The Milky Way

I had seen an earlier example of Harold Lloyd's work from the silent era (1924's "Girl Shy") and enjoyed it very much. When I stumbled upon this DVD for $2 in - of all places - the bargain section of a grocery store, I thought it was a small enough investment to try out. I was not disappointed.

Lloyd's performance in this was excellent. He makes use of some wonderful physical comedy (not surprisingly, given his roots in the silent era) but also shows that he can speak, and thus - unlike some silent stars - could make the jump to the "talkies." Here, he plays Burleigh "Tiger" Sullivan - a mild-mannered milkman who, through a series of blunders, finds himself a contender for the Middleweight Championship of the World! William Gargan also put on a good performance as Speed McFarlane, the "Champ." Good performances aside, I thought this was basically a "middling" comedy that probably could have been improved by making greater use of Lloyd's physical comedy, particularly by incorporating some scenes of "Tiger" in the ring - of which there was really precious little, until the title bout between Tiger and Speed at the end of the movie. And it was the end of the movie that really lifted this out of a strictly "middling" status. The last 15-20 minutes of this are really quite funny - especially as Tiger travels to the title bout in a taxi cab with a baby horse, which he has to keep hidden from the driver.

Well worth watching. 7/10.

This is one of two latter-day Harold Lloyd vehicles directed by award-winning comedy experts - the other being his swansong, THE SIN OF HAROLD DIDDLEBOCK (1947), written and directed by Preston Sturges (with which I hope to re-acquaint myself later on in the month via a Cable TV recording, in direct anticipation of 3 more of Sturges' own films I own on DVD).

I've watched all but a couple of Lloyd's Talkies (WELCOME DANGER [1929] and PROFESSOR BEWARE [1938]): while his transition to the new medium was certainly not as disastrous as Buster Keaton's, I still feel that Lloyd's brand of comedy wasn't particularly suited to Sound; as a matter of fact, the film depends a good deal on dialogue for laughs - and most of the best lines are not even delivered by the star! McCarey himself (reportedly, he fell ill during production of THE MILKY WAY and some scenes were actually directed by Norman Z. McLeod) had been a practitioner of Silent comedies for Laurel & Hardy but, when Sound came in, proceeded to work with practically all the major Talkie star comedians - Eddie Cantor, The Marx Bros., W.C. Fields, Mae West, and even Cary Grant. In any case, the milkman-turned-boxer plot line provides plenty of uproarious situations - and it was eventually revamped as a musical vehicle for Danny Kaye called THE KID FROM BROOKLYN (1946; I watched this as a kid and, if I have the time, I may check it out again as well) which, incidentally, was directed by Norman Z. McLeod!

Still, like I said, Lloyd is somewhat upstaged by his fellow actors in this one: Adolphe Menjou as the smart boxing manager (of two rival prizefighters!) and Lionel Stander as his burly but dim-witted hood/assistant; but the women are strong characters as well, particularly Verree Teasdale as Menjou's cynical girl (incidentally, the couple were married in real-life!) and Helen Mack as Lloyd's brave but apprehensive younger sister (conveniently engaged off by Menjou to the current boxing champ - whom Lloyd had ostensibly knocked out in a fit of rage and who would like to get his prestige back). The ending, however, is a bit abrupt - especially since the women (including Lloyd's love interest, played by Dorothy Wilson) are kind of neglected...as is a newborn pony which has followed Lloyd into the boxing arena! Unfortunately, I experienced some freezing issues around the 27-minute mark but, when I played the scene back, the glitch was thankfully not repeated.

P.S. According to the IMDb, there are at least 11 movies made between 1917 and 2006 entitled THE MILKY WAY but, apart from the Lloyd/McCarey picture, the most notable are certainly the Oscar-winning 1940 animated short and Luis Bunuel's wickedly funny 1969 treatise on Catholic dogma.

This enjoyable Harold Lloyd comedy makes good use of a familiar setup, and it also gives Lloyd a chance to do a lot of the kinds of physical gags that were such a big part of his silent movie classics. Adolphe Menjou and the supporting cast give Lloyd plenty of help, and director Leo McCarey is also right at home with this kind of material.

Lloyd plays a milkman who gets involved with a shady fight promoter, played by Menjou, after a chance encounter with the middleweight champ gives Lloyd's character a reputation as 'the fighting milkman'. The premise is funny, but it calls for some good acting and direction to make it hold up for a full-length feature, and fortunately this movie has both.

Lloyd's ducking and dancing antics bring to mind some of the classic routines in his silent movie triumphs. Besides the boxing scenes, there is a hilarious, classic sequence with Lloyd and Marjorie Gateson practicing the ducking technique together. Menjou is also in his element as the fast-talking promoter, helping even the most implausible material to work smoothly.

The result is a solid comedy that, while a cut below Lloyd's silent classics, has some very good moments and is enjoyable to watch.

Overall, this is entertaining even if it is very dated in a Harold Lloyd-kind of way, meaning a typical role for him where he's the wimpy-but -brave hero. In this story, Harold is "Burleigh Sullivan," the shy milkman who winds up - even though no clue about boxing - as a professional fighting for the middleweight championship of the world! Ridiculous? Yes, but that was Lloyd and his films: slapstick lunacy like Keaton, Chaplin, the Marx Brothers, etc.

Along the way to his fame and glory in the ring, Harold picks up a serious girlfriend (the very wholesome and attractive Dorothy Wilson as "Polly Pringle") and so a little romance is part of the story.

Lloyd provides a lot of laughs but he isn't the only one. Helen Mack has a lot of wisecracking lines as Burleigh's younger sister, "Mae." Also, con-man/fight manager "Honest Gabby Sloan" (Adolph Menjou) gets in his share of funny and serious lines. The three of them, plus some other mentally-deficient boxers, all contribute humor.

In all, it's a sweet-tempered film with a lot of charm. True, some of the humor is too dated and stupid but the "hits" far outnumber the "misses" in the comedy department.

I have fond memories of "The Milky Way".Around 6 or 7 years ago I was working my way through one of those 50 movies sets.You know,those cheaply packaged box sets that always end up having some really good classic movies in them? Anyway,I stuck a disc in my player and sat down to watch some movie I had never heard of before.Of course it was "The Milky Way" with Harold Lloyd,and as I watched I couldn't take my eyes off this cute & funny young man in glasses. After I finished watching this wonderful classic gem,I had to know one thing: Who in the heck IS Harold Lloyd? Well,I did some online checking and found out,and since then I have become a total fan.I now own everything of his that's available and it seems like I became a fan just in the nick of time since THE Harold Lloyd(Newline)box set was just released. Just a small word of advice to anybody who doesn't like this movie.Try something else of Harold Lloyd's.He made so many wonderful films like "Grandma's Boy","Safety Last" "The Freshman" and my favorite "The Kid Brother".You won't be sorry you did.