Main Cast: Harold Lloyd, Adolphe Menjou, Veree Teasdale, Helen Mack, William Gargan
Release Year: 1936
Country: US
Run Time: 89 minutes
Plot
One of the funniest, most sharply paced comedies of the 1930s, and perhaps the best of all of Harold Lloyd's talkies, The Milky Way was based on the Broadway play by Lynn Root and Harry Clork. Lloyd plays Burleigh Sullivan, a mild-mannered milkman who intercedes one night when his sister Mae (Helen Mack) is being accosted on the street by two obnoxious drunks -- they turn their wrath on him, his sister runs for help, and when she returns less than a minute later, both men are out cold on the pavement, with Burleigh standing over them. As one of them, Speed MacFarland (William Gargan), is the world's middleweight boxing champion, and the other, Spider Schultz (Lionel Stander), is his sparring partner, Burleigh makes the front page of every newspaper in New York. McFarland's manager, Gabby Sloan (Adolphe Menjou), has to figure out how to salvage the champ's career, but first he has to figure out exactly what happened, since both fighters were too drunk to remember anything about it. It turns out that Sullivan couldn't beat an egg, but he is good at one thing -- ducking. He can dodge any punch, and the two fighters knocked each other out in the process of trying to pummel him. What's more, on hearing this, they're so angry that Schultz accidentally knocks MacFarland out again, just ahead of the press' arrival, and the little milkman is given credit once more by the reporters for decking the champ. Burleigh loves the attention, even though he never claims to have hit anyone. Meanwhile, Sloan comes up with a way of salvaging his fighter's career, and convinces Burleigh to go along with it for a promised cash sum -- all Burleigh has to do is get in the ring in six fights, to build up his standing and reputation, and finish his "career" in a fight with MacFarland, who will win. In the meantime, complications arise when MacFarland falls in love with Burleigh's sister, while Burleigh himself meets and falls in love with Polly Pringle (Dorothy Wilson), a helpful neighbor. Gabby, Spider, and Speed also discover that turning tiny, wiry Burleigh Sullivan into something that even looks like a fighter is easier said than done -- all of his fights have to be fixed (and then some) behind his back to make his victories look remotely genuine. Finally, after starting to believe his own publicity, and then discovering that the fights were fixed, Burleigh goes through with the final match-up against MacFarland, the culmination of a comedy of errors involving horses, foals, and a wild chase to the arena. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
Review
Directed by Leo McCarey and produced by and starring Harold Lloyd, The Milky Way is one of the most finely etched and precisely paced comedic romps ever to grace the screen, and a dazzling showcase not only for Lloyd, but also for the entire cast. Naturally, he is the star and the main spark plug for the film, but Veree Teasdale as Ann Westly, Gabby Sloan's smart, long-suffering fiancée, steals most of the scenes that she's in with a wisecracking gem of a performance, like Eve Arden with a sharper edge; Adolphe Menjou's Gabby Sloan is a manic whirlwind of neurotic tics and apoplexy-in-the-making; William Gargan and Lionel Stander as the middle-weight champion and his stooge make a boundlessly funny dumb-and-dumber duo (Stander was so good in the part of the stooge that he repeated it in the Danny Kaye remake The Kid From Brooklyn a decade later); finally, Helen Mack and Dorothy Wilson are refreshing and delightful as two young women who are smarter than most of the men around them and not afraid to show it. The screenplay, by Frank R. Butler, Richard Connell, and Grover Jones, is a marvel of verbal and physical humor in perfect balance, while McCarey pulls it all together seamlessly as a vehicle for Lloyd's eager-beaver, go-getter screen persona. The first time he saw it, this reviewer almost hurt himself laughing at the scene where Lloyd's Burleigh Sullivan explains how the champion came to be knocked out, and most of the movie is just a few notches off from that sequence. The Milky Way wasn't a huge success when it was originally released, but over six decades it has retained its comedic edge and its charm where many other celebrated comedies of the period have faded -- and today, along with The Freshman, Safety Last, and Mad Wednesday, it's essential viewing for anyone who wants to appreciate Harold Lloyd's work, and for any fan of classic screen comedy. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
George Barbier - Wilbur Austin; Dorothy Wilson - Polly Pringle; Lionel Stander - Spider Schultz; Charles Lane - Willard, reporter; Marjorie Gateson - Mrs. E. Winthrop Lemoyne; Bull Anderson - Oblitsky; Jim Marples - O'Rourke; Larry McGrath - Referee; Murray Alper - 2nd Taxi Driver; Gertrude Astor - Woman; Jay Belasco - Man in car; Harry Bernard - Cop-Tenant; Mme. Bonita - Landlady; Harry Bowen - Bartender; A.S. Byron - Cop; Bob Callahan - Onion; Leonard Carey - Butler; Jack Clifford - Announcer, Todd fight; Morrie Cohan - Referee, Polo Grounds; Thomas Curran - Man; Eddie Dunn - Barber; James Farley - Fight Promoter; Eddie Fetherstone - Cameraman; James Ford - Extras at Fight; Charles French - Guest at Mrs. LeMoyne's; Ethel May Halls - Woman; Tom Hanlon - La Grue Fight Announcer; Sam Hayes - Radio announcer, Polo Grounds; Wally Howe - Dr. O.O. White, vet; Gus Leonard - Musician in Band, Title Fight; Charles McMurphy - Cop; Jack Murphy - Newsboy; Harry Myers - Photographer at apartment; Broderick O'Farrell - Extra at fight; Victor Potel - Man; Henry Roquemore - Doctor; Mel Ruick - Austin's Secretary; Antrim Short - Photographer; Oscar Smith - Barber Shop Porter; Milburn Stone - Reporter; Phil Tead - Radio announcer, Todd fight; Lloyd Ingraham - Barber Shop Customer; Frank Mills - Extra at Todd fight; Bruce Mitchell - Todd Fight Extras; Anthony Quinn - Extra; Jack Perry - "Tornado" Todd; Paddy O'Flynn - Reporter; Earl Pingree - Policeman; Dan Tobey - Announcer, Polo Grounds; Ray Cooper - Man
Credit
Hans Dreier - Art Director, Bernard Herzbrun - Art Director, Harry Scott - First Assistant Director, Leo McCarey - Director, LeRoy Stone - Editor, Wally Westmore - Makeup, Max Asher - Makeup, Alfred Gilks - Cinematographer, Adolph Zukor - Producer, E. Lloyd Sheldon - Producer, A.E. Freudeman - Set Designer, Earl S. Hayman - Sound/Sound Designer, Frank R. Butler - Screenwriter, Grover Jones - Screenwriter, Richard Connell - Screenwriter, Lynn Root - Play Author, Harry Clork - Play Author
Timid milkman Burleigh Sullivan (Lloyd) becomes involved in a brawl which ends up with Speed McFarland, the world middleweight champion being knocked out cold (he never in fact threw a punch; he merely ducked to get out of the way of a punch which brought the champ down).
McFarland's boss, the crooked Gabby Sloan (Adolphe Menjou), decides to promote Sullivan in a series of fixed fights that will culminate in him being knocked out in a real fight with McFarland. Against all the odds, Sullivan triumphs and becomes world champion.
Anthony Quinn has an uncredited bit part as an extra, his first film appearance.
Production
The Milky Way had originally been optioned as a vehicle for Jack Oakie with Edward Everett Horton and Gertrude Michael in the main supporting roles, but when Oakie was replaced with Harold Lloyd, the role of the manager was to go to William Frawley, because studio executives felt that Lloyd and Horton were too similar in comic style. The part eventually went to Adolphe Menjou.[1] Both Brian Donlevy, who played the role of "Speed McFarland" on Broadway,[2] and boxer-turned-actor Max Baer were considered for roles in the film, but were not cast.[1] Actress Ida Lupino was to have played "Polly Pringle", but dropped out because of illness, to be replaced by Dorothy Wilson. Helen Mack and Verree Teasdale were also replacements, the parts having originally gone to Sally Blane and Gail Patrick.[1] Although they are not in the film, before filming began, the Dionne Quintuplets had been expected to make an appearance.[1]
Filming on The Milky Way began on 22 July1935,[3] but it was interrupted by the illnesses of Menjou, Teasdale and director Leo McCarey, who was hospitalized. McCarey's place was taken by his brother, Ray McCarey and by veteran director Norman Z. McLeod.[1] During filming, when a suitable white horse for Burleigh could not be found, make-up artists bleached a dark-colored horse blonde.[1]
Remake
When producer Samuel Goldwyn bought the rights to the property in the mid-1940s for his remake, The Kid from Brooklyn (with Danny Kaye in the lead role), he also bought the original negative and almost all existing prints, and destroyed them. Harold Lloyd, however, had preserved his own original nitrate release print, which became the source for the new digital video transfer used by TCM.[4]
Lionel Stander played the role of "Spider" Schultz in both versions of the film.
