Don't listen to the negative reviews

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Copyright 1 January 1933 by Samuel Goldwyn. Released through United Artists. New York opening at the Palace: 17 November 1932. London opening at roadshow prices: 8 April 1933. U.K. general release: 14 October 1933. Although the running time in most reference books is quoted at 118 minutes, this seems incorrect. The 1998 video copy runs 91 minutes.SYNOPSIS: The admirably daffy script has Cantor, an innocent fugitive, wanted for his part in a bank robbery, forced to take refuge in Mexico where the first person he runs across is none other than his old college chum from south of the border, Robert Young, of all people! Young successfully passes Cantor off to his prospective father-in-law, Noah Beery (who doesn't want Young to marry his daughter anyway), as the son of a famous bullfighter. NOTES: With a rentals gross of $2.6 million, number one at U.S./Canadian ticket windows for 1932. The picture wasn't quite so popular in England or Australia, in both countries rating fourth for 1933. [(In the U.K. Cavalcade was first, followed by The Good Companions. I think Tell Me Tonight was third). Negative cost: $1,400,000. Film debut of Jane Wyman. COMMENT: Such superlative entertainment, it's difficult to review the film without lapsing into endless encomiums. From its very opening shot of young Betty Grable to its delightful fade-out on a Cantor-Roberti reprise of "What a Perfect Combination", The Kid from Spain is fun, fun, fun all the way, without so much as a moment's respite. Superbly photographed, set and costumed, with spectacular dance numbers, catchy songs, brilliantly acted by a stand-out cast, directed by a master of stylish, comic timing... I could go on in this vein for pages. Maybe I'll just jot down (in purely random order) some of the high spots: (1) Cantor's run-in with the bull. This comic routine has been used so often over the years since 1932, it would have been no surprise to find that Cantor's material had been stolen many times over. But this isn't the case at all. So spectacular are Cantor's brushes here that no other producer could afford to duplicate them. There's some back projection of course, but so tightly edited are some of the shots, you have to run the sequence four or five times to work out how many of the wonderfully comic, daredevil effects were achieved. We love the word used to stop the bull in his tracks. What a classic! (2) Cantor's run-in with Paul Porcasi. This has to be one of the funniest border encounters on record. I thought it even more droll than the four Marx Brothers famous encounter with a whole tribe of customs officials in A Night at the Opera. (3) Cantor's run-ins with Lyda Roberti, that most talented and beautiful comedienne who starred in eleven films before her career was cut short by a fatal heart attack at the age of only 28. (4) Cantor's run-out on Miljan and Naish to sing his blackface routine, "What a Perfect Combination". (5) Cantor's run-out on would-be bandit assassin, Stanley Fields. (6) Cantor singing "In the Moonlight" and flittering through a characteristic dance with Toby Wing and the Goldwyn Girls. (7) Grace Poggi dancing up a storm, the like of which has rarely been equalled in the cinema. (Maybe Anita Ekberg's "Climb Up the Wall" in Zarak runs close). (8) Busby Berkeley throwing girls into spinning choreography. (9) Robert Emmett O'Connor, quixotically dead-pan, as he looks forward to Sunday. (10) Cantor walking "this way" to the firing squad.

Eddie Cantor musical where a jittery simpleton is forced to cross the border to Mexico and pretend he is a matador. It's nothing special all told. Some of the jokes are funny, yes, but the whole is thin and I'm sure recycled from previous film and radio work.What is of some interest, is that Busby Berkeley is here with his crafty engineering. Oh, both of his numbers feel tacky and have nothing to do with anything, which is more proof of zero vision behind this. Yet both numbers impress. Both are in that voluptuous mode he would cultivate in coming years: sexual tease, sparkle and shadowplay, the female body as the fulcrum of a continuously shifting erotic landscape. Eddie in blackface among Busby's radiant troupe feels crude and out of place. He would be on to 42nd Street and history the next year.

I have liked Eddie Cantor films for some time even though now in the twenty-first century he's practically forgotten. That's because even in the bad ones, his character and personality is very likable and sweet. Plus, when he is given excellent material, his films are tough to be beat--particularly FORTY LITTLE MOTHERS and Hollywood CANTEEN.Cantor was a huge name on stage and was famous for his comedic song and dance numbers. Like Al Jolson, Cantor also often performed in black-face--something that would definitely shock many people today but which was widely accepted and not criticized in the old days. This film, like a few of his others, does feature such a minstrel segment, so if you can't watch it without suffering a fatal heart attack, then this is one to skip. However, if you do, you may be missing out on a rather entertaining little comedy.Oddly, though, despite Cantor being a nice comic, the parts of the film that made me laugh the most were unintended by the producers. This is because Busby Berkeley designed and directed several huge production numbers that are so over-the-top that they are, in this day and age, funny to watch. The best of these is the opening number. It supposedly is set in a girl's dorm in college but school was never like this!! Seeing all the "Goldwyn Girls" running about in various states of undress as they performed the most complex and expensive dance number is something you won't soon forget! As for the plot, Eddie and his friend Robert Young (who plays, of all things, a Mexican) are on their way to Mexico. However, on the way, Eddie accidentally gets mixed up in a bank robbery and the police think he's part of the gang. So, once in Mexico, he pretends to be the son of a famous bullfighter to avoid being captured. In the end, of course, is the obligatory bull fight and Cantor manages to survive AND get the girl.The whole film is full of surprisingly engaging songs from Cantor and as I said above, his character is so likable you will probably find yourself having a good time--even with its various shortcomings (including a rather poorly filmed bull fight).

Forced into Mexico by crooks, a nervous young man impersonates THE KID FROM SPAIN--an imaginary bullfighter -- to keep from getting arrested.Follies star Eddie Cantor prances his way through this naughty pre-Code comedy. Rolling his eyes and clapping his hands, he uses every trick at his disposal to amuse and he succeeds quite nicely. Cantor never slows down, but, like a mischievous little boy, he seems forever looking for new trouble to explore. His climactic scene in the bullfighting arena remains his best remembered movie moment.Robert Young seems an odd choice to portray a Mexican college boy, and his problematic courtship of pretty Ruth Hall is totally lacking in excitement, but fortunately it isn't given an inordinate amount of screen time. Polish comic actress Lyda Roberti makes a good foil for Cantor; her amusing face almost matches his own in stealing scenes and her singing & acting are delightfully offbeat.The dastardly deeds are handled by two of the era's best bad guys--John Miljan as an evil matador and J. Carrol Naish as his grimy sidekick. In addition, Cantor gets to share comedy sequences with three funny fellows--Paul Porcasi as a harried border guard; beefy Noah Beery as Miss Hall's very stern papa & Stanley Fields as a dumb-as-mud killer.Movie mavens will recognize diminutive Edgar ‘Blueboy' Connor as a bull trainer and a young Betty Grable as one of the chorus girls--both uncredited.Busby Berkeley directed the movie's musical production numbers, including the opening scene in a girls' dormitory, which seems to serve no other purpose than to expose a good deal of female flesh. The film's conclusion seems a bit abrupt. The villains have not been punished and the Young/Hall romance is still unresolved, but Cantor seems quite happy so why quibble?