Lovesusti The Worst Film Ever

SeeQuant Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

Ava-Grace Willis Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Gary The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

MartinHafer Today, Eddie Cantor is pretty much forgotten--although he was a HUGE star from the 1920s-1950s. He was practically the king of Vaudeville, films and radio--and it's a real shame he doesn't get much recognition today. His singing, dancing and comedic persona were very pleasant and likable--and a few of his films are classics (such as "Forty Little Mothers"). For these reasons alone, it's well worth seeing "Kid Millions". Perhaps a bit of the reason he isn't seen that often might be because he occasionally performed as a minstrel--like he does in "Kid Millions" (uggh!!)! I am not excusing this sort of thing, but it made up a tiny portion of the sort of roles he played in films.The film begins with an Egyptologist dying shortly after he discovered a huge treasure. Lots of folks want to lay claim to it (including Berton Churchill, Warren Hymer and Ethel Merman) but it turns out the guy has a son (Cantor) and he's sent to Egypt to claim his fortune. Can be manage to avoid letter these hucksters and their underhanded efforts to bilk out of his inheritance? And, can he manage to avoid a sheik crazed with killing off the heirs to this fortune? The film is a mixture of good and bad. It's always great to see the multi-talented Cantor. You also get a nice routine by the Nicholas Brothers and the plot is silly fun. The VERY surreal color sequence at the end was pretty amazing--a great treat for film historians. However, be aware that Ann Sothern's singing, to put it mildly, was terrible and the minstrel sequence is so incredibly politically incorrect it might make some folks' head explode! But on balance, the good far, far outweighs the bad and the film is worth seeing.By the way, look carefully and you'll see a few uncredited cameos. You'll see Stymie Beard (with his trademark derby) and Tommy Bond (both of Li'l Rascals fame) and Dickie Jones (the voice of Pinocchio) early on in the movie. And, look carefully, as Lucille Ball and Paulette Goddard as chorus girls! The English comic Charlie Hall (of Laurel & Hardy fame), Tor Johnson (of Ed Wood fame) as well as Dennis O'Keefe. Rarely have I ever seen a film with so many cameos by folks before they were stars and it's a cinemaniac's delight watching for these folks. Heck, there's even a small uncredited role for Barbara Pepper--the lady who played Mrs. Zipfel on "Green Acres"!

theowinthrop Eddie Cantor's comedies, when they appear, usually still amuse the modern audiences that watch them. The only thing that jars is his use of black-face which crops up in his films - but while not liked by African-Americans it is less jarring with Cantor's films than with his contemporary Al Jolson. Jolson's use of black face in singing mingled his biggest asset (that melodious bleat of his voice) with a racial insult. But Cantor's use of the black face was not as overpowering as Jolson's - Cantor only would do one number in a film in black-face. His main persona was a cowardly or timid schlemiel who sang frequently without racist make-up on. Jolson could do it too, of course (most notably in HALLELUJAH, I'M A BUM), but usually he is fully willing to "black himself" up before his biggest numbers. It really was not all that necessary to Cantor's work.In KID MILLIONS Eddie is the son of an archaeologist (his photo shows Cantor in pith helmet and side whiskers) who found a great treasure in Egypt before he died. The deceased was not a nice guy, and there are a number of people who feel they should be his legal heir. Besides Eddie (his son), there is his girlfriend (Ethel Merman - assisted by her other boyfriend Warren Hymer), there is a southern con-man who may have raised some funds for the Professor's last expedition (Burton Churchill), the con-man's daughter (Ann Southern), and a representative of a learned society that did back the expedition (George Murphy). All of them head for Egypt to get the treasure, but it is actually still in the hands of the Egyptian sheik (Paul Harvey) who considered the Professor an infidel (some things never change). The interplay of the characters in the story make it so amusing. Besides Cantor's combination of fear and determination to get the treasure, he has to fend off his rivals (in particular Merman and Hymer). Southern and Murphy slowly find themselves falling in love. And Cantor finds he has picked up a lover too (Eva Sully, the Jewish sounding daughter of the Sheikh). As Eddie says in the tune, "Okay Toots", "I like the sheik and his silly daughter, but I prefer her under water!" and proceeds to push the girl into a pool. The humor is clever at times. While talking on the boat to Egypt, Hymer and Churchill lose track of each other's conversation: Churchill is mentioning his neighbors in Virginia. Hymer, getting momentarily sidetracked mentions a neighbor of his with a name like Birnbaum or Schwartz. Without losing a beat, Churchill says, "One of the finest families of the South", leaving one with the image of an old first family of Virginia with a Jewish name. Hymer is certainly surprised.Despite the use of black face in the big musical number "Mandy" (and only Cantor puts it on), the film is pretty amusing as an entertainment. I can give it only a "7" because of the racist content of that sequence, but otherwise I think that it would be acceptable to an audience.

Poseidon-3 It's a strange thing, but some of the quips and jokes in older films such as this are so corny, so crusty and so hijacked over the years, yet still manage to be very funny and quite entertaining. Perhaps it's in the delivery or perhaps it's just surprising that something made over seventy years ago can still possess the wit and suggestiveness that we feel we have a lock on now. Cantor, who's close to being completely forgotten by today's audiences, had a winning formula for movies in the thirties. He played rather dim, but appealing, young men who find themselves in the middle of extraordinary circumstances and who weasel their ways out of danger though luck and fate, usually singing a few splashy songs in the process. Here, in one of his best films, Cantor plays a practically penniless wharf rat who inherits a fortune from his long lost father, a archaeologist in Egypt. He sails for Egypt to claim it, but has several others around him who feel that it's theirs. His chief rival is Merman, a saucy singer with a lunkheaded gangster boyfriend (Hymer.) Fussy Colonel Churchill and young singer Murphy also have their eyes on the loot for varied reasons. Churchill's lovely daughter Sothern is along for window dressing and as a love interest for Murphy. Once the gaggle of wannabee heirs reaches Egypt, they are confronted by the hostile spectre of Shiek Harvey and his giddy, lovestruck daughter Sully. When the dust has settled, Cantor returns to New York and opens a lavish, elaborate, unbelievable ice cream factory (this portion of the film is presented in extraordinary Technicolor.) The plot is paper thin, but the script is zesty and funny. The songs are catchy and extravagantly performed. One extended sequence features the fabulous talents of The Nicholas Brothers, who tap dance with exemplary skill as a (now controversially) black-faced Cantor looks on. The younger of the brothers is given greater showcase and adds plenty of good nature and fun to the proceedings. This same sequence also includes a well-coordinated bit with dozens of dancing girls passing tambourines to each other in sync. Nothing, however, can top the finale which is equal parts charming, bizarre, colorful and amusing. Cantor is given a great rondolet of supporting actors to work with here. Merman is excellent. Her sassy manner and booming voice are complimented by some nice bits (not the least of which is her character of 19 trying to convince 25 year-old Cantor that she's his mother!) Hymer (an actor who made a long career out of playing thugs with names like Pug and Lug) gets one of his best roles and rises to the occasion. He has one startling scene in which he is coerced into kissing Cantor on the lips, creating both a kooky and a kinky sensation for the viewer. Sothern is very pretty and provides some nice singing in a few numbers. Murphy is both green and vanilla, but compliments Sothern well. The biggest treat of all is the presence of Sully. In what is (criminally) her only feature film appearance, she commands every second of her screen time with a riotous, infectious and downright side-splitting portrayal. She's one of the few performers who can score laughs from an audience simply by laughing herself in her inimitable way. The film is delightful throughout, but is worth seeing for her work no matter what. It's a shame that Cantor seems to have such a small following. His work is all about entertaining the masses and quite a few of the masses would still find him entertaining if they only knew who he was!

jayson-4 In the early 1930's Eddie Cantor was one of the biggest stars in the world, and "Kid Millions" will show you why. Cantor was energetic, wry, occasionally cutting (without heaping on the cruelty), sweet, and just plain funny, and it's a shame that most people today don't have the faintest idea of who he was. But then, that's increasingly true of Groucho, too. What to do with such a world?"Kid Millions" has lots of incidental pleasures, including the presence of the ridiculously young Nicholas Brothers, Ann Sothern, and Ethel Merman (who once again proves why she was just too "big," even for grandly produced spectacles like this one). Perhaps most interesting, from a film-history perspective, is the elaborate "Ice Cream Factory" sequence, which was shot in still-experimental 3-strip Technicolor. The earlier (2-strip) Technicolor could only render shades of cyan and magenta (often mistaken today for fading), while the new process was explosively full-spectrum. Audiences at the time must have been astonished.