Ironically world champion
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Ironically world champion |
| Original title | The Milky Way |
_poster_1.jpg) | |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1936 |
| length | 88 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Leo McCarey |
| script |
Grover Jones Frank Butler Richard Connell |
| production | E. Lloyd Sheldon |
| music |
Tom Satterfield Victor Young |
| camera | Alfred Gilks |
| cut | LeRoy Stone |
| occupation | |
| |
Ironically, Weltmeister (original title: The Milky Way ) is an American slapstick comedy from 1936 with Harold Lloyd in the leading role. It is based on the play of the same name, The Milky Way by Lynn Root and Harry Clork.
action
The milkman Burleigh Sullivan is the epitome of a loving, nice and shy person who cannot harm anyone. One evening, when his sister Mae is molested by two drunken rascals on the street, he intervenes and stands in front of Mae. The nasty guys then turn to him and obviously want to grind Burleigh. Mae rushes off to get help, as she suspects, not entirely wrong, that Burleigh is about to take a terrible beating. When Mae returns, she is amazed: Both beefy guys are lying down on the sidewalk - unconscious. She thinks her brother is a master boxer; how can she suspect that he just ducked at the right moment and that the two guys - one is called Speed MacFarland and is world champion in the middleweight division, the other is his sparring partner Spider Schultz - struck each other down.
The next day, Burleigh's portrait graced the front pages of New York's daily newspapers; the young man is celebrated as the discovery for boxing. Above all, the shrewd boxing promoter and manager of McFarland, Gabby Sloan, is pricked up because he immediately senses big business. In order to be able to profitably market Burleigh in the future, Sloan must first find out how this disgraceful night knockout of his two best “horses in the stable” came about. McFarland and Schultz can't remember anything, given their alcohol levels at the time. The clever Sloan has to quickly state that Burleigh is a real loser as a boxer, there is only one thing he can do very well: duck away at the right moment. Gabby quickly realizes that Burleigh owes his victory over McFarland and Schultz to this “skill”.
Immediately before a quickly arranged meeting in front of the local press, MacFarland knocked out again from Schultz, so that Burleigh was once again considered a masterful boxer. The shy milkman basks in the media fame and leaves the public in the wrong belief that he is a "killer" among boxers. Sloan, who no longer wants to see his star MacFarland ridiculed as a glass chin, persuades Burleigh to officially compete in the ring against McFarland for a fair sum of money. The insidious Sloan is sure that his champion will cut up the milk boy with all the tricks of the trade. Burleigh should get through a total of six fights to first make a name for himself in the industry, and then finally end his career against MacFarland, who, of course Gabby assumes, will send Burleigh onto the boards in no time.
Burleigh strikes. As the preparations progress, there has been a lot of spark between MacFarland and Mae. Burleigh also got to know a young lady he likes better. It's his helpful neighbor, Polly Pringle. Sloan and his two professional boxers discover over the course of time trying to build Burleigh into a serious boxer that this is easier said than done with this lanky, skinny milkman. Sloan begins to turk the fights and buy Burleigh's "victories" in order to first make a name for the milkman in the boxing industry. Only then, so his ulterior motive, could he let the milk boy go down in the fight against McFarland in a disgraceful and profitable way. Burleigh, who does not immediately see through Sloan's filthy strings behind the scenes, is beginning to believe that he must be a gifted boxer, just as he had knocked his previous opponents to the ground. Only late does he realize that all his fights have been lubricated. Now Sullivan really wants to show it all when the final fight against MacFarland is on. Burleigh has learned a lot in the past few weeks, and with his unique mixture of cunning, sophistication and clever evasive maneuvers he can finally defeat this opponent too and becomes the greatest astonishment of all middleweight world champions.
_poster_2.jpg)
Production notes
Ironically, Weltmeister was created in Hollywood on July 22, 1935 and cost around 1,032,000 US dollars. The film opened in American theaters on February 7, 1936 and grossed about $ 1,170,000 in the United States. The film could be seen in Germany from May 19, 1936. Almost at the same time the film ran in Austria under the title The Milky Way . With the foreign income, of all things, world champions can be described as a decent box office success. The stage template ran from May 8, 1934 to July of the same year for 63 performances on Broadway in New York.
Due to illnesses of the director Leo McCarey , who had to be hospitalized, and the actors in the supporting supporting roles Adolphe Menjou and Verree Teasdale (both were married to each other) the shooting had to be interrupted several times. The then 20-year-old Anthony Quinn made his debut as a film actor here with a tiny role as a boxing spectator. Lionel Stander , seen here in one of his first film roles, already played a role with the rough and solid bodyguard and sparring partner Spider Schultz, which is not atypical for his later role.
The buildings were created by Hans Dreier and Bernard Herzbrun , and Wally Westmore was a make-up artist.
Originally, Jack Oakie and Edward Everett Horton were supposed to play the leading roles.
Exactly ten years later, the same substance was used as the hero of the day remade (The Kid from Brooklyn) on behalf of Samuel Goldwyn with Danny Kaye. Another remake was released in 2004 under the title Calcium Kid .
Reviews
“It's nice to have a Harold Lloyd comedy from the good old days back in town, and that's the only reason we've prepared to welcome 'The Milky Way'… But the new Paramount movie is a lot more than that. It seems like a well-balanced film that draws a lot more of its wit from the dialogues than from the slapstick, and divides the attention equally between Mr. Lloyd and the other members of the excellent cast. We were expecting a one-man show; 'The Milky Way' is closer to a monkey circus. "
Paimann's film lists summed up: “Few new ideas and a lot of tried and tested gags for Lloyd, who gives the whole thing his personal charm and has friendly opponents. The director often lacks speed in the first half until the final events pull the plot up. "
"'Ironically, world champion' is considered the last largely successful comedy by the former silent film comedian."
The Movie & Video Guide wrote: "Bland but entertaining film is one of Harold Lloyd's best talkies".
Halliwell's Film Guide characterized the film as follows: "Simple Harold Lloyd comedy towards the end of his career".
"You are more amazed than ever at the happiness of this boyish man, whose greatest talent is not to act at all, simply to do nothing, just to be a blank wall on which others can scribble their ideas."
Web links
- Ironically, world champion in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The Milky Way in the New York Times
Individual evidence
- ^ The Milky Way on Broadway in 1934
- ↑ The Milky Way in Paimann's film lists ( Memento from September 25, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ Leonard Maltin : Movie & Video Guide, 1996 edition, p. 858
- ^ Leslie Halliwell : Halliwell's Film Guide, Seventh Edition, New York 1989, p. 676
