Le rapt du rapide 5

Over the course of his career Victor McLaglen played a lot of very thick characters including one for which he got an Oscar. But in Broadway Limited he's asked by his old girl friend Patsy Kelly to come up with a baby that star Marjorie Woodworth needs for a publicity stunt. She's traveling with her producer Leonid Kinskey and Kelly her publicity agent on the famous Broadway Limited which McLaglen is the engineer.

Poor McLaglen he takes a baby all right and it could just be a famous kidnapped baby. The whole crowd could be in trouble and that also includes Dennis O'Keefe playing a former boyfriend of Woodworth who's heating things up again. Also traveling is sob sister columnist Zasu Pitts who is eager for a story and to be a mother.

Hal Roach produced this comic caper for United Artists release and as you see cast it with some identifiable character players who perform as they are typed. I wish Kelly and Pitts had done more films together as they were quite funny jealously guarding the baby. And Kelly also was funny with McLaglen as well.

Kinskey was in a part that might have been originally meant for Adolph Menjou. Menjou played these wild eyed artistic eccentrics including at least once for Hal Roach. Kinskey is a more than adequate substitution.

Infant kidnapping was a serious subject in the Thirties for film after the Lindbergh Baby Kidnapping. I'm surprised that Roach used the subject for laughs. Still he put it over well.