Um Tigre Domesticado

"The Kid from Brooklyn" is a remake of the Harold Lloyd movie, "The Milky Way". Now why they chose this Lloyd story to remake is puzzling, as this original story wasn't very good and is among Lloyd's least films. It's not a terrible film...but a mediocre one. Can Kaye and company manage to improve on the original or is it a dull remake of a pretty dull original?

Burleigh Sullivan (Kaye) is a wimpy but nice milk man. One day, he gets into a fight with two guys on the street and somehow the two ended up being knocked out. One of the pair turns out to be the middleweight boxing champion...so the middleweight's promoter takes on Burleigh as his new boxer. This is because there's been a lot of publicity about this 'fight'. However, soon Burleigh tells them the truth...the pair swung at him at the same time and he ducked...and they knocked each other out. But no matter...the promoter couldn't care less if Burleigh could box or not, as he plans on fixing Burleigh's boxing matches...only to let him get the snot knocked out of him eventually...when the promoter can make a fortune betting against him.

The biggest way this is different from the Lloyd film are several song and dance numbers...ones that in no way improve upon the original. Also, Kaye seems to mug a bit more...at least more than Lloyd did. Overall, an okay remake of an okay film....the very definition of okayness!

Danny Kaye began to show his comic genius in this so-so film of 1946. He would star with his constant co-star Viginia Mayo. In this film, he plays a milque-toast milkman and often acts like he is ready to do Walter Mytty. He is mistaken for knocking out a prize fighter (Steve Cochran) and that's when the fun starts.

Cochran, managed by Walter Abel with a wise-cracking girlfriend, Eve Arden, tries to recruit Kaye to fight in the ring. Kaye is hilarious in the ring but it doesn't take a genius to note that the fights are fixed so that Kaye will win.

Mayo plays his love interest and sings delightfully. Vera-Ellen plays his charming sister and dances up a storm in a number called "Josie." To complicate the plot somewhat, Ellen and Cochran fall for each other.

Fay Bainter is a steal scener playing a patron of the arts who tries to spar with Kaye. The scenes with them doing this are hilarious.

The picture goes downhill as success spoils Kaye and he goes into inane musical routines.

The film is definitely for the lighthearted. Beautifully filmed in Technicolor.

One of Danny Kaye's better films while he was with Samuel Goldwyn is this musical adaption of The Milky Way where Kaye steps into the shoes of another comic genius, Harold Lloyd in The Kid From Brooklyn. Kaye proves every bit the adept physical comedian that Harold Lloyd was and he sings and dances besides.

The main weakness of the film is the music which is mostly sung and danced by Virginia Mayo and Vera-Ellen, the score from Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn is not one of their better ones. Kaye does get a patter song Pavlova from wife Sylvia Fine and Max Liebman which is also not one of his better efforts.

But the story of The Milky Way suits Kaye's talents perfectly, the timid milkman from Brooklyn who accidentally knocks out the Middleweight champion, Steve Cochran who while drunk makes a pass at Kaye's sister Vera-Ellen. In fact Kaye is like Inspector Clousseau whenever he's around Cochran.

Cochran's manager Walter Abel sees possibilities in this and gives him the Primo Carnera treatment. Amazing that this same kind of subject could be treated so dramatically in a film like The Harder They Fall and comically in the various adaptions of The Milky Way.

Sam Goldwyn gave Kaye as he did with his previous comedian under contract in the Thirties, Eddie Cantor, a lavish production with a great supporting cast. Mayo is Kaye's girlfriend, Eve Arden is Walter Abel's squeeze who deflates him and is just Eve Arden. And repeating his role from The Milky Way in The Kid From Brooklyn is Lionel Stander as Cochran's trainer and as it turns out the man who makes Danny Kaye's dreams come true and makes Cochran dream.

The final fight scene for the championship is hysterically funny, perfect material for Danny's physical skills. The Kid From Brooklyn is a very good product from Danny Kaye and Sam Goldwyn.

This is a complete scene by scene remake of a 1934 Harold Lloyd film called "The MilkyWay" directed by Leo McCarey. It even features some of the same supporting characters the Lloyd version did! (notably Lionel Stander as Spider) Norman Z. McLeod who directed some scenes in "The Milky Way" was even called in to direct this remake. The big difference is the addition of the songs, Danny Kaye and color....and of course the original with Lloyd and McCarey was crisper and funnier. This was made only 10 years after the release of the original, (producer Samuel Goldwyn destroyed the original and many of the copies) which I think has got to be some sort of record. Was anything else ever remade so quickly?

Probably the best thing about this film-besides the color-was the cast. Danny Kaye gets top billing & he was good--but he had the backing of Virginia Mayo, Vera-Ellen, Steve Cochran, Eve Arden, Walter Able--and more. Virginia Mayo made a couple of films with Kaye & also did a couple with Cochran ( check out "White Heat" ). Vera-Ellen filmed mostly @ MGM--but her last film was "White Cristmas", playing opposite Danny Kaye. Brian Donlevy played the part of the fighter in the stage play--the part that Steve Cochran played in the movie. The Kid From Brooklyn proved to be a very profitable film. Fay Bainter does a small bit & she carries it off extremely well. Eve Arden and her endless wisecracks were a kick.