Customer Reviews

Kid From Spain [VHS]

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4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

Eddie Cantor and Robert Young play college roommates who are kicked out of school after being caught in the girl's dorm. Mix-ups include Cantor fleeing from crooks and ending up in Mexico where Eddie hilariously impersonates a bullfighter... The picture (a pre-code film) is chock full of laughs, includes some good songs and contains an excellent performance by the Polish actress Lyda Roberti who would die of a fatal heart attack at the age of 32 (while bending over to tie her shoelace, Hollywood legend says). The 1932 Goldwyn Girls include Jane Wyman, a ridiculously platinum blonde Paulette Goddard, the beautiful Toby Wing and a sixteen year-old named Betty Grable. In retrospect, it seems that Goldwyn wanted to be known as the Ziegfeld of the movies by producing opulent, entertaining musicals that he could charge a fortune for. In 1932, admission for THE KID FROM SPAIN cost moviegoers an astonishing $2 when the highest rate for a first-run picture was only 75c.

Did I say pre-code. You bet. How else would you describe the opening musical number set in a girls' dormitory with the chorus line in various stages of dress! This film delivers. It's funny, tuneful, sexy and fast paced. Our hero, Eddie Cantor, is thrown out of school for hiding in the girls dorm. He gets taken for a ride by bank robbers to Mexico where his old pal, played by Robert Young, passes him off as a famous bull figher. The fun begins with Eddie dodging detectives, girls' fathers and an expectant crowd of bull fight fans. Berkeley works his magic with the musical numbers which makes this film a visual and audio delight. Plenty of pretty girls and good songs. Highly recommended for Berkeley fans, pre-code fans, and anybody looking for some light-hearted fun.

If you loved Cantor's earlier precodes - "Whoopee" and "Palmy Days" - you'll like this one too. In my opinion it's not quite as good as his two prior film efforts, but there are still enough laughs and good musical numbers to make it worth your while. Cantor costars with a very young Robert Young as two college seniors who are expelled on the eve of their graduation. Young goes to Mexico to find the girl he loves, Eddie goes there as a result of being forced to drive a getaway car for a gang of bank robbers and thus being wanted. The two reunite across the border and the fun begins. There are two major complications in the plot - Eddie starts hitting people anytime he hears a whistle, and while in Mexico Eddie has taken on the identity of a great bullfighter in order to avoid arrest for the bank robbery of which he was an unwilling participant.

There are two big Berkeley numbers in the film, the first one being at the very beginning and bearing a great deal of similarity to "By a Waterfall" in Berkeley's film "Footlight Parade" of the following year.

WE LOVE EDDIE CANTOR AND HAVE MOST OF HIS FILMS, THE PC BRIGADE WILL NOT LIKE CANTOR AND TO THEM I SAY "GET LOST"; CANTOR AND JOLSON NEVER APPEAR ON TV TODAY BECAUSE OF THESE CRETINS. IF YOU DON'T LIT DON'T WATCH IT BUT DO NOT DEPRIVE THOSE OF US WHO DO ENJOY THES FILMS TO BE FREE TO DO SO