King Kelly of the U.S.A.

Exremely funny, well written and well directed, this 1934 Monogram farce is a genuine find...if you find it. This film belongs up there with the celebrated Paramount comedies DUCK SOUP and MILLION DOLLAR LEGS satirizing crazy European Kingdoms which features so prominently in pre fascist operettas. By 1934 Monogram were a well established B grade company which had a few breakout big income hit films: THE 13TH GUEST and GIRL OF THE LIMBERLOST to name two. This film clearly was possibly their biggest budget film with excellent production values and lavish sets...especially when the cast get to Belgardia. I would love to know which other studio they went to for some castle scenes as they clearly are not on the Monogram lot. However the palace interiors are as impressive as Duck Soup mentioned above. The first half of the film is set on an passenger ship, previously an elaborate and sturdy set seen in their own 1933 drama MYSTERY LINER. KING KELLY gets even better as it goes along for all of its 66 minutes. By the time they have turned the palace into a fun park, sliding down bannisters, and give away mops as prizes..whilst warbling the same creaky ditty over and over which eventually becomes a 'mop production number' Merry Widow style - and thus saving the economy (the kingdom only makes mops, but the world has turned to vacuum cleaners!) we are clearly in screwball / satire territory. This is a lovely film, witty, clever and well made. It deserves major appreciation. Believe it or not I bought it today as part of a Payless DVD Mega Musical Pack of 50 DVD movies for $22 (yes 40c a movie!) which includes never seen gems like Glorifying the American Girl, Killer Diller, All American Co-Ed, Trocadero, and many PRC Monogram Republic and various indie pix from the 30s and 40s. However, KING KELLY is a standout...and a delicious discovery at that. Character actor Ferdinand Gottschalk is utterly hilarious as King Max, the nervous bicycle riding leader of this hilarious kingdom...his wobbly ride out of the palace is truly a great comedy scene. KKELLY even has an animated sequence! What a find!

The movie began very slowly, although the animated characters gave an idea of the wackiness to come. (Try picturing the animated man anatomically correct....) If the first half had been as all out silly as the last half I would have given it full marks.

I listen to a lot of old radio shows and the commercials in this movie weren't very far beyond their craziness. The king was a delight. The princess was a bit prissy but someone had to act the way you'd expect of royalty. Her elderly suitor had an amazing way with his facial expressions. The ladies with the mops reminded me of the Greek ladies in Mamma Mia.

I haven't read any reviews that said the person watched movies online for free but as this isn't a site that sells them I don't see any reason for not mentioning that I get my public domain movies and radio shows that way. That allows me to sample many more than I would if I had to pay for them, only watching the ones I prefer all the way through. I use this site to get an idea of what to expect and to give me background on actors etc.

Guy Robertson, along with sidekick Edgar Kennedy, is taking his Kelly's Affairs all-girl troupe to Europe, while wooing Princess Irene Ware of Bellgardia, who is traveling incognito. He discovers he can't get work permits. Franklin Pangborn, an efficiency expert who has just discovered that his contract with Bellgardia is worthless, trades his contract to Robertson in return for the troupe. When Kelly figures out the situation, he turns the kingdom into an amusement park. This annoys Irene.

It's clearly intended to be a crazy comedy like the Marx Brothers or Wheeler & Woolsey. The trouble is that the two guys are not crazy comics. Kennedy is a character comedian and Robertson is a crooner. They give it their best, but it lacks the essential wackiness of crazy comedies: people react naturally to these shenanigans, instead of thinking that things are normal -- except for Felix Gottschalk, as the king. He seems a bit cracked himself.

The three songs that Robertson sings are adequate and unmemorable.

Musical producer Kelly (Guy Robertson) and assistant Happy (Edgar Kennedy) learn mid-ocean voyage that their show has been cancelled. Through some quick trading with businessman Franklin Pangborn (who has his eye on one of the chorus girls), they unload the show and receive in return a handful of cash and the rights to manage business dealings of the small kingdom of Belgardia. What they don't know is that a) Belgardia is broke, and b) the girl Kelly has fallen in love with on the ship is the princess of said small kingdom.

The shipboard segment of this movie is fairly standard—light comedy that's pleasant but not remarkable in any way. Once the action reaches Belgardia, things get very nutty.

The Belgardian king is an unprepossessing little guy who goes out alone on bike rides in the country, crashes his bike, stands on the side of the road trying to flag down passing cars, and moaning "But I'm the king" when no one stops. Ferdinand Gottschalk is very funny.

Irene Ware is the princess who had been traveling incognito on the ship; she and Kelly each don't know the other is in the kingdom until a clever scene in which he tries—through a closed door—to talk her into marrying a rich prince of a neighboring kingdom. Needless to say, that plan is eventually nixed.

As best I can discover, Guy Robertson was a stage actor who appeared in Broadway musicals. He sings a handful of songs in this picture—which is apparently the only movie he ever made. He does quite well as the fast talking leading man whose plan to rescue the kingdom from the brink of foreclosure is basically to turn the palace into Coney Island.

Oh, the reason Belgardia is broke? Their only product has always been mops… and now everyone has a vacuum cleaner. --All in all, it's good, wacky fun.