The Amazing Quest of Ernest Bliss is a 1936 British romantic comedy film directed by Alfred Zeisler and starring Cary Grant.

In London, rich, idle socialite Ernest Bliss (Cary Grant) feels out of sorts for no discernible reason.

He sees a doctor, Sir James Aldroyd, who bluntly informs him that he is suffering from too much money, and that he would be cured if he lived for a year on a few pounds per week.

Bliss is so insulted that he makes a bet for £50,000 with Sir James that he can survive for a year, supporting himself solely on whatever he earns and not touching his inherited millions.

A wholesale buyer places a trial order for 100 stoves, with the prospect of purchasing 40,000 a year if things work out.

Bliss's valet Clowes, with too much time on his hands, lost heavily betting on the dogs and let the flat to Dorrington.

[3] In his book British Popular Films 1929-1939: The Cinema of Reassurance, Stephen Shafer notes that the plot was intended to appeal to working-class filmgoers, as it gave over the message that their lives were more fulfilling than those of millionaires.

Shafer writes: Obviously, the thrust of The Amazing Quest of Ernest Bliss implied that the "earnest bliss", suggested by the pun in the title, which the protagonist sought could be obtained by hard work, generosity, and self-sacrifice, all concepts with which working-class individuals in real life might well be familiar.

Clearly, Bliss's happiness was to be derived from people rather than money which had created his isolation as a millionaire and left him depressed.

... the subtle theme of the feature was that the ordinary moviegoer ought to be grateful in some respects for the simple pleasures in life which he could enjoy but which the wealthy ordinarily did not experience.