Topic: W. C. Fields' MILLION DOLLAR LEGS, Sept. 6

[BeAStooge]

Universal will release "1930s Rarities: Paramount Studios" on September 6. The 4-DVD set will include the following (info from MoviesUnlimited.com)...

1930s Rarities

"MILLION DOLLAR LEGS" (1932) offers W.C. Fields as the president of a tiny mythical nation whose residents are all superior athletes and which intends to make a name for itself in the Olympics. Jack Oakie, Ben Turpin, Hugh Herbert co-star.

"BELLE OF THE NINETIES" (1934) stars Mae West as a New Orleans chanteuse who juggles romances with a boxer and a millionaire while avoiding her flirtatious boss. Johnny Mack Brown, Roger Pryor also star.

Jack Benny gets his first lead in Raoul Walsh's "ARTISTS & MODELS" (1937) as an adman out to rig a beauty contest in favor of his biggest client. Richard Arlen, Ida Lupino, Gail Patrick also star.

The nautical adventure "SOULS AT SEA" (1937) showcases Gary Cooper as the first mate on an 1800s slave ship who takes command of the vessel and frees its captives in the wake of a rebellion. George Raft, Frances Dee, Henry Wilcoxon also star.

5 1/2 hrs. total on four discs.
Standard; Soundtrack: English Dolby Digital stereo; photo gallery.

[falsealarms]

Pretty exciting news that MILLION DOLLAR LEGS is getting a formal region 1 release. It has been available in region 2 for a few years as part of a W.C Fields box set. I've never seen it, but it sounds good.

Leonard Maltin called it a "little gem" and gave it 3.5 out of 4 (http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/83509/Million-Dollar-Legs/)

"D: Edward Cline. W. C. Fields, Jack Oakie, Susan Fleming, Lyda Roberti, Andy Clyde, Ben Turpin, Dickie Moore, Billy Gilbert, Hugh Herbert. Wacky nonsense with Fields as President of Klopstokia, a nutty country entering the Olympics. Oakie is a young American pursuing W. C.'s daughter (Fleming). Joseph Mankiewicz was one of the writers of this little gem. Title onscreen is MILLION $ LEGS."

Vernon Dent has an uncredited role in the film, as do Bruce Bennett, Billy Gilbert, and Heinie Conklin.

TCM.com article on the movie (http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/83509/Million-Dollar-Legs/articles.html)

by Jerry Renshaw

By l932, W. C. Fields' career was coming to a crossroads of sorts. Under contract to Mack Sennett's studios, Fields was approached by Paramount with a better offer and completed two films for the studio before any of his shorts with Sennett were made. He went on to complete the four shorts ("The Dentist", "The Fatal Glass of Beer", The Pharmacist" and "The Barber Shop") with Sennett though, and the success of those films convinced Paramount to give Fields the latitude he wanted and a freer hand in his features. Moreover, his experience at Sennett gave the old-time comedian a chance to work on his technique and become more comfortable with the microphone.

Still, in l932 Paramount felt that Fields could not carry a feature length film on his own, and routinely put him in supporting roles. His first feature for Paramount was Million Dollar Legs (1932); though the film was clearly a vehicle for comedian Jack Oakie, Fields stole many a scene as the President of Klopstokia in this absurdist comedy.

Klopstokia is a country where the natives all have impossible athletic prowess; the Presidency itself is decided by arm-wrestling contests (where Fields dominates all challengers). Given their inherent strength and endurance, the government decides to enter Klopstokians in the l932 Olympic games, where all sorts of political intrigue and zany hijinks ensue. At a scant 62 minutes, the movie's plot is little more than a skeleton on which to drape all sorts of sight gags, physical comedy and sharp dialogue. Its story and surrealist settings anticipate the Marx Brothers' Duck Soup (1933) by a year or so, replete with chases, slapstick, political satire and oblique references to President Hoover's Depression-era America.

Wisely, director Cline brought in a few old hands from Sennett's studio, such as Ben Turpin, Vernon Dent and Andy Clyde, raising the physical-comedy ante considerably. Cline was confounded, though, by Fields' insistence on ad-libbing and refusal to learn his lines. Fields' stage experience gave him a perfect sense of timing and of how to milk a gag for the maximum amount of laughs; the idea of sticking to a script was anathema to him. After much feuding, the two came to terms with each other and later became good friends; in later films, Cline would be called in when other directors found Fields and his style impossible to deal with. The lovely Susan Fleming, incidentally, was later to become Mrs. Harpo Marx.

Not surprisingly, the film ran afoul of Will Hays' Production Code, partly due to its seemingly risque title and partly because of several specific lines and scenarios (such as Lyda Roberti's performance as the pseudo-Garbo temptress Mata Machree). Hays' objections notwithstanding, Million Dollar Legs went on to be one of Fields' funniest sound films, though it remained relatively obscure for years. To quote Simon Louvish' biography Man on the Flying Trapeze: The Life and Times of W.C. Fields, it was a picture where " 'anything can happen and probably will', in which anarchy triumphed over bureaucracy, the leash was slipped and the dogs of comedy relieved themselves all over the astonished lot".

Producer: Herman J. Mankiewicz
Director: Edward F. Cline
Screenplay: Nicholas T. Barrows, Ben Hecht (uncredited), Joseph L. Mankiewicz (story), Henry Myers
Cinematography: Arthur L. Todd
Original Music: John Leipold (uncredited)
Principal Cast: Jack Oakie (Migg Tweeny), W.C. Fields (The President), Andy Clyde (The Major-Domo), Lyda Roberti (Mata Machree), Susan Fleming (Angela), Ben Turpin (Mysterious Man), Hugh Herbert (Secretary of the Treasury), Dickie Moore (Willie).
BW-64m.

[BeAStooge]

Universal will release "1930s Rarities: Paramount Studios" on September 6. The 4-DVD set will include the following (info from MoviesUnlimited.com)...

The listing at ShopTCM shows that this will be part of the TCM Vault Collection.

IF "1930s Rarities" is marketed like other TCM/Universal sets, the following may apply...

 •  They are exclusive to TCM's online store and its distribution partner MoviesUnlimited. General retail at a later date (i.e., ~1 year), but not all TCM Vault titles receive that wider availability.
 •  The initial production run is pressed DVDs. Once those are sold, orders are transitioned to DVD-r MOD production.

(At this writing, there also appears to be release date confusion... TCM says August 6; MoviesUnlimited says September 6.)