The Milky Way

Burleigh Sullivan, a timid milkman, accidentally floors the world champion in a street scuffle, and the city decides he is a fighter. The champion's manager turns it into an opportunity, building a campaign that raises the man through fixed bouts. Then the real fight arrives. The film is not interested in boxing. It is interested in the manufacture of fame: nobody believes Burleigh can throw a punch, yet the newspapers and the bookmakers insist on making him a champion. The film says renown can be produced quite independently of ability. The form is slapstick: precisely timed falls, fast dialogue, physical gags. This is one of Harold Lloyd's sound-era films. He was among the greatest comedians of silent cinema and one of those who struggled with the transition; here he keeps the physical comedy while handing the tempo to dialogue. Leo McCarey directed. He was a comedy master who made the Marx Brothers' Duck Soup and later The Awful Truth. Adolphe Menjou plays the manager. Who it is for: viewers who like thirties American comedy and Harold Lloyd. Who it is not for: anyone expecting subtlety. The jokes repeat and the final bout runs long for a modern audience.