Catching Up To A Good One

The Milky Way (1936) Should Have Been a Harold Lloyd Comeback

A first revelation of 2020, and proof of how you can assume something for almost a lifetime, then find you were utterly wrong. I long mistook The Milky Way for Harold Lloyd in decline, and so ducked it. Then happenstance led to this best of his talkies, (1) a laudatory review by Otis Ferguson from 1936, and (2) a Lou Lumenick link to Hedda Hopper’s Hollywood, a 1960 TV special where the gossip queen visits Lloyd estate "Greenacres." Approach to mansion and grounds is via lengthy and private road, much like Mandalay, 1960 way past capacity of anyone to construct such splendor for themselves. Imagine up-keeping house/grounds by new era of tax and expense that was 60’s run-up to Lloyd’s passing in 1974.  I’ve read the place was headed for seed by then … did HL regret upsize from which he could not downsize?

Top Cartoon Artists Here, Above, Below, Commissioned to Ad-Promote The Milky Way

Paramount In Bed with Borden in a Big Way on Milky Way Behalf

Ferguson, writing for The New Republic (2/26/36), called The Milky Way “up-to-the-minute in construction, the work of many hands, all laid on expertly,” this in contrast to “one-man show” Modern Times he had reviewed one week before. If Ferguson liked The Milky Way so much (“… very near the top for screen comedy”), shouldn’t I at least, and at long last, get out the DVD to watch? Forgot was The Milky Way being PD and so compromised visually. William K. Everson had shown it in 16mm at the New School (6-84), described The Milky Way as a “lost film” for forty years up to that time, “viewable only rarely at one or two archives throughout the world.” Everson maintained Lloyd’s as comedy that needed crowds to click. I’d not disagree, but would add that I laughed plentiful at The Milky Way, despite being alone with it. Help for Harold from a game cast is a first-for-him asset, the star not sole vessel for gags, which by the way are as many verbal as visual, and sharp in the bargain. I lit up wherever Veree Teasdale spoke, her droll commentary on events a plus not typical of vehicles for a star-comedian. Busy scenes have feel of spontaneity the signature of directing Leo McCarey, who did lots for comedy starting out, and kept doing so for a run past forty years.

I’d like to report The Milky Way was a hit, but according to Annette Lloyd in her excellent Harold Lloyd Encyclopedia, the film cost $1,032,798.21 to make, and got back $1,179,192 in worldwide rentals. Resulting loss was $250K. This happened to be the same amount, according to Variety (4/17/35), that Lloyd received up front from Paramount for doing the picture, plus profit participation (none had). The Milky Way was a first occasion in twelve years of Lloyd working for hire, good for him as this would be Paramount’s risk and not that of his own corporation. Proviso, however: “Paramount will have full supervision,” said Motion Picture Daily (3/16/35). Based on a Broadway play, rights for which Paramount paid $40K, The Milky Way ran to near the expense of Chaplin’s Modern Times, which cost $1.1 million, the two comedies head-to-head in many situations, but unlike his closest rival of silent days, Chaplin leapt to $4.1 million in worldwide rentals, and for a film with no spoken dialogue. Effort on Lloyd’s behalf to freshen his formula would go unrewarded, and never mind how good a picture The Milky Way turned out to be. You had to wonder, as Harold undoubtedly did, if its failure amounted to rejection of his screen self, a public indifferent no matter the quality of Lloyd output. Professor Beware of two years later would drive the nail deeper. It looked like time for Harold Lloyd as a performer to quit.

Such was initial confidence in The Milky Way that Paramount, according to Variety (10/30/35), offered Lloyd another feature on the same terms ($250K with a %), and there was an English company wanting him, plus a vehicle Lloyd had in development for his own shingle. Press and previews were bullish for The Milky Way. Paramount submitted review ads to trades. A deal was set for Lloyd to do what emerged as Professor Beware. Paramount owned the negatives for The Milky Way and Professor Beware, but sold the first to Samuel Goldwyn for a 40’s remake with Danny Kaye. This effectively buried The Milky Way, which did not make it into MCA’s television package of pre-49 Paramounts, since Goldwyn now had custody of the film. “Hollywood anecdotes,” as relayed by the UCLA Film Archive when they restored and ran The Milky Way (3/16/15), said Goldwyn “had the original negative and almost all existing prints of The Milky Way destroyed when he bought the rights to remake the film.” UCLA used Harold Lloyd’s own safety dupe negative “made from his original nitrate print which had been vaulted at the Archive many years before” to do their restoration of The Milky Way. Remarkable how the fate of a major comedy hung on such a slender thread. Imagine if Lloyd’s nitrate had somehow been lost (he had at least one vault fire at Greenacres), leaving The Milky Way to mercy of PD-DVD off 16mm.

Yes, They Brought Women on Stage to Speed-Milk Cows For Cash Reward

I had sampled The Milky Way long ago, its unpromising start, where Harold’s a least competent of milk men gathered before the big boss. I switched off on conviction that Lloyd should never be a mere bumbler. To the contrary, there was no one so adept at putting adversity to rout. It seemed Buster/Elmer from MGM had bled over to a recast Harold, and I wanted none of it, nor him bullied by dumb-ox pugilists, the champ knocked cold by chance for which Harold gets credit. The set-up, then, is Lloyd buffeted by complication he lacks resource to overcome. We must wait for him to act on wits, knowing from twenty years of Harold Lloyd that wherewithal is there, if latent. Nothing was so delicate an instrument as a Great Comedian. To betray a particle of his being is to inflict wound upon him, and more profoundly, us. Too much of that came on wings of sound, or change in fashion that clowns were told to adjust to. The Milky Way was someone else’s creation, more ominously on a stage, so we worry, at least starting off.

Early Trade Ad Sees Great Things for The Milky Way and Lloyd

Harold is pitched as ring challenger to all comers, each a fix by manager Adolphe Menjou, who some said stole Lloyd’s thunder. That isn’t so in hindsight, or maybe it is, and I’m just loyal to Harold despite liking Menjou too. In fact, all the ensemble is fine, and thank goodness HL feels oats by a second act to become his old self again. I read that Lloyd commissioned Leo McCarey to direct, insisted on him to Paramount in fact, but there couldn’t have been much argument, for McCarey had just done Ruggles Of Red Gap for them and triumphed. Four behind that were Belle Of The Nineties, Six Of A Kind, Duck Soup, and The Kid From Spain, three for Paramount, and all outstanding. McCarey was the greatest gift any clown could get in the 30’s, his a crackling pace here. Milky rooms are filled with movement with oft-funnier things on sidelines than what happens center-frame. I’ll bet laughter drowned stuff out that might have gotten bigger laughter, and it isn’t all Lloyd’s bag to carry. As said, Veree Teasdale is quips non-stop, all bulls-eye. When Lloyd gets physical as in yore, it’s reliably a panic. Watch how he and McCarey execute a leap over a hedge, done in seconds, but what a payoff. The ring finish invites comparison with Chaplin, Laurel-Hardy, others, doing the set-piece before, though Lloyd differs for having made himself a publicity showboat and figuring he can lick all comers. This threatens a comeuppance, which I’m glad doesn’t happen. Didn’t Harold take hard enough knocks in the first act? Here it’s victory and he glories in it, the comic in charge and a welcome departure from norm. McCarey ties up with an end title remarkable for suddenness. This picture does not end so much as it stops.

Goldwyn Remakes The Milky Way as The Kid From Brooklyn (1946), with Danny Kaye

Paramount Uses Upbeat Reviews to Boost The Milky Way

Trades reported Lloyd taking the checkered flag out of early screenings. The Milky Way had brought him back! … and yet. What a blow for one whose instincts had been so infallible before. Studio brass used to answer crepe-hangers by saying there was nothing wrong with the industry that good pictures could not fix. That did not always hold true. There were a lot of delightful films that failed for no apparent reason at all. Depression woes might have slowed The Milky Way, what with industry still struggling to its feet from a worst of the Crash. Paramount was yet in receivership, so nothing was sure. Milky’s million in cost was a bit much to pour on comedy, especially with uncertain draw that was by-then Lloyd. I want to think the letdown was anyone’s fault but his. Heavens, but the man had not aged an hour since The Freshman. Glad he had the Shriners, photography, record collecting, myriad hobbies … each pursued like military campaigns … Lloyd must have been a most motivated individual that ever lived. I’ll let go this linger to reiterate: Do not let The Milky Way evade you as it did me (and whose fault was that?). It is great Lloyd, great McCarey, great everybody involved. I hope the UCLA clean-up will surface, if not from Criterion, then maybe on HD at TCM. The Milky Way needs to be seen wide.