THE STORY: Poor Oliver Pankey is a born loser; his landlady charges him when someone else breaks his window; his fiancee leaves him for a married man; his boss at the bank cuts his pay when he asks for a raise; and a thief takes everything he has—including his only suit. And, as the last straw, when he visits a doctor to check on the results of a blood test the files get switched, and he is told that he’ll be dead within six months. Fed up, and reconciled to his fate, Oliver turns into a raging lion, performing feats of dazzling bravery and ending up as the new branch manager of the bank. He even agrees to help the FBI by becoming a sitting duck for a gangland shoot-out—only to learn, at the eleventh hour, of the doctor’s horrendous error. Needless to say our stalwart hero’s knees turn suddenly to jelly, but the action spins zanily on, deftly finding its way to a happy—and hilarious—conclusion.
A wildly farcical comedy, one of this renowned author’s fastest and funniest, which deals with the uproarious metamorphosis of a shy little milksop into a fearless hero after he has been told (erroneously) that he has only six months to live.
