Kid From Brooklyn The (1946)

Kid From Brooklyn The (1946)

Samuel Goldwyn produced this Technicolor remake of the Harold Lloyd comedy The Milky Way (1936) for his contract star Danny Kaye; Norman Z. McLeod directed while Don Hartman (Road to Morocco (1942)) and Melville Shavelson adapted the earlier film’s story. The plot is virtually identical to the original (follow the link above for more details) except that it adds several theatrical numbers for Vera-Ellen and Virginia Mayo to sing and dance with the Goldwyn Girls.

Kaye plays Burleigh ‘Tiger’ Sullivan a bumbling (though quick at ducking) milkman with a cart pulling horse named Agnes who accidentally causes the middleweight boxing champion Speed McFarlane (Steve Cochran) to be knocked out when he defends (the honor of) his sister Susie played by a young Vera-Ellen in her second film (her first was in the Goldwyn-produced Kaye vehicle Wonder Man (1945)). This causes the fighter’s manager Gabby Sloan (Walter Abel) much consternation until he has the idea to promote Burleigh as his new boxer fixing bouts for the (now former) milkman until he can schedule a climactic rematch with Speed. Mayo plays Polly Pringle who becomes the milkman’s fiancée that then has second thoughts when Gabby’s promotion of sweet and innocent Burleigh transform him into a Tiger she no longer recognizes. A relationship also develops between Susie and Speed. Eve Arden is great (as always) playing Gabby’s wisecracking streetwise girlfriend Ann Westley. Lionel Stander reprises his role (from the Lloyd film) as Spider Schultz the champ’s bodyguard. Fay Bainter plays the philanthropic Mrs. E. Winthrop LeMoyne and Clarence Kolb plays Burleigh’s ex-Sunflower Milk Company boss and future partner Wilbur Austin. Jerome Cowan appears briefly as a fight announcer.

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