的作用而放弃自己的“利益”而愿意无偿提供一切服务。这就是市场经济的所特有的现象。良好的信誉在时刻起着作用，
它使金钱无形中在社会上从一部分人流到另一部分人的手里，它使相信他的人财源广进，腰缠万贯，事实也是这样的。所以人人都吹捧它，所以出现了不花一分钱也能享受种种高贵的待遇的《百万英镑》影片中的带有戏剧性的事情。