“If you laid all the athletes in this country end to end, they'd stretch 484 miles.” “How do you know?” “We did it once.” W. C. Fields is President of the mythical country of Klopstokia, a position he holds by virtue of being the country's top Indian wrestler, challenged to no avail by his Secretary of the Treasury, Hugh Herbert. The visit to Klopstokia of American brush salesman Jack Oakie ends in that country's decision to participate in the Olympics (to be held in Los Angeles) in order to fill its empty coffers. This is a rough outline of Million Dollar Legs (the title refers to those of majordomo Andy Clyde, who, with the help of Sennett-style photographic tricks, runs very, very fast). However, no one seems too concerned to stick to the story, written by Joseph L. Mankiewicz (at the time a Paramount screenwriter). Silent sight gags pile upon verbal shenanigans, with W. C. Fields translating some of his vaudeville routines unadulterated, and possibly unsolicited, to the screen. Contemporary critics raised their brows from middle to high at the primitive humor of this “just plain silly” picture, but many now consider Million Dollar Legs, with its abundance of visual and verbal surprises, a classic of sublime idiocy unique to early thirties comedy.