The Million Pound Note (1954)

Fable. In 1903 London, two rich brothers hand a penniless American sailor a single million-pound banknote to settle a bet. He can't spend it, since nobody can change it, yet the mere sight of it gets him credit, tailoring, a hotel suite and a seat at society's table. Gregory Peck plays the sailor with dry amusement, and Ronald Neame's adaptation of a Mark Twain story is a neat satire of how wealth works on other people more than on its owner. A good pick for anyone who suspects that looking rich and being rich are two different things. In the US it was released as Man with a Million.