mark.waltz 1931 and 1932 were lean years for the movie musical, and other than a few Jeanette MacDonald/Maurice Chevalier romantic operettas, some behind the scenes looks at radio and two Eddie Cantor musicals with some fantastic Busby Berkley choreography, the genre was considered box office poison. Berkley would fix that in 1933 by moving over to Warner Brothers and create some of the most magical, memorable movie musicals in movie history, which leaves the Cantor films forgotten by most everybody but his most ardent fans. If you look at "Whoopee!", "Palmy Days" and "The Kid From Spain", you will see the Busby Berkley magic at work and even visualize his Warner Brothers smash hits in your mind. He wasn't working on perfecting his visual style; It already was perfect.Take into consideration "Inside a Dormitory", the Goldwyn Girl chorus number which opens "The Kid From Spain"; Similar themes were later utilized in "42nd Street", "Gold Diggers of 1933" and "Footlight Parade", from the scantily clad chorus girls, the overhead shots and like "By a Waterfall" in "Footlight Parade", the most delightfully audacious swimming pool you've ever seen on film. Even Esther Williams would drool over this! "The Kid From Spain" isn't a great film by any means, but Cantor's charm and the Berkley touch make it memorable. A totally miscast Robert Young is ridiculously given the role of a Latin lover, Cantor's college roommate who invites Eddie to go south with him after they are both expelled for the girl's dormitory occurrence. By mistake, Cantor is involved in a bank robbery which leads to a hysterical scene of him trying to get across the border and his encounter with the frazzled guard (Paul Porcasi). In Mexico, he claims to be the famous matador Don Sebastian II which leads to rivalry with another matador and an encounter with a very determined bull. Meanwhile, Young and his girlfriend (Ruth Hall, another Caucasian cast as a Mexican) try to be together in spite of her father's promise of her to another man while Cantor finds himself involved with blonde Mexican Lyda Roberti (part Russian/part Polish) who is also coveted by a hot-blooded native. The silliness of the miscastings is easily overlooked considering the lavishness of the production.Not utilized in the opening dormitory number, Cantor gets two songs of his own, the best of which is a blackface number where in disguise he entertains a pre-bullfight crowd with the memorable "What a Perfect Combination!". His entrance with two actual black dancers has him being pushed back to sing, and all of a sudden, Goldwyn girls start popping out of all the tables. I tried to spot Betty Grable and Paulette Goddard among the chorus girls in the two big production numbers but didn't have any luck, but considering how young they were at the time (both not yet 18), it would be somewhat difficult to recognize them although Lucille Ball the following year in "Roman Scandals" was very easy to spot. A perfectly entertaining pre-code musical, this survives its now dated concepts simply by being just totally enjoyable, if just a tad overlong. They don't make em' like this anymore!

MartinHafer I have liked Eddie Cantor films for some time even though now in the twenty-first century he's practically forgotten. That's because even in the bad ones, his character and personality is very likable and sweet. Plus, when he is given excellent material, his films are tough to be beat--particularly FORTY LITTLE MOTHERS and Hollywood CANTEEN.Cantor was a huge name on stage and was famous for his comedic song and dance numbers. Like Al Jolson, Cantor also often performed in black-face--something that would definitely shock many people today but which was widely accepted and not criticized in the old days. This film, like a few of his others, does feature such a minstrel segment, so if you can't watch it without suffering a fatal heart attack, then this is one to skip. However, if you do, you may be missing out on a rather entertaining little comedy.Oddly, though, despite Cantor being a nice comic, the parts of the film that made me laugh the most were unintended by the producers. This is because Busby Berkeley designed and directed several huge production numbers that are so over-the-top that they are, in this day and age, funny to watch. The best of these is the opening number. It supposedly is set in a girl's dorm in college but school was never like this!! Seeing all the "Goldwyn Girls" running about in various states of undress as they performed the most complex and expensive dance number is something you won't soon forget! As for the plot, Eddie and his friend Robert Young (who plays, of all things, a Mexican) are on their way to Mexico. However, on the way, Eddie accidentally gets mixed up in a bank robbery and the police think he's part of the gang. So, once in Mexico, he pretends to be the son of a famous bullfighter to avoid being captured. In the end, of course, is the obligatory bull fight and Cantor manages to survive AND get the girl.The whole film is full of surprisingly engaging songs from Cantor and as I said above, his character is so likable you will probably find yourself having a good time--even with its various shortcomings (including a rather poorly filmed bull fight).

ptb-8 Utterly hilarious Pre Code musical with two massive and riotous Busby Berkeley dance sequences, this Eddie cantor farce was a huge success in Depressed 1932. Filmed and released in the musical lull years 1931 and 1932 when a musical was supposed to be box office poison, this bull snorter is genuinely toe tapping and rib tickling. Imagine seeing this in a 3000 seater full of unhappy people needing a laugh! THE KID FROM SPAIN must have blown the roofs off with thunderclaps of laughter from one side of the country to the other. It is on record as the highest rentals /film hire between 1932 and 1939 with $2.6m returned to the distributor. This means it must have sold over $6m in tickets...in the most economically bad time of the decade and at a time when ticket prices were in cents. Imagine today if seventy million Americans went to one film in its first release! We're talking TITANIC level ticket sales. Well THE KID FROM SPAIN did exactly that. The two dance sequences are truly spectacular and very funny...the finale WHAT A PEFECT COMBINATION is about risqué as it gets in reverse rude lyrics given he is singing about "I'm the lock and you're the key". Warners Bros clearly handed Busby their studio key after this UA success and booked a box office berth, ready to shuffle off to their 42nd Street box office honeymoon. This KID is worth adopting for your home.

Ron Oliver Forced into Mexico by crooks, a nervous young man impersonates THE KID FROM SPAIN--an imaginary bullfighter -- to keep from getting arrested.Follies star Eddie Cantor prances his way through this naughty pre-Code comedy. Rolling his eyes and clapping his hands, he uses every trick at his disposal to amuse and he succeeds quite nicely. Cantor never slows down, but, like a mischievous little boy, he seems forever looking for new trouble to explore. His climactic scene in the bullfighting arena remains his best remembered movie moment.Robert Young seems an odd choice to portray a Mexican college boy, and his problematic courtship of pretty Ruth Hall is totally lacking in excitement, but fortunately it isn't given an inordinate amount of screen time. Polish comic actress Lyda Roberti makes a good foil for Cantor; her amusing face almost matches his own in stealing scenes and her singing & acting are delightfully offbeat.The dastardly deeds are handled by two of the era's best bad guys--John Miljan as an evil matador and J. Carrol Naish as his grimy sidekick. In addition, Cantor gets to share comedy sequences with three funny fellows--Paul Porcasi as a harried border guard; beefy Noah Beery as Miss Hall's very stern papa & Stanley Fields as a dumb-as-mud killer.Movie mavens will recognize diminutive Edgar ‘Blueboy' Connor as a bull trainer and a young Betty Grable as one of the chorus girls--both uncredited.Busby Berkeley directed the movie's musical production numbers, including the opening scene in a girls' dormitory, which seems to serve no other purpose than to expose a good deal of female flesh. The film's conclusion seems a bit abrupt. The villains have not been punished and the Young/Hall romance is still unresolved, but Cantor seems quite happy so why quibble?