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Samuel Goldwyn, 1934.
Directed by Roy Del Ruth. Camera: Ray June. With
Eddie
Cantor, Ann Sothern,
Ethel Merman,
George
Murphy, Berton Churchill, Warren Hymer, Paul Harvey, Jesse Block, Eve
Sully, Otto Hoffmann, Stanley Fields, Edgar Kennedy, Jack Kennedy, John
Kelly, Doris Davenport, The Nicholas Brothers. |
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Kid Millions (Samuel Goldwyn, 1934), directed
by Roy Del Ruth, marks the fifth collaboration of the Samuel Goldwyn/Eddie
Cantor annual productions, and another winner to their collection of musical
comedies from the Depression-era 1930s, and the most lavish and entertaining
thus far.
The story begins in New York City where a naive, good-natured Brooklyn schnook
named Edward Grant Wilson Jr. (Eddie Cantor), a Cinderfella-type of a guy living
by the waterfront with his rough-and-tough step-brothers (Edgar Kennedy, Stanley
Fields and Jack Kelly), who take pride in "stepping" on their little Eddie when
the mood conveniently suits them. Eddie entertains the poor neighborhood kids by
singing to them, and is comforted by his steady girlfriend named Toots (Doris
Davenport). When news breaks out that Eddie's archeologist father has died and
left him, the sole heir, the entire fortune of $77 million, Eddie soon finds
himself the center of attention and treated like royalty by his stepbrothers. At
the advice of his attorneys, Eddie sets sail on board the S.S. Luxor bound for
Egypt, later to be accompanied by Jerry Lane (George
Murphy), his lawyer friend
in Gibraltar, to claim his fortune. Also on board ship are Dot Clark (Ethel
Merman), a Broadway song plugger, accompanied by her gangster stooge, Louie the
Lug (Warren Hymer), posing as Eddie's long lost mother and uncle, and trying to
get him to sign a document over to them, which fails at all costs; Colonel Harry
Larrabee (Berton Churchill), a Southerner gentleman from Virginia who had
financed the original expedition for Eddie's father and now wants his cut of the
money. He invites his attractive niece, Joan (Ann Sothern), who is unaware of
her uncle's scheme, to keep Jerry occupied while the Colonel works on Eddie.
After porting in Alexandria, Eddie encounters a sheik's (Paul Harvey) daffy
daughter, Fanya (Eve Sully), and her jealous beau, Ben Ali (Jesse Block), later
to be surrounded by the Sheik's beautiful harem girls. Eddie prances among the
Pyramids seeking his inheritance while the others try to disinherit him by
claiming that they are the rightful heirs, almost causing Eddie to become the
human sacrifice (dressed only in a king-size diaper) in which he is to be
exterminated by being boiled in oil with a dash of salt and pepper, and those
associated with him.
As silly as all this might sound in print, including one particular scene in
which the 19-year-old Dot (Merman) trying to convince the 25-year-old Eddie that
she is his mother, Kid Millions works quite well with its quota of
laughs. That same scene in which Mama Merman tells "Uncle" Louie to give Eddie a
kiss (which he does, directly on the lips), is something of a surprise to see
and of how this got by the censors. Eve Sully (in her movie debut), part of the
comedy team of Sully and Block, practically steals ever comic moment from her
leading performers, particularly with her distinctive voice and Gracie
Allen-type mannerisms. It's a shame she didn't appear in more feature film
comedies like this one. Kid Millions also gives a glimpse of the youthful
appearances of
Ann Sothern (quite slim and trim) and
Ethel
Merman, who displays
her flare of sassy comedy.
Aside from funny business to tickle any viewer's funny bones, Kid Millions
takes time out for songs, good songs, compliments of composers Walter Donaldson,
Gus Kahn, Harold Adamson and Burton Lane, with choreography by Seymour Felix.
The musical program includes: An Earful of Music (sung by
Ethel
Merman);
When My Ship Comes In (sung by
Eddie
Cantor); Your Head on My Shoulder
(sung by Ann Sothern and
George Murphy); The ship's concert minstrel show:
An Earful of Music (briefly sung by Merman); I Want to Be a Minstrel
Man (sung by Harold Nicholas and Goldwyn Girls); Mandy (by Irving
Berlin), sung by
Eddie
Cantor in blackface,
Ethel
Merman,
Ann Sothern,
George Murphy and Goldwyn Girls); Your Head on My Shoulder (sung by Murphy and
Sothern); Mandy (reprise by Cantor, Sothern and Murphy), followed and
concluded by a dance number highlight by The Nicholas Brothers; Okay, Toots
(sung by
Eddie
Cantor); Ice Cream Fantasy (sung by
Ethel
Merman,
Eddie
Cantor and children) and When My Ship Comes In (sung by
Eddie
Cantor).
The elaborate finale of Ice Cream Fantasy, photographed in Technicolor, is
something that would have made
Walt Disney proud. While all the songs are
tuneful, with Mandy being the best known of the bunch, the others are
sadly forgotten today. The solo number featuring
The Nicholas Brothers, then
young boys, easily displays their unique talents as first rate performers with a
once in a lifetime dancing style that has yet to be equaled or surpassed by
anyone. Thank goodness for the likes of
The Nicholas Brothers in demonstrating
the kind of entertainment, long missing in today's world of movie making, that
will never go out of fashion and continue to delight for as long as their films
continue to be shown.
Also seen in the supporting cast are Stymie Beard and Tommy Bond (familiar faces
of the
Our Gang comedy shorts), Henry Kolker as an attorney and Jack
Kennedy. Avid film buffs will delight in trying to spot a young blonde
Lucille Ball as one of the Goldwyn Girls, noticeably in the Mandy and
Okay Toots numbers. Barbara Pepper, another TV veteran (Doris Ziffel
in Green Acres in the 1960s), also takes part as a Goldwyn Girl.
Kid Millions, along with Roman Scandals (1933), are two musical
comedies to have survived the longest on video cassette display, while other
Cantor/Goldwyn musicals such as The Kid From Spain (1932), for example,
have been discontinued. Aside from being common place in late night presentation
on commercial television in the 1960s and '70s, Kid Millions had aired on
numerous cable channels in the 1980s, ranging from Arts & Entertainment, the
Family Channel, Turner Network Television, and finally on American Movie
Classics from 1992 to 1998. It's a million dollar production that has become a
million dollar movie of screen entertainment at 90 minutes. So sit back
and enjoy. |
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Internet Movie Database |
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When Egyptologist Edward Grant Wilson dies, his
seventy-seven million dollar fortune is supposed to go to his long-lost son
Eddie, but others are eager to have it for themselves. Eddie, who has been
living on a barge, is sent to Egypt on an ocean liner to claim his inheritance,
leaving his sweetheart Nora, whom he lovingly calls "Toots." Also on board
the ship, however, are his father's common law wife and her boyfriend Louis, who
want to murder Eddie for the money, and Colonol Harry Larrabee, whose foundation
claims the valuable treasure that Wilson found.
Nothing goes right for Louis and Mrs. Wilson, Sr.
who convinces the gullible Eddie that she is his "Mama," even though she is
nineteen and he is twenty-five. Colonel Larrabee's claim is declared
invalid when Gerald Lane, his neice Joan's fiancée, reveals that Wilson had
never received financial support from the foundation.
When they arrive in Egypt, Eddie saves the Princess
Fanya from a barking dog, which she thinks is a bear, and she falls in love with
him. She takes him home to her father, Sheik Mulhulla, who coincidentally is
planning to kill whomever claims the treasure. Life in a harem proves too much
for Eddie, who wants to remain loyal to Toots. He is further distressed
when Joan, the Colonel, Jerry, Mama and Louis are captured. Because they
have grown fond of Eddie, they all deny that he is Wilson, Jr., hoping to save
his life. When his identity is confirmed by the perplexed Eddie himself,
though, the Sheik decides to boil him in oil. Fanya saves him by telling
Mulhulla that Eddie has committed Tramofatch, kissing her on a camel, and
therefore must marry her. Eddie, however, thinks death would be better
than marrying Fanya. He finds a way out when Ben Ali, who really loves
Fanya, helps him escape in a plane.
After a rough flight across the Atlantic, Eddie
arrives in New York and finally realizes his dream of opening up a free ice
cream factory for children. He is assisted by Mama, Louis and Toots.
Notes
According to news items in DV this film was in preparation for more than
a year when it began production on 16 Jul 1934, and was partially filmed on
location in Yuma, AR. The Technicolor "Ice Cream Fantasy," sequence which,
according to news items was the last sequence of the picture filmed, was the
first Goldwyn venture into color films. The song "Mandy" was originally
written by Iirving Berlin for his 1918 Broadway musical play Yip Yip Yaphank
. The song subsequently became one of
Eddie Cantor's trademark numbers on stage and on the radio. The film
marked the screen debuts of the vaudeville comedy team of Eve Sully and Jesse
Block. Kid Millions marked the feature film debut of
George Murphy. Modern sources note that Doris Davenport, who portrayed
"Toots" in the film, also appeared in one production number as a "Goldwyn Girl"
before being cast as the ingenue, and
Paulette Goddard appeared as an extra in the film. |
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American Film Institute
Catalog
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