The Kid from Spain (1932)

Best movie of this year hands down!

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

WARNING: a blackface musical number is included. If sensitive to such, best not to view this film, or close your eyes during that portion.Eddie Cantor leads another hilarious musicomedy. For those who couldn't find Betty Grable among the Goldwyn Girls, I'm sure the first girl featured was Betty. Looked and sounded just like her! After featuring close-ups of most of the girls, they change into bathing suits and peel off, on by one, into a swimming pool, and form a rotating wheel with a complex spoke structure, as seen from an overhead shot. All of these features are signature Busby Berkeley choreography. The next morning, the house mother arrives to wake up the co-eds, including a reluctant Eddie, hiding under his sheet. The mother scolds one of the girls, making her repeat "I'm a naughty girl". Eddie parrots her when revealed. Seems his Mexican friend Ricardo put him up to this prank. However, the Dean doesn't think it's funny, and expels them both.Eddie soon finds himself the accidental wheelman for a trio of bank robbers who mistake his car for theirs. They decide to take him to Mexico, despite his lack of a passport. He has quite a time of it with the immigration officer. This includes a segment where the officer is trying to talk to him and to his wife on the phone at the same time, getting everything mixed up. A private investigator shows up and wants to know Eddie's identity. Friend Ricardo tells him Eddie's the great bullfighter Sebastian II, newly arrived from Spain. They arrive at the hacienda of Ricardo's girlfriend, Anita. Eddie sings "In the Moonlight", with various of the Goldwyn Girls lounging around. Anita's father, Alonzo(Noah Beery) says Eddie's father was his best friend until he was killed. Eddie and Ricardo are put in jail for fighting with Pancho and friend Pedro over the girls(Anita and her blond friend Rosalie). Eddie is nearly executed by a firing squad by mistake and later escapes. Eddie returns to the Hacienda and thinks he has rescued Anita in an auto escape. Later, he discovers he has Anita's friend Rosalie, who wants some romance in the pale moonlight. Eddie is reluctant at first, but finally gives her a massive kiss and hug. Eddie then sings "Look What You've Done"The bank investigator says he will be at the bull fight to see if Eddie is really Sabastian II. Ricardo has arranged for Eddie to fight a bull trained to sit down when hears a magic word. But Pedro and Pancho switch bulls, giving Eddie the mean killer, Diablo. During a break in the action, Eddie sings "What a Perfect Combination", while in blackface. The Goldwyn Girls, in Mexican dress, dance to this tune. Sometimes an overhead projection is used, as the girls form fancy geometric circles.Now, for the bull fight: It starts out badly, as the spectators notice he forgot to put on his pants, under his cape. Then, the bull sits on him and he bites the bull's tail to restart the action. Diablo chases Eddie inside and outside of the arena. But, in the end, it's concluded Eddie is the winner. The bank investigator now reveals that Eddie was never a suspect in the robbery. He just wanted to see Eddie fight a bull!The musical numbers were composed by Harry Ruby and Bert Kalmar, who would be honored in the musical "Three Little Words", starring Fred Astaire and Red Skelton.I strongly suspect that Eddie's films are almost never shown on TV because of the small portion done in blackface, except for one film. He was an avid practitioner of blackface, failing to anticipate the eventual political incorrectness of the art.At first, I couldn't decide if Lyda Roberti(as Rosalie) was a poor actress, or if that was simply her style of comedy. Eventually, I concluded the latter. In a prior show, she had played a sexy dizzy blonde with a passion for chasing men, which is what she is here. Her father had been a circus clown, and she had performed in circuses since a child.J. Carrol Naish was an Irishman who was usually cast as an ethnic supporting actor, villainous or not, in more than 200 films. For example, he played Sitting Bull in the 1950 musicomedy "Annie Get Your Gun", as well as in the film "Sitting Bull".Several reviewers comment on the strange casting of Robert Young as a Mexican. Well, neither his girlfriend , Anita, nor Rosalie looked typical Mexican either. I think the casters wanted someone tall, with an aristocratic bearing, to match Anita's aristocratic status. Goofy Rosalie then seemed an appropriate match for goofy Eddie.This film may be purchased as a DVD in a set of 4 Eddie Cantor films.

Wow -- with all the big names in this one, expected it to be better. Liberal use of backdrop scenery, and the general Three Stooges buffoonery keep us from getting too invested in this comedy from 1932. With Busby Berkley directing the dance numbers, like the naughty opening number where the school girls wake up, go for a swim, and get dressed, it was sure to keep the audiences watching. Eddie Cantor and Robert Young toot down to Mexico and get into trouble after getting bounced from college. Supporting cast of Noah Beery, a 16 year old Betty Grable, Paulette Goddard, and a 15 year old Jane Wyman in the chorus, if we can believe the dates on IMDb. Feels like a collection of vaudeville acts stapled together....Cantor sings a couple songs. Noah Beery's Mexican accent comes and goes. Leo McCarey had been directing films for 10 years by this time, most of them silents. The acting in this one is a little over the top, kind of like a Three's Company episode. It's okay.

I like The Kid From Spain very much, it's certainly one of Eddie Cantor's best films. But I'm still trying to figure out why in the world Sam Goldwyn borrowed Robert Young from MGM and cast him as a Mexican. Why didn't he use someone like Gilbert Roland?Still it's Cantor's show and it begins with Eddie the schnook getting expelled from college after his pal Young puts him in the girl's dormitory where he's discovered by the Dean of Women. To his credit Young owns up to the prank and gets expelled along with Cantor. The two of them decide to go south of the border, but on the way Eddie is forced to drive a gang of bank-robbers across the border.When American cop Robert Emmett O'Connor goes south after the robbers, the fast thinking Young introduces Cantor as a great bullfighter fresh over from Spain. Now Cantor's got to go through with it or else.It's pretty thin stuff, but it's enjoyable and the climax with Cantor in the Corrida fighting a bull is something else. See how he overcomes the bovine challenge. Some of that business was used by Lou Costello in Mexican Hayride.Cantor and Young pair off with Lyda Roberti and Ruth Hall and Ms. Roberti joins Eddie in singing Look What You've Done. The other song Cantor does is unfortunately in black-face and it's What A Perfect Combination. Both songs were recorded by him and sold reasonably well to Depression audiences. The score was written Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby songwriters best known for their Marx Brothers material.I do say though Robert Young was not a convincing Latino. He was painful to watch and I'm sure he felt more ridiculous than anyone else in the film. It's The Kid From Spain's great weakness.Other than that, The Kid From Spain is an enjoyable film and those who want to know about the comedic art of Eddie Cantor can't do better than this film to learn.

In the 1930s Eddie Cantor made a series of pleasant, sometimes sexy, consistently entertaining, fast paced comedies. This is, in my opinion, one of the better ones. The songs are wonderful, the gags are funny, the 1930's atmosphere is thick, and Eddie himself is so energetic throughout he seems to float.It's a wonderful picture. Very recommended for 1930's film buffs and musical comedy enthusiasts.