Kid Millions

A goodhearted New York barge boy becomes KID MILLIONS after inheriting an Egyptian treasure.

Comedian Eddie Cantor has a wonderful time, prancing through this lavish, nonsensical musical comedy while entertaining the viewers with his abundant high spirits. Don't expect the plot to make any sense--it doesn't--but just enjoy the laughs and the songs as Cantor and his costars present quite a romp.

The film enjoys quality production values, both in the shipboard scenes and in the Egyptian sequence which follows. Midway through the film the cast presents a minstrel show, complete with Eddie in blackface, which strays a bit into racial stereotyping but also offers an excellent venue for the young Nicholas Brothers' fancy terpsichorean footwork. (The choreographed numbers cry out for a Busby Berkeley in control, but they are still competent and even include Irving Berlin's rousing ‘Mandy.') The joyous finale erupts into Technicolor as Eddie shares the delights of his new ice cream factory with the audience.

A bold & brassy Ethel Merman, belting out both songs & dialogue, gives Cantor a real run for his money as to who will dominate the picture. The scene in which she convinces him that she's actually his long-lost mother, although younger than he, is hilarious. She's after Eddie's treasure, and so is her luggish boyfriend, Warren Hymer, who would rather kill than kiss his new ‘nephew.' Blustery Berton Churchill plays a Dixie colonel who also wants to appropriate the fortune; his lovely niece, Ann Sothern, yearns to merely appropriate Eddie's honest assistant, good guy George Murphy. Strangely, the plot completely abandons Churchill, Sothern & Murphy in a most precarious situation, leaving their fate a mystery. It also quickly dumps the rowdy bullies, including Stanley Fields & Edgar Kennedy, we met early in the proceedings.

While Paul Harvey, as a greedy Sheik, is given rather lackluster dialogue, zany Eve Sully, as his wacky Princess, proves a worthy match for Eddie. Wizened Otto Hoffman, made up to look like Gandhi, provides some funny moments as the royal advisor. Pretty Doris Davenport makes the most of her short screen time as Cantor's girlfriend.

Movie mavens should have no difficulty in spotting various OUR GANG members, including Matthew ‘Stymie' Beard and bad boys Leonard Kibrick & Tommy Bond, as barge kids, as well as Clarence Muse as a ship's steward and Lucille Ball as one of the chorus girls--all uncredited.

In the early 1930's Eddie Cantor was one of the biggest stars in the world, and "Kid Millions" will show you why. Cantor was energetic, wry, occasionally cutting (without heaping on the cruelty), sweet, and just plain funny, and it's a shame that most people today don't have the faintest idea of who he was. But then, that's increasingly true of Groucho, too. What to do with such a world?

"Kid Millions" has lots of incidental pleasures, including the presence of the ridiculously young Nicholas Brothers, Ann Sothern, and Ethel Merman (who once again proves why she was just too "big," even for grandly produced spectacles like this one). Perhaps most interesting, from a film-history perspective, is the elaborate "Ice Cream Factory" sequence, which was shot in still-experimental 3-strip Technicolor. The earlier (2-strip) Technicolor could only render shades of cyan and magenta (often mistaken today for fading), while the new process was explosively full-spectrum. Audiences at the time must have been astonished.

In a recent and long overdue biography of Eddie Cantor it turns out that Cantor's daughter Marilyn was responsible for the casting of Ethel Merman in this and a subsequent film of her father's. The Cantors and the San Goldwyns saw each other socially quite a bit and young Marilyn Cantor became a fan of Merman's after seeing her on the Broadway stage. She lobbied with Goldwyn to get Merman opposite her father and the man relented.

Cantor and Merman did work well together here and in Strike Me Pink. Eddie is playing his usual bullied schnook who is living with what I guess would be considered a foster family on the New York docks. But it turns out he's the son of an archaeologist who went to Egypt and went missing, but who found a reputed treasure. All he has to do is claim the treasure over in Egypt. Of course there are some other people who think they have a claim.

Berton Churchill and daughter Ann Sothern helped finance the expedition and Ethel Merman claims a common-law relationship, a scheme cooked up by her hoodlum boy friend Warren Hymer.

All of these people perform well and I have to say that Warren Hymer who never exactly played intellectuals on the screen actually dumbs HIS usual character down for the film. But I have to say that the man who seemed to be enjoying himself most playing the villainous Arab sheik is character actor Paul Harvey. He overacts outrageously in his part and I'm sure he was grateful for the false beard and mustache he had to wear to contain the grins he must have had on his face.

Playing the Harvey's daughter and her beloved are the vaudeville team of Eva Sully and Jesse Block in their only screen appearance. I'm betting Cantor was responsible for their casting. Eva in her harem outfit and Jewish accent develops a crush on Cantor who's who'd rather be boiled in the sheik's oil than marry her. But that's part of the whole wonderfully silly plot.

A whole host of song writing talents contributed to this film, Irving Berlin, Walter Donaldson and Gus Kahn and Burton Lane and Harold Adamson. Some sharp ears might recognize a Lane tune that was revived with a different lyric by Alan Jay Lerner and danced to by Fred Astaire in Royal Wedding then called You're All the World To Me.

There is also one of the strangest minstrel numbers ever shot on screen where no one but Cantor is in blackface. During it he has to dance with the Nicholas Brothers and I'm sure in the primitive minds back then it was felt he'd better look like them. He shouldn't have tried because Fayard and Harold dance him right off the screen.

Other than the minstrel number, Kid Millions is one of the best musicals from out of the Thirties and another showcase of the talented Eddie Cantor.

It may be hard to explain Eddie Cantor's appeal to today's moviegoers. In the 1930s he demonstrated a combination of ethnic relatability, physical comedy, song-and-dance dexterity, and out-and-out silliness that contemporary audiences found enormously appealing. This lavish Sam Goldwyn production may be his best shot, a nonstop parade of nonsense, where Eddie's backed by a wonderful cast. The story, about a Brooklyn boy inheriting a fortune and traveling to Egypt to claim it, reeks of all-night screenwriter conferences to wring out every possible joke. But it's so lively and silly, and there's so much besides Eddie to appreciate. Ethel Merman not only gets a lot to sing but demonstrates considerable comic chops, and she's partnered with a funny Warren Hymer. Ann Sothern is pretty and poised, and you don't mind her being partnered with a pallid George Murphy so much. A very young Nicholas Brothers get to do a specialty. Eva Sully, who didn't make a lot of movies, is an Egyptian princess with a Brooklyn twang (another silly joke), sort of Gracie Allen-esque, and she's very funny. The finale, in early three-strip Technicolor, is as fun as it is tasteless. Get past all the non-PC stuff offensive by today's standards (Eddie even dons blackface for a minstrel sequence; the other cast members fortunately don't), and you'll probably have a marvelous time.

All of the films Eddie Cantor made for Goldwyn in the 1930s are hysterically funny. Why do I feel that this one is the best? It is the most well balanced of them all. Cantor's songs "When My Ship Comes In", "Okay, Toots", and "An Earful of Music" are beautifully crafted songs of the veteran song writers Walter Donaldson and Gus Kahn. The Irving Berlin number "Mandy" is given one of its best all out performances in a film. But this is not all. Cantor has the best supporting team he has ever had in the movies. Ann Southern and George Murphy are the perfect "young lovers". Unlike the romantic leads in other musical comedies of the period, they are not boring or cloying. Southern sings well and has a flair for comedy. Murphy's dancing can only be topped by Astaire and Kelly. The comic villains are played by Ethel Merman and Warren Hymer. Merman had proven herself as a singing comedienne on the stage, but Hollywood had no idea how to handle her. In this film, they got it right. Compare this to "Strike Me Pink", where Merman is cast as the female romantic lead. It just doesn't work! Of course, "Kid Millions" provides Merman with a few opportunities to show off her musical talents as well her comedic talents. I don't know much about Warren Hymer, but he is a fine character comedian and he does not steal the spotlight from Cantor. Doris Davenport is cast as the ingenue and romantic interest for Cantor. She is perfect and stays out of the comedian's way. It is the superior supporting cast and superior musical numbers which make this Cantor's best Goldwyn film. Some say "Roman Scandals" is funnier, but it is all Cantor. Cantor's biggest hit songs were in "Whoopee!", but this early Technicolor film is stage bound. Speaking of Technicolor, "Kid Millions" has a great Technicolor finale, "Ice Cream Fantasy", and if you look close, you will see the kids of Hal Roach's "Our Gang" shorts in a cameo. For those not acquainted with the musical and comedy abilities of Eddie Cantor, "Kid Millions" is a good "first" movie. It moves like lightning and is highly entertaining.