The Milky Way (1936) Online

In this very solid Harold Lloyd screwball comedy, Lloyd plays an unassuming milk delivery man who finds himself on the front pages when he's credited with knocking out the world middle-weight boxing champion, Speed McFarland, in a street brawl. The negative publicity this news generates for McFarland comes much to the dismay of McFarland's manager, the slick Adolphe Menjou, who instantly plans a damage-control scheme. Lloyd will go up against a number of other boxers and win in fixed fights, building anticipation for a rematch against McFarland, in which McFarland will clobber him in the first round, since Lloyd doesn't really know how to fight. Of course, nothing plays out as simply as it should, and all manner of hijinks and supporting characters find themselves mixed up in this zany plot.

I was impressed by the tight screenplay for "The Milky Way." It's classic 30s screwball, which means the script doesn't have to make a lot of sense, but even so the scriptwriters flesh out little details in the action -- like a thug who can't read, or Lloyd's affection for his milk cart horse, Agnes -- that play a role later in the plot. And the film is filled with all manner of sight gags and one-liners. Some of my favorite set pieces are the ones in which Menjou's sardonic girlfriend, played like a champ by Verree Teasdale, an actress I've never heard of, teaches Lloyd how to box by turning his training into a dance lesson; and a hilarious bit that finds Lloyd racing to his big match with McFarland while lugging around a colt, offspring of the beloved Agnes. Director Leo McCarey knows how to stage physical comedy, and the frame at any given time is stuffed with all manner of characters doing or saying something completely separate from what everybody else is doing or saying, so that the reigning visual style of the film is controlled chaos.

"The Milky Way" may not be in the same league as some of its screwball contemporaries, like "My Man Godfrey" or "Bringing Up Baby," but I guarantee it will put a smile on your face.

Grade: B+

Overall, this is entertaining even if it is very dated in a Harold Lloyd-kind of way, meaning a typical role for him where he's the wimpy-but -brave hero. In this story, Harold is "Burleigh Sullivan," the shy milkman who winds up - even though no clue about boxing - as a professional fighting for the middleweight championship of the world! Ridiculous? Yes, but that was Lloyd and his films: slapstick lunacy like Keaton, Chaplin, the Marx Brothers, etc.

Along the way to his fame and glory in the ring, Harold picks up a serious girlfriend (the very wholesome and attractive Dorothy Wilson as "Polly Pringle") and so a little romance is part of the story.

Lloyd provides a lot of laughs but he isn't the only one. Helen Mack has a lot of wisecracking lines as Burleigh's younger sister, "Mae." Also, con-man/fight manager "Honest Gabby Sloan" (Adolph Menjou) gets in his share of funny and serious lines. The three of them, plus some other mentally-deficient boxers, all contribute humor.

In all, it's a sweet-tempered film with a lot of charm. True, some of the humor is too dated and stupid but the "hits" far outnumber the "misses" in the comedy department.

A mild-mannered milkman finds himself swept into the world of dishonest professional boxing.

Although forever famous for his silent classics, THE MILKY WAY once again illustrated Harold Lloyd's complete ease with the sound medium. Indeed, Paramount Studios and director Leo McCarey gave him the opportunity to entertain his fans with some very enjoyable gags & comedy routines. Whether frantically trying to find help for his sick horse, teaching stuffy society matron Marjorie Gateson how to duck punches, or sneaking a colt into the back of a taxi, Harold provides ample evidence that he hasn't lost the talent to amuse.

A very talented cast of costars lend able support. Gum-chewing Adolphe Menjou scores as an unscrupulous fight promoter. As his long-suffering girlfriend, beautiful Verree Teasdale gets the film's best dialogue with her sarcastic one-liners. Hot-tempered William Gargan as the erstwhile middleweight champ & gravely-voiced Lionel Stander as a fight trainer complete the disreputable quartet.

Helen Mack as Harold's sister, and Dorothy Wilson as his sweetheart, both offer perky performances; indeed, they are so much alike that some viewers may have a little difficulty in telling the two ladies apart. Dyspeptic George Barbier plays the blustery owner of Sunflower Dairies. Charles Lane once again reprises his role as a nosy reporter.

I was fortunate enough to catch this at a private screening as I understand there was an attempt to destroy all copies when the remake with Danny Kaye was made. I have seen both and this version is far superior. Harold Lloyd is incredibly funny and his comic timing has to be among the best. If you get a chance, catch this one. 8 out of 10.

I had seen an earlier example of Harold Lloyd's work from the silent era (1924's "Girl Shy") and enjoyed it very much. When I stumbled upon this DVD for $2 in - of all places - the bargain section of a grocery store, I thought it was a small enough investment to try out. I was not disappointed.

Lloyd's performance in this was excellent. He makes use of some wonderful physical comedy (not surprisingly, given his roots in the silent era) but also shows that he can speak, and thus - unlike some silent stars - could make the jump to the "talkies." Here, he plays Burleigh "Tiger" Sullivan - a mild-mannered milkman who, through a series of blunders, finds himself a contender for the Middleweight Championship of the World! William Gargan also put on a good performance as Speed McFarlane, the "Champ." Good performances aside, I thought this was basically a "middling" comedy that probably could have been improved by making greater use of Lloyd's physical comedy, particularly by incorporating some scenes of "Tiger" in the ring - of which there was really precious little, until the title bout between Tiger and Speed at the end of the movie. And it was the end of the movie that really lifted this out of a strictly "middling" status. The last 15-20 minutes of this are really quite funny - especially as Tiger travels to the title bout in a taxi cab with a baby horse, which he has to keep hidden from the driver.

Well worth watching. 7/10.

This is one of two latter-day Harold Lloyd vehicles directed by award-winning comedy experts - the other being his swansong, THE SIN OF HAROLD DIDDLEBOCK (1947), written and directed by Preston Sturges (with which I hope to re-acquaint myself later on in the month via a Cable TV recording, in direct anticipation of 3 more of Sturges' own films I own on DVD).

I've watched all but a couple of Lloyd's Talkies (WELCOME DANGER [1929] and PROFESSOR BEWARE [1938]): while his transition to the new medium was certainly not as disastrous as Buster Keaton's, I still feel that Lloyd's brand of comedy wasn't particularly suited to Sound; as a matter of fact, the film depends a good deal on dialogue for laughs - and most of the best lines are not even delivered by the star! McCarey himself (reportedly, he fell ill during production of THE MILKY WAY and some scenes were actually directed by Norman Z. McLeod) had been a practitioner of Silent comedies for Laurel & Hardy but, when Sound came in, proceeded to work with practically all the major Talkie star comedians - Eddie Cantor, The Marx Bros., W.C. Fields, Mae West, and even Cary Grant. In any case, the milkman-turned-boxer plot line provides plenty of uproarious situations - and it was eventually revamped as a musical vehicle for Danny Kaye called THE KID FROM BROOKLYN (1946; I watched this as a kid and, if I have the time, I may check it out again as well) which, incidentally, was directed by Norman Z. McLeod!

Still, like I said, Lloyd is somewhat upstaged by his fellow actors in this one: Adolphe Menjou as the smart boxing manager (of two rival prizefighters!) and Lionel Stander as his burly but dim-witted hood/assistant; but the women are strong characters as well, particularly Verree Teasdale as Menjou's cynical girl (incidentally, the couple were married in real-life!) and Helen Mack as Lloyd's brave but apprehensive younger sister (conveniently engaged off by Menjou to the current boxing champ - whom Lloyd had ostensibly knocked out in a fit of rage and who would like to get his prestige back). The ending, however, is a bit abrupt - especially since the women (including Lloyd's love interest, played by Dorothy Wilson) are kind of neglected...as is a newborn pony which has followed Lloyd into the boxing arena! Unfortunately, I experienced some freezing issues around the 27-minute mark but, when I played the scene back, the glitch was thankfully not repeated.

P.S. According to the IMDb, there are at least 11 movies made between 1917 and 2006 entitled THE MILKY WAY but, apart from the Lloyd/McCarey picture, the most notable are certainly the Oscar-winning 1940 animated short and Luis Bunuel's wickedly funny 1969 treatise on Catholic dogma.

I taped this movie when it was shown on TCM recently and I've rewatched it several times since, enjoying it more with each viewing. It's a hilarious and energetic movie, and the editing, framing, and compositions of characters are always fresh, funny, and cliché-free. I especially like how the film echoes Burleigh's "ducking" abilities by cleverly using "ducking" techniques, or ellipses, in various ways: in telling the story, by leaving out certain scenes and revealing them later; and even in framing (in one scene Adolph Menjou plays a scene hidden behind a tree branch, "ducking out" of the frame). This film is as good as The Awful Truth and to me has the same strange beauty of that wonderful film.

This enjoyable Harold Lloyd comedy makes good use of a familiar setup, and it also gives Lloyd a chance to do a lot of the kinds of physical gags that were such a big part of his silent movie classics. Adolphe Menjou and the supporting cast give Lloyd plenty of help, and director Leo McCarey is also right at home with this kind of material.

Lloyd plays a milkman who gets involved with a shady fight promoter, played by Menjou, after a chance encounter with the middleweight champ gives Lloyd's character a reputation as 'the fighting milkman'. The premise is funny, but it calls for some good acting and direction to make it hold up for a full-length feature, and fortunately this movie has both.

Lloyd's ducking and dancing antics bring to mind some of the classic routines in his silent movie triumphs. Besides the boxing scenes, there is a hilarious, classic sequence with Lloyd and Marjorie Gateson practicing the ducking technique together. Menjou is also in his element as the fast-talking promoter, helping even the most implausible material to work smoothly.

The result is a solid comedy that, while a cut below Lloyd's silent classics, has some very good moments and is enjoyable to watch.

This entertaining film deals with a timid milkman named Burleigh Sullivan (the name of the lead character, "Burleigh" is an inside joke since it sounds like "burly" which means 'strongly and heavily built, husky' which the character is not) . Sullivan (Harold Lloyd), somehow knocks out a boxing champ in a brawl. The newspapers get hold of the story and photographers even catch Burleigh knock out Speed again . Speed's crooked manager (Adolphe Menjou) decides to turn Burleigh into a boxer . Burleigh doesn't realize that all of his opponents have been asked to take a dive. Thinking he really is a great boxer , Burleigh develops a swelled head which puts a crimp in his relationship with pretty girl called Polly Pringle (Dorothy Wilson) . He may finally get his comeuppance when he challenges fighter Speed (William Gargan) for the title. So the sleazy manager decides to substitute him with Sullivan , who is now groomed for stardom. Naive Burleigh does everything the crook says, only to be blamed when it all explodes in their faces big time.

This light-hearted comedy and enjoyable story is basically a showcase for the many talents of Lloyd , as a frail man mistaken for a potential champion and probably to be Harold's last classic picture . The yarn is appropriate , but no equal to Lloyd previous silent productions. Amusing acting by Harold Lloyd as a shy milkman Burleigh Sullivan who accidentally knocks out drunken Speed McFarlane, a champion boxer who was flirting with Burleigh's sister . Harold plays a milque-toast weak man , a funny and totally extroverted Lloyd who thinks he really won all those fights that he was signed up by crooked manager Adolphe Menjou who shows to have a big flair for slapstick comedy . Features great support cast such as Helen Mack , William Gargan and Lionel Stander will repeat his role from this original version ten years later and film debut of Anthony Quinn. Producer Samuel Goldwyn bought the rights for the property in the mid-1940s for his remake The kid of Brooklyn (1946), as well as the original negative and almost all existing prints, and destroyed them. The ending struggle scenes for the championship is hysterically fun , an adequate material for Harold LLoyd's physical skills . Beautifully filmed in black and white cinematography as well as atmospheric musical score . It proved to be a very profitable film , being this original rendition with Lloyd and McCarey crisper and funnier than subsequent retelling . The motion picture was professionally directed by Leo McCarey ; however , when director was in the hospital, Norman Z. McLeod directed some of the scenes . The film is definitely for the lighthearted.

This flick has been adapted several times , as firstly the original play opened at the Cort Theatre in New York on 8 May 1934 and closed in July 1934 after 63 performances , titled the Milky Way (1934) , written by Lynn Root and Harry Clork , directed by William W. Schorr with a cast formed by : John Brown, Brian Donlevy (as "Speed McFarland"), Leo Donnelly (as "Gabby Sloan") , Edward Emerson, William Foran, Gladys George (as "Anne Westey"), Emily Lowry, Hugh O'Connell (as "Burleigh Sullivan") . And reworked a decade later by Samuel Goldwyn as The kid from Brooklyn (1946) , it even features some of the same supporting characters the Lloyd version . The big difference is the addition of the songs , the players are : Danny Kaye as Burleigh Sullivan, Virginia Mayo as Polly Pringle , Vera-Ellen as Susie Sullivan , Steve Cochran as Speed McFarlane , Eve Arden as Ann Westley , Walter Abel as Gabby Sloan , Lionel Stander as Spider Schultz . Furthermore , The Hedda Hopper Show - This Is Hollywood" broadcast a 30 minute radio adaptation of the movie on March 22, 1947 with Danny Kaye and Virginia Mayo reprising their film roles. And finally a special version titled ¨The Calcium kid¨ (2004) starred by Orlando Bloom , Michael Lerner , Billie Pipper , David Kelly ,in which an English bachelor milkman, 'accidentally' knocks down his boxing club's champion as stand-in sparring partner.

Harold Lloyd was a master of the comic sequence. He would put together 40 or 50 rapid-fire gags, each one building on the one before and knock you out of your seat with laughter with each brilliant ten or fifteen or ten minute sequence. The only problem with most of his films is a little weakness in connecting the sequences. Leo McCarey is not a gag craftsman. He just brings on one gag after another and hardly cares if they're connected or make sense. In his masterpiece, the Marx Brother's "Duck Soup," this style passes for zaniness and fits well with the anarchistic persona of the brothers.

In this case, it sabotages Lloyd's genius. Here we have Lloyd's usual lightly connected sequences, but the weakness is compounded by McCarey's disconnection of the gags within a sequence. You can feel Lloyd fighting to connect the set of gags into a sequence and McCarey just moving on to a different set of gags. Only in the last boxing sequence does Lloyd manage to put together 15 or 20 gags for a hilarious sequence, but the five or six minutes here is still much shorter than the great gag sequences in most of his other films. There is also a wonderful sequence between Lloyd and a horse. I suspect if McCarey had allowed Lloyd to expand it for another five minutes, it would have become a classic.

Lloyd gets some serious comic help here from Adolphe Menjou and Lionel Stander. Menjou plays sleazy better than any else. Like the brilliantly scheming lawyer he played in "Roxie Hart," here he plays a brilliantly scheming boxing promoter. Stander plays the body guard/funny tough-guy type he always did so well. Lionel Stander makes every scene he's in interesting. Even when he's in a terrible movie like Roman Polansky's "Cul de Sac," (1966) his acting manages to save scene after scene. There's a little political irony here. Adolphe Menjou was a friendly conservative witness before HUAC in the 1950's, while Lionel Stander was blacklisted for his communist beliefs.

Lloyd also gets help from Menjou's beautiful wife Verree Teasdale. She delivers some sharp wisecracks that she somehow sneaks past the Hay's Office, and Helen Mack as his sweet sister. Both woman are fine, but are hamstrung by the little screen time their characters are given.

This is an interesting movie to compare to Lloyd's last masterpiece, "The Sin of Harold Diddlebock" (Preston Sturges, 1947). There is a short scene of less than one minute with a lion and Lloyd. There is just two or three gags. They're funny, but then the lion disappears from the film. In Diddlebock, Lloyd appears with "Jackie the Lion." This time he uses the lion for about 100 gags in a great classic 30 minute sequence that both sums up and ends his motion picture career.

It is sad to think that "Milky Way" was considered a success at the time of its release, while "Diddlebock" was considered a failure.

Apparently we're real lucky to have The Milky Way available to us at all today. Producers like Sam Goldwyn who bought up the negatives and all existing copies so that it would not be compared to his remake of The Kid From Brooklyn weren't concerned with historic preservation. Fortunately star Harold Lloyd was.

The Milky Way was Lloyd's last really successful film artistically though it did lose money for Paramount. In it Lloyd plays a milkman who happens to knock out middleweight champion William Gargan, sort of. In truth Lloyd has defense down pat which is half the skills of a successful boxer he can bob and weave having been taught to do that as a 98 pound weakling kid to avoid being hit.

But when he does that the publicity makes Gargan's manager Adolphe Menjou who seems to have taken his character from Doc Kearns who managed among others Jack Dempsey. Menjou builds up Lloyd with a series of tank opponents all for a real title shot at Gargan. Of course when Gargan falls for Lloyd's sister Helen Mack things do get a bit complicated.

Director Leo McCarey loaded this film with a treasure chest of character players. Playing the Eve Arden part before Eve Arden is Verree Teasdale who was Menjou's girlfriend and real life wife. Lionel Stander is the clueless factotum for Menjou and Gargan whose malapropisms are amusing and who nearly tanks the whole set up in the end. I also can't forget George Barbier as the milk company executive who sees a great promotion opportunity in the milkman/pugilist.

The Milky Way holds up great and should be seen with Sam Goldwyn's The Kid From Brooklyn for comparison. You can see why Goldwyn thought this would be a great vehicle for Danny Kaye. Lionel Stander repeats his role and Eve Arden plays the Eve Arden part that Verree Teasdale originated.

Mild-mannered milk truck driver Harold Lloyd (as Burleigh "Tiger" Sullivan) defends his sister against a drunken middleweight boxing champion, then is mistaken for a fighter. He can't really box, of course, but manager Adolphe Menjou (as Gabby Sloan) makes Mr. Lloyd a famous fighter by fixing fights. "The Milky Way" is neither the best nor the worst of Lloyd's talking pictures. He is given an able director, adequate vehicle, and an extended "comic" support. With his distinctive voice, Lionel Stander (as "Spider" Schultz) makes a strong impression. Some of former box office champion Lloyd's best material involved special effects, and he still looks magical performing "hat tricks" herein. Nevertheless, it's obviously not working as well as Lloyd's classic silent features.

***** The Milky Way (2/7/36) Leo McCarey ~ Harold Lloyd, Adolphe Menjou, Lionel Stander, Verree Teasdale

Considering this is a sound-era film from Harold Lloyd, I expected it would be significantly worse than his full-length silent films. And, unfortunately, this WAS the case--as the plot and style of the film just didn't do much to exploit the talents of this great comedian. However, while it is a big disappointment in this respect, compared to other movies of the day, this is still a slightly better than average flick--about on par with an Abbott and Costello or Bob Hope movie of the 1940s.

The plot is VERY familiar (though not for Lloyd) and involves a milk man who people think has knocked out the middle weight champ on a street corner brawl. However, the knockout was just an accident plus the champ was very drunk. However, this incident hurts the champ's reputation. So, his agent thinks "what better way to make the champ look GOOD than by pretending Harold REALLY is a great fighter after all?". So, a significant amount of the movie is spent convincing him to become a fighter, train and box a lot of set-up matches (though Harold thinks they are NOT rigged). Ultimately, he once again faces the champ but, being a comedy, things don't work out like they should but everyone seems pretty happy in the end anyway.

Overall, the acting wasn't bad and it was mildly amusing but it just wasn't anything like earlier Lloyd films. The weakest elements were the rather dismal plot and the fact that the movie lost steam towards the end--my interest, and probably yours, lagged. Not a bad film but not especially memorable either. For a better sound Lloyd film, try MOVIE CRAZY or CAT'S PAW.

PS--This was remade as THE KID FROM BROOKLYN starring Danny Kaye. However, the plot has also been used in various forms on TV shows and other movies as well--so this isn't exactly a unique film.

PPS--The movie and TV veteran Charles Lane is in the film. I'm sure you'll recognize his very familiar face. As of today (6/07), Mr. Lane is STILL alive and doing quite well at 102 years of age! Good luck, Mr. Lane.

"The Milky Way" follows a typical Lloyd scenario - Harold is unwittingly thrust into becoming something he's not - in this case a mild mannered milkman becomes a boxing champ.

As usual for the Lloyd talkies, very little new ground is broken, but in terms of sheer entertainment value, it stacks up nicely against the other films of it's time.

Particularly notable here is the outstanding supporting cast, especially Adolphe Menjou as the sleazy manager and his real life wife, Verree Teasdale as the gangster moll, who steals scene- after-scene with rapid-fire sarcastic quips that would be emulated by a generation of film noir "lippy dames" from Gloria Grahame to Lauren Bacall.

A comedic precursor to boxing noir - check it out.

I have fond memories of "The Milky Way".Around 6 or 7 years ago I was working my way through one of those 50 movies sets.You know,those cheaply packaged box sets that always end up having some really good classic movies in them? Anyway,I stuck a disc in my player and sat down to watch some movie I had never heard of before.Of course it was "The Milky Way" with Harold Lloyd,and as I watched I couldn't take my eyes off this cute & funny young man in glasses. After I finished watching this wonderful classic gem,I had to know one thing: Who in the heck IS Harold Lloyd? Well,I did some online checking and found out,and since then I have become a total fan.I now own everything of his that's available and it seems like I became a fan just in the nick of time since THE Harold Lloyd(Newline)box set was just released. Just a small word of advice to anybody who doesn't like this movie.Try something else of Harold Lloyd's.He made so many wonderful films like "Grandma's Boy","Safety Last" "The Freshman" and my favorite "The Kid Brother".You won't be sorry you did.

Harold Lloyd was a comic film legend in the 1930s. In this film, he plays Burleigh Sullivan, a mild-mannered milkman, who ends up decking the world boxing champion in order to protect his sister. Anyway, Harold Lloyd reminds me of a Jim Carrey or Don Knotts. While the film was made in 1936 during the Great Depression, the story is light-hearted, fun, and entertaining about Burleigh's rise to success by accident. It's kind of like a funny Rocky movie with lovable Burleigh. Harold Lloyd was a true film star with a comedic genius and perfect timing. Harold Lloyd and the cast in this film are likely all gone now. But in the midst of the Great Depression, I can imagine audiences enjoy watching Harold Lloyd's character, Burleigh, the everyman milkman who needed the money to help care for his beloved horse, Agnes, and became a boxing champion even though he couldn't box to save his own life. The film has some great comedic moments and Harold Lloyd was a comedic genius.

Burleigh Sullivan (Harold Lloyd) is a bumbling milkman. His hatcheck girl sister Mae gets harassed by two drunken brutes and he stands up to them. When Mae gets back to the scene, the drunks are knocked out and one of them turns out to be boxing champ Speed McFarland. Speed's manager Gabby Sloan is outraged at losing a big fight as Speed becomes a laughing stock. Burleigh's ability to duck makes him hard to hit. Desperate for money to save his hospitalized delivery horse, he accepts Gabby's scheme to train him to be a boxer. Unknown to him, Gabby had fixed all of his fights to fatten him up for a slaughter by Speed.

Harold Lloyd continues to be a great everyman. I like all the relationships. I like the characters. I like the conflicts. The only thing missing is a love interest for sassy Ann Westley. She's got great sarcastic takes. In a movie like this, she needs a romantic pairing. There is plenty of fun. There are real laughs not just from the expected Harold Lloyd physical comedy but also from some great comedic dialogue. The boxing is hilarious and almost rivals that of Chaplin. This is great screwball fun.

Copyright 11 February 1936 by Paramount Productions, Inc. New York opening at the Paramount: 25 March 1936. U.S. release: 7 February 1936. Australian release: 22 April 1936. 10 reels. 8,010 feet. 89 minutes.

SYNOPSIS: The opening credits set a comic tone for the farce that follows: a cow in the Paramount logo à la MGM's lion! In the first scene the owner of the Sunshine Dairy is giving a pep talk to his milkmen and congratulating his better salesmen. Burleigh Sullivan (Lloyd) is passed over in the laudatory remarks. Not only is he apparently an underachiever, to the dismay of his boss, but in the middle of the lecture he gets the hiccups, distracts the proceedings and causes general mayhem. Later that evening his sister Mae (Helen Mack) is jockeying with some soused patrons as she operates the coat-check concession in a local hotel. They wait for her outside; when she leaves to go home, they detain her with childish pranks. Burleigh comes to her rescue and gets mixed up in a brawl — when the crowd clears it seems he has knocked out the middleweight boxing champion!

NOTES: The stage play opened on Broadway at the Cort on 8 May 1934. It ran a just mildly successful 63 performances. Produced by Harmon and Ullman, it was directed by William W. Schorr and starred Hugh O'Connell as Burleigh, Brian Donlevy as Speed, Leo Donnelly as Gaby, and Gladys George as Ann.

The 1940 radio adaptation of The Milky Way on Texaco Star Theatre featured Joe E. Brown in the role of Burleigh Sullivan.

The 1946 film remake, The Kid from Brooklyn, was produced by Samuel Goldwyn, distributed by RKO, and directed in Technicolor by Norman Z. McLeod. It featured Danny Kaye as Burleigh, Virginia Mayo as Polly, Vera-Ellen as Susie Sullivan ("Mae" in original), Walter Abel as Gabby, Eve Arden as Ann, Steve Cochran as Speed, Lionel Stander repeating his original role as Spider, Fay Bainter as Mrs LeMoyne, Pierre Watkin as Mr. LeMoyne, and Clarence Kolb as Wilbur Austin.

COMMENT: If ever there was a typical Friday flick "The Milky Way" is it. An "A" feature from a major studio with all the publicity, pizazz and highly enthusiastic reviews that such an offering can generate, yet starring a once-super=popular silent comedian who had made a none-too-successful transition to sound. Even worse from the showman's angle, Lloyd was not only billed as the only above-the- title star, but in letters twice as thick and twice as big as the Milky Way title itself. So you were forced to sell the film with a name star that many of your potential patrons had already written off. Moreover, your own opinion of the film — an opinion re-inforced by talking to other exhibitors at the Paramount trade screening — was that it wasn't half as funny as the critics opined. True, the pace was fast and frantic enough, and some of the knockabout stuff was pretty amusing, but there seemed a lot of forced shouting and screaming, often to little effect, while many of the occasional wisecracks were either inaudibly thrown away or too sophisticated for your audience.

Lloyd's problem, like that of the other great silent comedians, was that the screen persona he had built up was simply too simplistic for sound. And whereas the silent comedian could hold a feature together on his own, with the support players being just that — a support — this was not generally the case with sound. A further distraction was that the comic's voice was often at odds with his image. Chaplin's aristocratic English would have sounded way out of place in the mouth of the Little Tramp.

With the notable exception of Langdon (who was actually the same guileless innocent in real life as he was in films), just about all the major silent stars realized these pitfalls, but Chaplin alone succeeded in wholly overcoming them. This he did by creating an entirely new screen personality and by surrounding himself with players who had plenty of charisma in their own right.

Lloyd has attempted both these stratagems here, but his success is limited. He still tends to hog the camera to an irritating degree. True, this is great in those scenes where he's supposed to be obnoxious, and also good when he demonstrates his nimble footwork. But when he speaks (which is too often too long) he loses our interest because his voice is too monotonous, too ordinary, it lacks timbre.

Of the support players, only Veree Teasdale and Lionel Stander really shine, though Barbier makes the most of his opportunities and Dorothy Wilson is pretty enough as the hot/cold Polly. But Menjou comes on too strong with weak material and Gargan (pronounced "Garrigan") is almost a total write-off.

Maybe I'm prejudiced because I saw it first (and often), but I think "The Kid from Brooklyn" is much more entertaining — particularly in those scenes re-stated word for word or blow for blow.

The bits I liked best about this Milky Way were the bits of business not used by the Kid, like Lloyd's boomerang hat and all the stuff with the foal in the taxi. With the exception of Walter Abel, the players in Kid are noticeably superior to Milky. Even Lionel Stander excels his own very self. The same goes for the production. In the Goldwyn versus Zukor contest, it's Goldwyn by a mile.

"The Milky Way" is one of the last films that Harold Lloyd made before retiring from acting. Along with Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, Lloyd was one of the great legendary comics of the silent film era. He transitioned OK into sound pictures, but with sound the style of comedy changed from almost all antics to scripts with dialog and other movement. So, he retired early in the sound era.

Keaton didn't have a nest egg built up so he continued to work steadily through the 1960s, first doing many shorts that were still used with features in theaters, and then in lesser and lesser roles of feature films. Chaplin was a prolific writer as well, and a successful director and producer. He had a nice nest egg built up, so he was able to live while working on an occasional hit film. Over the next two decades he made just four films, each one a masterpiece.

This film is a simple plot with silly scenes of Lloyd's Burleigh Sullivan knocking out prizefighters. That is, supposedly knocking them out. A small supporting cast does a good job. Adolphe Menjou is a showstopper in his scenes. He comes on strong as Gabby Sloan, the questionable fight manager. Some supporting cast standards have nice parts. Lionel Stander is very funny as Spider Schultz.

For anyone who hasn't seen Lloyd in a movie, this film is OK. But this doesn't rank anywhere near the classic stuff for which he is most remembered. He is the guy hanging high over a street from the hands of a large clock on a building. That 1923 film, "Safety Last," is among his classics.

Harold Lloyd's talking films were a mixed bag, lacking the visual thrills of his "Safety Last" type comedy where dangerous situations got laughs out of amazing photography and choreography. Fans of his silents will be disappointed by the lack of this style, because now with a voice, he was like everybody else struggling for laughs in talkie comedy. His early talkies were filled with a few of the qualities of his silents, but by the end of the 1930's came around, he seemed to loose heart even though his films were still above average in the comedy genre.

Taking the legend of Harold Lloyd, the silent star, out of the train of thought, "The Milky Way" is still a good film, with some funny moments and certainly filled with a fantastically huge supporting cast and excellent direction. Leo McCarey, one of the finest writers and directors of the 1930's, had a semi classic with thus that does not deserve to be so easily dismissed.

The story has Lloyd as a well spoken and friendly milkman who ends up in the fight game when he comes to the rescue of his sister (Helen Mack), beating up professional fighter Lionel Stander and ending up coached by Stander's manager (Adolph Menjou) to become the country's latest champ. Seductive Verree Teasdale takes classical music to train him, while Lloyd has a funny scene showing society matron Marjorie Gateson how to block hits, then later imitates a naying pony. This isn't all laughs, though, with Lloyd concerned about the horse that pulled his milk truck. Still, it's pretty good as a whole, but it is necessary to look at Lloyd in a different light when viewing this and his other talkies.

Turner Classic Movies often has a Harold Lloyd marathon, and sometimes Lloyd's daughter is on hand with an introduction. She and TCM have apparently brought a multitude of new fans to him, and he deserves every one.

In "The Milky Way" Harold Lloyd outdoes even himself, and that is (as it is intended) high praise.

Far and away better than the remake with the execrable Danny Kaye, this movie has a terrific cast and good script.

Helen Mack, one of my particular favorites, gets a rare chance to shine, and she grabs that chance and really does shine in a marvelous performance.

Adolphe Menjou, another of my favorites, is just great, nicely underplaying a character role.

Actually, everyone seems to be just about perfect in their roles.

Add good directing, good writing, and the whole experience is thoroughly enjoyable.

You don't have to wait for TCM to bring it around: There is a version at YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0x128sbn74

A comedy with Lloyd, Menjou, Verree Teasdale, Helen Mack, W. Gargan, directed by a distinguished craftsman. Menjou is at his best, very believable as a dishonest manager.

It is slapstick with a reek of folksy artfulness, but the thoughtful plot also has this neat dramatic dimension, required by Lloyd's style, which elicited, entailed this dramatic sharpness; his character was unusual and surprising among the peers, with unexpected means, and skillful in his own way, a naughty wag, determined not to be a victim, which makes the role so truth-like and folksy, with a certain folk realism, slyness and cleverness, a survivor, not at all helpless or clueless, he has his own merry pranks. The lead's slapstick was extravagant (the parades with bagpipes, the horses, already the lion, the flying hat) and baroque, compared to Keaton's.

The protagonist is a proletarian. His _naivetés proceed mainly from inexperience (the puddle, the sportive delusions), not from imbecility, he has a gleam of cleverness. His story synthesizes two lines of realism, a modern popular one, and a folkloric one, reminding of the legendary jesters, and the movie's outlook needs to be explained by both of them, plus the extravagant slapstick, whether satirical (the lion, the hat, the bagpipes: the milkman's delusions of glamor …), or not. The milkman is decent and kind (and reasonably gullible in a milieu unusual for him), but not an idealist (this would be a type of lead unknown to the school of folkloric humor).

Of the three ladies, Helen Mack plays the milkman's sister, Verree Teasdale the heartless blonde (Miss Westley).

Menjou gives one of his best performances as the unprincipled, scheming and shrewd manager, he has an astounding ease.

W. Gargan, who is very likable and handsome, plays Speed, Burleigh's future brother-in-law.

So, a work of thoughtful and crafty comedy; the engine is the storyline, very polished. Some of the characters are glamorous (Miss Westley, the manager, Speed), others not (the sister and the girlfriend); there is a blockhead, Spider, but even him is the generic blockhead of the '30s comedies, not a slapstick one. Lloyd had this possibility of folk drama, because there is something dramatic in his character's struggle to survive. The movie begins with his humiliations, and he finds the way to upstage them all, he finds a makeshift. His Burleigh is sometimes clumsy, but neither naive, nor humble, he vanquishes the wealthier and their routine. He's sly.

This Harold Lloyd feature is pretty funny. Lloyd is a milkman who accidentally knocks out the drunken boxing champion, William Gargan, on the sidewalk and becomes a media celebrity.

Promoters see money in it. They want to take him under their wing and turn him professional, but the vision-challenged and slightly built Lloyd will have none of it, not until the horse pulling his milk wagon collapses and needs veterinarian care. So he does it for Agnes.

Lionel Stander is the trainer who teaches Lloyd the rudiments of boxing but Lloyd is hopeless as a fighter, except that he ducks punches effortlessly, a trick he picked up as a child to avoid being beaten by the other school kids.

A series of bouts is fixed and Lloyd wins until he faces the champ, Gargan, in the ring. Gargan is to deck the wonder boy and win a lot of money for Adolf Menjou and his crowd of crooked promoters. I don't think I want to give away the ending -- as if you couldn't guess it -- but the trick turns on the barely literate Lionel Stander mixing up the word "ammonia" with the label on a bottle of medicine for "insomnia." There are three babes in the movie. Two are young, attractive, and quite sexy. The third, Verree Teasdale, is given the best lines in the movie and is a treat to watch. I'm trying to think of one of her throw-away cracks and I'm failing.

This was remade ten years later as a Danny Kaye movie, "The Kid From Brooklyn". Lionel Stander appeared in both -- as the same character, I think. This is one of those instances in which the remake is perhaps better than the original. Danny Kaye sounds more at home in the movie, he's quicker on his feet than Lloyd, ducks punches more absurdly, and his antics in the ring are even funnier than Lloyd's, which are ludic enough to begin with. Except for Kaye, color, and the ever-seductive Virginia Mayo, both films are comparable. Lloyd's gets extra points for being first.

Either version should induce smiles.

I am a big 1930's movie fan and will watch most anything that I see on Turner Classic Movies thats new for me. So I gave this a shot, after all it's the great Harold Lloyd who rivaled Chaplin as a great silent film comedian. I have watched much less of Lloyd's silent films then of Chaplins but I have to say I'm a much bigger Chaplin fan. Anyway this film fell so flat for me that I didn't finish it. I can understand why his sound career was so limited, he didn't get very good material to work with. After you've seen Chaplin, Abbott and Costello, The Three Stooges, Martin and Lewis, The Marx Brothers, and Laurel and Hardy do boxing spoofs (or violence in general), this one is very forgettable. I was also interested in watching Adolphe Menjou as I really enjoyed him in Paths Of Glory but his role here also did nothing special for me. Maybe they should have gotten into the boxing sooner because at least half the film (at least it seemed that way) is before he gets in a ring. I can tell there are a lot of Lloyd fans here and this wont be a popular review but I must rate this as compared to what else was out there at the time, 4 out of 10. Don't watch this with anyone your trying to get to like old movies as they may not watch another one with you again, very flat. For an alternative to anyone who really liked this or is looking for more little known comedies in general I recommend "Kelly The Second" made a few years earlier, another nobody becomes a boxer comedy with Patsy Kelly and in a supporting role Charles Chase. These have both been shown on the Turner Classic Movies channel.

In what is probably his best talkie, Harold Lloyd is backed by a terrific supporting cast towards whom he is generous both in screen time (there are a remarkable number of stretches when he's offscreen for quite a while) and in awarding laughs. Looking remarkably unchanged from his silent films he's still graceful on his feet as well as with dialogue with the assistance of smooth direction, photography and editing by (respectively) Leo McCarey, Alfred Gilks & LeRoy Stone. It's also blessed with a script (based on a 1934 Broadway play) liberally sprinkled throughout with funny lines as well as well-placed and often almost subliminal sight gags inclined to pop up unexpectedly when you think the comedy has momentarily run its course. SPOILER COMING: After ambling along for 80 minutes the climactic confrontation in the boxing ring to which it has been building is over surprisingly quickly, and the film itself ends abruptly.

It's good to see Adolphe Menjou appearing alongside his elegant wife Verree Teasdale, who gets the lionesse's share of the best lines. In this largely testosterone-fuelled context (as personified by William Gargan & Lionel Stander as a pair of bruisers called 'Speed' and 'Spider') Ms Teasdale and especially Majorie Gateson as Mrs E. Winthrop Lemoyne both cut enjoyably incongruous figures; with Helen Mack & Dorothy Wilson making charming (and funny) young heroines.

It's bad enough that Sam Goldwyn had the temerity to remake this just ten years later with Danny Kaye (which presumably accounts for why it's taken me so long for me to catch up with it; I don't think it's ever been on British television - although the remake has), but Goldwyn then added injury to insult by buying up the original negative and destroying all the available prints. Fortunately for posterity, Lloyd looked after his films and still had his own nitrate original.