"Kid Millions" wasn't burning up the screen before it fell off the tracks. It was already a ridiculously dumb movie to begin with, then they had to go racist and throw in blackface. It was all a part of a minstrel show they threw in the middle of the movie. It had no value or bearing on the plot. It was wholly unnecessary except to appease a sector of people who got a kick out of blackface.
The main character was Eddie Wilson Jr. (Eddie Cantor), an extremely dumb young man who was set to inherit $77M. He was so dumb that he believed a nineteen-year-old young lady when she told him that she was his mother--just to give you an idea of the aptitude of the main character and the plot.
I already wasn't feeling this movie before I saw Eddie applying black make-up to his face to prepare for the typical 1930's minstrel show that had "good" white people doubled over with laughter. As he was applying the make-up with the help of an older Black man who was, no doubt, a servant, Eddie said to him, "This is tough to put on. And take off. You know you're lucky."
What an imbecilic joke that, whether they meant it ironically or not, landed flat. Of course, the "you know you're lucky" was supposed to be a funny reference to the fact that the Black man was already made up to do minstrel if he so pleased. And that's about as sophisticated as the joke could possibly be, because him being "lucky" was so far from the truth. There he was having to stand there with a grin on his face, swallowing his pride, as a white man put on black make-up to be a caricature.
After the movie had its fun poking fun at one set of oppressed and marginalized people it moved to Egypt to promote further stereotypes. Why stop at Black Americans when you can keep going and ridicule Arabs too? One of their main faux pas, whether intentional or unintentional, was mischaracterizing Arabs to make them look like Indians. But who cares right? They're all the same.
The whole premise of this movie was steeped in imperialism and infringing on the rights of a sovereign people.
Eddie Wilson Jr.'s deceased father "discovered" treasure in an Egyptian tomb and laid claim to it, hence Eddie and a bunch of other greedy Americans were on Egyptian soil to claim the treasure. I'm sure the injustice and indignation of it all missed everybody involved with this wretched project. This movie was putrid, sophomoric, and terribly unfunny.
Free on Tubi.
The main character was Eddie Wilson Jr. (Eddie Cantor), an extremely dumb young man who was set to inherit $77M. He was so dumb that he believed a nineteen-year-old young lady when she told him that she was his mother--just to give you an idea of the aptitude of the main character and the plot.
I already wasn't feeling this movie before I saw Eddie applying black make-up to his face to prepare for the typical 1930's minstrel show that had "good" white people doubled over with laughter. As he was applying the make-up with the help of an older Black man who was, no doubt, a servant, Eddie said to him, "This is tough to put on. And take off. You know you're lucky."
What an imbecilic joke that, whether they meant it ironically or not, landed flat. Of course, the "you know you're lucky" was supposed to be a funny reference to the fact that the Black man was already made up to do minstrel if he so pleased. And that's about as sophisticated as the joke could possibly be, because him being "lucky" was so far from the truth. There he was having to stand there with a grin on his face, swallowing his pride, as a white man put on black make-up to be a caricature.
After the movie had its fun poking fun at one set of oppressed and marginalized people it moved to Egypt to promote further stereotypes. Why stop at Black Americans when you can keep going and ridicule Arabs too? One of their main faux pas, whether intentional or unintentional, was mischaracterizing Arabs to make them look like Indians. But who cares right? They're all the same.
The whole premise of this movie was steeped in imperialism and infringing on the rights of a sovereign people.
Eddie Wilson Jr.'s deceased father "discovered" treasure in an Egyptian tomb and laid claim to it, hence Eddie and a bunch of other greedy Americans were on Egyptian soil to claim the treasure. I'm sure the injustice and indignation of it all missed everybody involved with this wretched project. This movie was putrid, sophomoric, and terribly unfunny.
Free on Tubi.