Million Dollar Legs Reviews

Silly and surrealistic, MILLION DOLLAR LEGS is a satire of the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics made before the fact and released to coincide with the Summer Games. The coffers of the mythical nation of Klopstokia need replenishment, and, accepting the advice of an American brush salesman (Jack Oakie), the president (W.C. Fields), who holds office by virtue of his superior physical prowess, decides to send a delegation to the Olympics, hoping to put his little land on the map. This is a less ambitious notion than it first appears, because virtually every Klopstokian is a superior athlete. The rest of the film is a melange of intrigue (including an espionage parody), slapstick, chases, and very nearly a laugh every minute. Director Edward Cline called in several of the best silent-film gagsters (Ben Turpin and Hank Mann among them) to work with the inimitable Fields, and the result is a wonderful mix of physical comedy and sharp dialog that is unfortunately hampered somewhat by a script and direction that never quite tie all of the great gags together.