I like The Kid From Spain very much, it's certainly one of Eddie Cantor's best films. But I'm still trying to figure out why in the world Sam Goldwyn borrowed Robert Young from MGM and cast him as a Mexican. Why didn't he use someone like Gilbert Roland?
Still it's Cantor's show and it begins with Eddie the schnook getting expelled from college after his pal Young puts him in the girl's dormitory where he's discovered by the Dean of Women. To his credit Young owns up to the prank and gets expelled along with Cantor. The two of them decide to go south of the border, but on the way Eddie is forced to drive a gang of bank-robbers across the border.
When American cop Robert Emmett O'Connor goes south after the robbers, the fast thinking Young introduces Cantor as a great bullfighter fresh over from Spain. Now Cantor's got to go through with it or else.
It's pretty thin stuff, but it's enjoyable and the climax with Cantor in the Corrida fighting a bull is something else. See how he overcomes the bovine challenge. Some of that business was used by Lou Costello in Mexican Hayride.
Cantor and Young pair off with Lyda Roberti and Ruth Hall and Ms. Roberti joins Eddie in singing Look What You've Done. The other song Cantor does is unfortunately in black-face and it's What A Perfect Combination. Both songs were recorded by him and sold reasonably well to Depression audiences. The score was written Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby songwriters best known for their Marx Brothers material.
I do say though Robert Young was not a convincing Latino. He was painful to watch and I'm sure he felt more ridiculous than anyone else in the film. It's The Kid From Spain's great weakness.
Other than that, The Kid From Spain is an enjoyable film and those who want to know about the comedic art of Eddie Cantor can't do better than this film to learn.
