A nine-year-old Elizabeth Taylor made her film debut in this lively comedy. She plays the spoiled-brat daughter of a pudding manufacturer who has been entered into the town's mayoral race by some of the local businessmen. They have chosen him because they think he is easy to manipulate. As a sales gimmick, the pudding magnate advertises that his product contains the highly nutritious "Vitamin Z." He suddenly begins selling pudding like crazy and soon his political campaign is well-funded. Unfortunately, there is no "Vitamin Z" and when this is discovered, the town fathers try to dump him and show that he is a fake.
Acting
Nine-year-old Elizabeth Taylor already out-acting everyone in the room.
Writing
Absurd 'Vitamin Z' grift that feels painfully modern.
Director
Harold Young
Hugh Herbert
Lemuel P. Twine / Abner Twine / Colonel Cladius Zebediah Twine
Peggy Moran
Helen Barbara Twine
Tom Brown
Jimmy Hanagan
Guy Kibbee
Lester Cadwalader, Sr.
Catherine Doucet
Minerva Twine
Edgar Kennedy
Mayor Moe Carson
Gus Schilling
Professor Asa Quisenberry
Elizabeth Taylor
Gloria Twine
Charles Halton
Trumbull
Renie Riano
Miss Aphrodite Phipps
Carl Switzer
Junior Twine
Maude Eburne
Agatha
Harlan Briggs
Luke Simpson
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Universal signed Taylor after this solely because her eyes photographed so vividly in Technicolor tests. That's it. That's the reason.
The 'Vitamin Z' scam satirizes 1930s-40s patent medicine culture — literally the same era that gave us radioactive toothpaste and amphetamine diet pills.
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