With "Whoopee" one of Samuel Goldwyn's biggest moneymakers, the follow up for Eddie Cantor, Busby Berkeley and the Goldwyn Girls didn't need to veer away from the tried and true formula. Unfortunately it was released in those dark "this is NOT a Musical" days. Even though it was filmed in black and white and at just over 70 minutes was pretty short for a major production, it had an eye catching opening performed by some of the most beautiful chorus girls around (Betty Grable leading the line). "Bend Down Sister" proved to be the hit of the movie and was sung by lanky Charlotte Greenwood as she instructs her bakery girls to be conscious of their figures - "don't go messing with French Dressing" and "Ham and eggs should always be outside looking in". The girls go into a typical Berkeley geometric formation with exercise sticks as props.
Eddie Cantor plays Eddie Simpson, a bumbling assistant to a phoney fortune teller (Charles Middleton). Eddie has an odd habit of singing whenever he is nervous and that is happening a lot because he has just been installed as an efficiency expert at Clark's Bakery (the medium wants to hypnotise the owner to take control!!) There's lots of laughs - at one point Eddie (in his love happy state) breaks off a corner of the desk and as the boss fumes, Eddie blithly tells him that will now discourage people from sitting on the desk and wasting time. Eddie gets to like the job and wants to go straight. He breathes new life into the bakery - even though it has the best food and the prettiest girls, it has no pizazz - until Eddie puts on a floor show and in "blackface" sings "There's Nothing Too Good for My Baby" - ("Baby wants a limousine - I show her one in a magazine").
The crooks learn of a $25,000 payroll that Eddie has been given charge of - this makes for a lot of comic situations, Eddie posing as a woman, having to go into the girl's change rooms and at the end having a swimming lesson with the girls as they swim "au natural" -pretty racy but good fun. He ends up taking the money out of the safe and baking it in a loaf of bread - then accused of theft he must find the loaf to clear his name. Charlotte Greenwood joins him as his comic romance - the "physical torturist" according to Eddie.
"Palmy Days" was intended as a straight comedy with one song, "Yes, Yes" but when Goldwyn saw it at a preview he ordered more songs. "Yes, Yes" is performed at Joan's (Barbara Weeks) engagement party - Eddie thinks he is the lucky man (in reality it is really colourless Paul Page) and sings the energetic "Yes, Yes" followed by another formation dance by the Bakery Girls ("Bend Down, Sister" was a more enjoyable, precise routine). In this dance there were hat boxes as steps and at the end the dancers hold up cards to become a train. Audiences were more intrigued with Eddie's "put put" antics - a weird quacking noise he made throughout the movie. When the movie was re-released in the 1940s George Raft (formerly billed 7th) replaced Greenwood's name from 2nd billing. It must have been puzzling to Raft's many fans to find he played a henchman - "Joe the Frog" with only a few mumbled lines.
Highly Recommended.
Eddie Cantor plays Eddie Simpson, a bumbling assistant to a phoney fortune teller (Charles Middleton). Eddie has an odd habit of singing whenever he is nervous and that is happening a lot because he has just been installed as an efficiency expert at Clark's Bakery (the medium wants to hypnotise the owner to take control!!) There's lots of laughs - at one point Eddie (in his love happy state) breaks off a corner of the desk and as the boss fumes, Eddie blithly tells him that will now discourage people from sitting on the desk and wasting time. Eddie gets to like the job and wants to go straight. He breathes new life into the bakery - even though it has the best food and the prettiest girls, it has no pizazz - until Eddie puts on a floor show and in "blackface" sings "There's Nothing Too Good for My Baby" - ("Baby wants a limousine - I show her one in a magazine").
The crooks learn of a $25,000 payroll that Eddie has been given charge of - this makes for a lot of comic situations, Eddie posing as a woman, having to go into the girl's change rooms and at the end having a swimming lesson with the girls as they swim "au natural" -pretty racy but good fun. He ends up taking the money out of the safe and baking it in a loaf of bread - then accused of theft he must find the loaf to clear his name. Charlotte Greenwood joins him as his comic romance - the "physical torturist" according to Eddie.
"Palmy Days" was intended as a straight comedy with one song, "Yes, Yes" but when Goldwyn saw it at a preview he ordered more songs. "Yes, Yes" is performed at Joan's (Barbara Weeks) engagement party - Eddie thinks he is the lucky man (in reality it is really colourless Paul Page) and sings the energetic "Yes, Yes" followed by another formation dance by the Bakery Girls ("Bend Down, Sister" was a more enjoyable, precise routine). In this dance there were hat boxes as steps and at the end the dancers hold up cards to become a train. Audiences were more intrigued with Eddie's "put put" antics - a weird quacking noise he made throughout the movie. When the movie was re-released in the 1940s George Raft (formerly billed 7th) replaced Greenwood's name from 2nd billing. It must have been puzzling to Raft's many fans to find he played a henchman - "Joe the Frog" with only a few mumbled lines.
Highly Recommended.