THE MILKY WAY (1936) B/W 88m dir: Leo McCarey

w/Harold Lloyd, Adolphe Menjou, Verree Teasdale, Helen Mack, William Gargan, George Barbier, Lionel Stander

From Variety's contemporary review of the film: "The Milky Way with Harold Lloyd is a good laff picture. The role of the timid milk wagon route-man who is catapulted into pugilistic fame and fortune is almost made to order for Lloyd and he plays it to the hilt. Given the support of a sturdy stage original [by Lynn Root and Harry Clork], the cinematic treatment is bolstered with some highly effective business of its own.

"Adolphe Menjou is his usual capital self as the harassed fight manager who finds himself with a dead herring on his hands when middle-weight champ William Gargan gets the headline razz. This results in Lloyd's buildup as The Killer. Verree Teasdale is sophisticated vis-a-vis for Menjou, serving as good counterbalance to the almost psychopathic mentor of the maulers. Because of Menjou's insomnia, a sleep-inducer becomes plausible business for some more highly effective comedy, including the Morpheus act that puts Gargan to sleep again and permits Lloyd to win on a technical k.o.

"The Milky Way merits the final good results, for this production was plenty harried by the illnesses of Menjou, McCarey and Teasdale, necessitating considerable delay.

"Lionel Stander as the dumb-cluck pug is in his element with that basso-profundo speech and the wild attack of a role that's suited for his peculiar backgrounding."