MILLION DOLLARS LEGS (1932)
This is a very surreal, goofy comedy that is a lot like the Marx Brothers' DUCK SOUP (but not quite as well-paced or insightful). Come to think of it, a double feature of DUCK SOUP and MILLION DOLLAR LEGS at a theatre would be an evening well spent.
You've got W.C. Fields as the president of Klopstokia, a tiny European country (both the exports and the population are described as "goats and nuts"), where everyone has superhuman athletic abilities, all the men are named George and the women are named Angela. The country is also filled with unrest and absolutely infested with spies and assassins in black cloaks. The only way for Klopstakia to prevent bankruptcy is to enter the 1932 LA Olympics. Fields is great (as usual), but not quite at his best, and he gets crowded offscreen too much by the romance between his daughter (real purty Susan Fleming, who later married Harpo Marx-- she had some interesting stories to tell, I bet) and an American brush salesman (dull oaf Jack Oakie). There's plenty of sight gags and slightly risque comments (the femme fatale is named Mata Macree, a double pun), and at just over an hour, this movie zips right along. I'm not condoning the use of beer or pot while watching vieos (Heaven forbid), but MILLION DOLLAR LEGS will make you feel like you've been doing both anyway.
I don't know this film is not better known. When WC Fields movies are shown, they are almost always the usual NEVER GIVE A SUCKER AN EVEN BREAK, YOU CAN'T CHEAT AN HONEST MAN, MY LITTLE CHICKADEE or THE BANK DICK. Maybe there are legal issues or copyrights disputes keeping this screwball gem from being included in collections, but I'd like to see it exposed more.
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