"Million Dollar Legs" (1932) Parodies "One Hour With You" and Tributes Buster Keaton

Paramount parodies itself. In the comedy "Million Dollar Legs" American go-getter Migg Tweeny (Jack Oakie) persuades the President of Klopstockia (W.C. Fields) to solve his country's financial problems by entering the 1932 Olympics.

In this clip Tweeny serenades the President's daughter (Susan Fleming) with a song from the Ernst Lubitsch comedy "One Hour With You" starring Jeanette MacDonald and Maurice Chevalier, here outfitted with nonsense lyrics.

This film's director was Buster Keaton veteran Eddie Cline. Jack Oakie's pantomime after the high dive is pure Keaton. The first screenwriting credit went to Joseph L. Mankiewicz, which is amazing for the man who later wrote and directed "All About Eve."

There was no comic actor in sound films with cleaner, sharper reactions than Jack Oakie. Oakie was part Cherokee and was the only Hollywood star of the classic era never to wear makeup. He bought up much of the San Fernando Valley before most people knew where it was and died rich.

Susan Fleming demonstrates sharp comic timing in this clip as well. But she married Harpo Marx four years later and retired from the screen.

No copyright claim.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• Paramount
• Million Dollar Legs
• One Hour With You
• Jack Oakie
• W.C. Fields
• Susan Fleming
• Jeanette MacDonald
• Maurice Chevalier
• Ernst Lubitsch
• Edward Cline
• Buster Keaton
• Joseph Mankiewicz
• Harpo Marx
• woof bloogle gik
• humor
• comedy
• funny
• parody

[jazzyspazzrawr]

Absolutely amazing!!!!!

[marcelhochman]

@TestingPlay1

Absolutely

[tomkonyves]

noted by surrealist Andre Breton as a great example of black 'humour': a "midnight sunburst". (Difference between surrealism and dada: a dadaist would have thrown the baby over the bridge)

[hebneh]

Quite an odd movie, and not well known.

[TestingPlay1]

Isn't that Susan Fleming, Harpo Marx's future wife?