The Milky Way (1936 film)

Last updated
The Milky Way
The-milky-way-poster.jpg
Film poster
Directed by Leo McCarey
Screenplay by Grover Jones
Frank Butler
Richard Connell
Based onThe Milky Way
1934 play
by Lynn Root
Harry Clork
Produced by E. Lloyd Sheldon
Starring Harold Lloyd
Cinematography Alfred Gilks
Edited by LeRoy Stone
Music byTom Satterfield
Victor Young
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
Release date
  • February 7, 1936 (1936-02-07)
Running time
88 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$1,032,798.21 [1]
Box office$1,170,000 (US)
The Milky Way (1936) poster The Milky Way (1936) poster 1.jpg
The Milky Way (1936) poster

The Milky Way is a 1936 American comedy film starring Harold Lloyd. Directed by comedy veteran Leo McCarey, the film was written by Grover Jones, Frank Butler and Richard Connell based on a play of the same name by Lynn Root and Harry Clork that was presented on Broadway in 1934.

Contents

An example of the popular screwball comedy genre of the time, and critically Harold Lloyd's most successful talkie, it tells the story of a Brooklyn milkman who becomes middleweight boxing champion. The Milky Way features supporting performances by Adolphe Menjou and Verree Teasdale and marks the film debut of Anthony Quinn with a small uncredited role.

Plot

Timid milkman Burleigh Sullivan works for the American company Sunflower Dairies. Two drunk men try to chat up Mae, Sullivan's sister, and he chances by. In an ensuing brawl, Speed McFarland, the world middleweight champion, gets knocked out, but Sullivan never in fact threw a punch; he merely ducked to get out of the way of a punch which brought the champ down.

McFarland's boss, the crooked Gabby Sloan, promotes Sullivan in a series of fixed fights that will culminate in him being knocked out in a real fight with McFarland. Against all the odds, Sullivan triumphs and becomes world champion.

Cast

Production

The Milky Way had originally been optioned as a vehicle for Jack Oakie with Edward Everett Horton and Gertrude Michael in the main supporting roles, but when Oakie was replaced with Harold Lloyd, the role of the manager was to go to William Frawley, because studio executives felt that Lloyd and Horton were too similar in comic style. The part eventually went to Adolphe Menjou. [2] Both Brian Donlevy, who played the role of Speed McFarland on Broadway, [3] and boxer-turned-actor Max Baer were considered for roles in the film, but were not cast. [2] Actress Ida Lupino was to have played Polly Pringle, but withdrew because of illness, to be replaced by Dorothy Wilson. Helen Mack and Verree Teasdale were also replacements, the parts having originally gone to Sally Blane and Gail Patrick. [2] Although they do not appear in the film, the Dionne Quintuplets had been expected to make an appearance. [2]

Filming began on July 22, 1935, [4] but was interrupted by the illnesses of Menjou, Teasdale and director Leo McCarey, who was hospitalized. McCarey's place was taken by his brother Ray McCarey and by veteran director Norman Z. McLeod. [2] During filming, when a suitable white horse for Burleigh could not be found, makeup artists bleached a dark-colored horse blond. [2]

Reception

Writing for The Spectator in 1936, Graham Greene provided a positive review, giving particular praise to Harold Lloyd and Adolphe Menjou. Greene noted that "with the gag-makers at the top of their form and Mr Menjou at the top of his, we have the best 'Harold Lloyd' to date." [5]

Adaptations and remakes

A one-hour radio adaptation was presented on Lux Radio Theatre on November 4, 1935, featuring Charles Butterworth. [6]

When producer Samuel Goldwyn bought the rights to the property in the mid-1940s for his remake, The Kid from Brooklyn (with Danny Kaye in the lead role), he also bought the original negative and almost all existing prints and destroyed them. However, Harold Lloyd had preserved an original nitrate release print, which became the source for the new digital video transfer used by TCM. [7] Lionel Stander played the role of "Spider" Schultz in both versions of the film.

In 2004, the premise of a mild-mannered milkman-turned-boxer would again be used in the mockumentary The Calcium Kid , starring Orlando Bloom.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adolphe Menjou</span> American actor (1890–1963)

Adolphe Jean Menjou was an American actor. His career spanned both silent films and talkies. He appeared in such films as Charlie Chaplin's A Woman of Paris, where he played the lead role; Stanley Kubrick's Paths of Glory with Kirk Douglas; Ernst Lubitsch's The Marriage Circle; The Sheik with Rudolph Valentino; Morocco with Marlene Dietrich and Gary Cooper; and A Star Is Born with Janet Gaynor and Fredric March, and was nominated for an Academy Award for The Front Page in 1931.

<i>Hello, Frisco, Hello</i> 1943 film by H. Bruce Humberstone

Hello, Frisco, Hello is a 1943 American musical film directed by H. Bruce Humberstone and starring Alice Faye, John Payne, Lynn Bari, and Jack Oakie. The film was made in Technicolor and released by 20th Century-Fox. This was one of the last musicals made by Faye for Fox, and in later interviews Faye said it was clear Fox was promoting Betty Grable as her successor. Released during World War II, the film became one of Faye's highest-grossing pictures for Fox.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Porter Hall</span> American actor

Clifford Porter Hall was an American character actor known for appearing in a number of films in the 1930s and 1940s. Hall typically played villains or comedic incompetent characters.

<i>State of the Union</i> (film) 1948 film by Frank Capra

State of the Union is a 1948 American drama film directed by Frank Capra about a man's desire to run for the nomination as the Republican candidate for President, and the machinations of those around him. The New York Times described it as "a slick piece of screen satire...sharper in its knife-edged slicing at the hides of pachyderm schemers and connivers than was the original." The film was written by Myles Connolly and Anthony Veiller and was based on the 1945 Russel Crouse, Howard Lindsay Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Helen Mack</span> American actress

Helen Mack was an American actress. She started her career as a child actress in silent films, moving to Broadway plays and touring one of the vaudeville circuits. Her greater success as an actress was as a leading lady in the 1930s. She made the transition to performing on radio and then into writing, directing, and producing shows during the Golden Age of Radio. She later wrote for Broadway, stage and television. Her career spanned the infancy of the motion picture industry, the beginnings of Broadway, the final days of vaudeville, the transition to sound movies, the Golden Age of Radio, and the rise of television.

<i>The Kid from Brooklyn</i> 1946 film

The Kid from Brooklyn is a 1946 American musical comedy film directed by Norman Z. McLeod and starring Danny Kaye, Virginia Mayo, Vera-Ellen, Steve Cochran, Walter Abel, Eve Arden, and Fay Bainter. Virginia Mayo's and Vera-Ellen's singing voices were dubbed by Betty Russell and Dorothy Ellers, respectively.

<i>Convention City</i> 1933 film

Convention City is a 1933 American pre-Code sex comedy film directed by Archie Mayo, and starring Joan Blondell, Guy Kibbee, Dick Powell, Mary Astor and Adolphe Menjou. The film was produced by Henry Blanke and First National Pictures and distributed by Warner Bros.

<i>Fashions of 1934</i> 1934 film by William Dieterle

Fashions of 1934 is a 1934 American pre-Code musical comedy film directed by William Dieterle with musical numbers created and directed by Busby Berkeley. The screenplay by F. Hugh Herbert and Carl Erickson was based on the story The Fashion Plate by Harry Collins and Warren Duff. The film stars William Powell, Bette Davis, Frank McHugh, Hugh Herbert, Verree Teasdale, and Reginald Owen, and features Henry O'Neill, Phillip Reed, Gordon Westcott, and Dorothy Burgess. The film's songs are by Sammy Fain (music) and Irving Kahal (lyrics). Sometime after its initial release, the title Fashions of 1934 was changed to Fashions, replacing the original title with an insert card stating "William Powell in 'Fashions'".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dorothy Wilson (actress)</span> American actress (1909–1998)

Dorothy Wilson was an American movie actress of the 1930s.

<i>Streets of Laredo</i> (film) 1949 film by Leslie Fenton

Streets of Laredo is a 1949 American Western film directed by Leslie Fenton and starring William Holden, Macdonald Carey and William Bendix as three outlaws who rescue a young girl, played by Mona Freeman. When they become separated, two reluctantly become Texas Rangers, while the third continues on a life of crime.

<i>Turnabout</i> (film) 1940 film by Hal Roach

Turnabout is a 1940 fantasy comedy film directed by Hal Roach and starring Adolphe Menjou, Carole Landis and John Hubbard. Based on the 1931 novel of the same name by Thorne Smith, the screenplay was written by Mickell Novack, Bernie Giler and John McClain with additional dialogue by Rian James. In 1979, the screenplay was adapted for the short-lived television series with the same name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Verree Teasdale</span> American actress

Verree Teasdale was an American actress born in Spokane, Washington.

Hollywood on Parade (1932–1934) is a series of short subjects released by Paramount Pictures.

<i>Bundle of Joy</i> 1956 film directed by Norman Taurog

Bundle of Joy is a 1956 American Technicolor musical film directed by Norman Taurog and starring Eddie Fisher, Debbie Reynolds and Adolphe Menjou. It is a remake of the 1939 comedy film Bachelor Mother which starred Ginger Rogers and David Niven. Produced by Edmund Grainger, it was distributed by RKO Pictures. An unmarried salesgirl at a department store finds and takes care of an abandoned baby. Much confusion results when her co-workers assume the child is hers and that the father is the son of the store owner.

<i>The Proud Rebel</i> 1958 film by Michael Curtiz

The Proud Rebel is a 1958 American Technicolor Western film directed by Michael Curtiz, with a screenplay by Joseph Petracca and Lillie Hayward that was based on a story by James Edward Grant. It is the story of a widowed Confederate veteran and his mute son who struggle to make a new life among sometimes hostile neighbors in the Midwest. Despite the implications of the title, the main character in "The Proud Rebel" does not dwell much on his Southern past, but finds his life complicated by sectional prejudice. Many of the Yankee male town folk refer to him disdainfully, however, as 'Reb', while noting his proud refusal to compromise his values for any price.

<i>The Texas Rangers</i> (1936 film) 1936 film by King Vidor

The Texas Rangers is a 1936 American Western film directed by King Vidor and starring Fred MacMurray and Jack Oakie. The picture was nominated for Best Sound Recording at the 1936 Oscars. The film was inspired by incidents from Walter Prescott Webb's 1935 history book The Texas Rangers, A Century Of Frontier Defense but filmed in New Mexico.

Keene Thompson was a story, scenario and screenwriter who worked in the film industry from 1920 to 1937.

<i>The Bachelors Daughters</i> 1946 film by Andrew L. Stone

The Bachelor's Daughters is a 1946 American comedy film directed by Andrew L. Stone and written by Stone and Frederick J. Jackson. It stars Gail Russell, Claire Trevor, Ann Dvorak, Adolphe Menjou, Billie Burke, Jane Wyatt and Eugene List. The film was released on September 6, 1946, by United Artists.

<i>Ticket to Paradise</i> (1936 film) 1936 film by Aubrey Scotto

Ticket to Paradise is a 1936 American drama film directed by Aubrey Scotto, written by Jack Natteford and Nathanael West, and starring Roger Pryor, Wendy Barrie, Claude Gillingwater, Andrew Tombes, Luis Alberni and E. E. Clive. It was released on June 25, 1936, by Republic Pictures.

Hitch Hike to Heaven is a 1936 American drama film directed by Frank R. Strayer and starring Henrietta Crosman, Herbert Rawlinson and Russell Gleason.

References

  1. Vance, Jeffrey and Suzanne Lloyd. "Harold Lloyd: Master Comedian" New York: Harry N Abrams. p.186.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 TCM Notes
  3. IBDB The Milky Way
  4. TCM Overview
  5. Greene, Graham (20 March 1936). "The Milky Way/Strike Me Pink/Night Mail/Crime and Punishment". The Spectator . (reprinted in: Taylor, John Russell, ed. (1980). The Pleasure Dome . pp.  58–59. ISBN   0192812866.)
  6. S. H. Steinhauser (1935-11-04). "On Your Radio Tonight". The Pittsburgh Press. p. 24. Retrieved 2021-08-21.
  7. Fristoe, Roger "The Milky Way" (TCM article)