It seems to me Milton Berle is an acquired taste. Having seen him in countless variety shows in the Fifties and Sixties including his own, it's pretty safe to say that many of the bits shown in this film were available to TV fans back in the day. He was probably one of the first comedians to do it up in drag and his Carmen Miranda bit in this flick was almost expected. Still, I can't help but feel that most of this picture was unsatisfying and not very funny, in fact, some of it was embarrassingly juvenile.
The story line manages to name drop some of the celebrity headliners of the day, folks like Hope, Benny and Skelton, Burns and Allen and even Jimmy Durante a couple of times. It would have been cool to see a few of them show up in cameo roles but that wasn't the case. Seeing Bert Lahr was kind of neat, as he put the Cowardly Lion into his first bit on screen and proceeded to demonstrate some of his own vaudeville style. His dancing bit with Berle in the 'Silvery Moon' number was entertaining, and as I sit here now thinking about it, I can't say who might have done it first, the two of them or Hope and Crosby. Very nice footwork in any event.
It's probably safe to say that Milton Berle's own rise in show business probably paralleled that of his character Kip Cooper in the film. There's no denying the man earned his oft stated title of Mr. Television for his contribution to the new format during TV's Golden Age, often making it up as he went from week to week. Still, there are times in this movie when the going gets tedious and the title of the picture just doesn't seem to fit.
The story line manages to name drop some of the celebrity headliners of the day, folks like Hope, Benny and Skelton, Burns and Allen and even Jimmy Durante a couple of times. It would have been cool to see a few of them show up in cameo roles but that wasn't the case. Seeing Bert Lahr was kind of neat, as he put the Cowardly Lion into his first bit on screen and proceeded to demonstrate some of his own vaudeville style. His dancing bit with Berle in the 'Silvery Moon' number was entertaining, and as I sit here now thinking about it, I can't say who might have done it first, the two of them or Hope and Crosby. Very nice footwork in any event.
It's probably safe to say that Milton Berle's own rise in show business probably paralleled that of his character Kip Cooper in the film. There's no denying the man earned his oft stated title of Mr. Television for his contribution to the new format during TV's Golden Age, often making it up as he went from week to week. Still, there are times in this movie when the going gets tedious and the title of the picture just doesn't seem to fit.