"Palmy Days" opens with a teasing, sexy music number set at an ideal bakery where all the employees are young, beautiful, athletic and barely dressed women! It's as pre-code as it gets (the song is called "Bend down, sister" - and they sure do!), and Busby Berkeley's magical, psychedelic choreography is magnificent. This is followed by a hilarious comic segment with Eddie Cantor as a fake medium's assistant, messing up a seance. At this point, I was already prepared to declare "Palmy Days" better than "Whoopee!", Cantor's previous (and first) movie vehicle. But the rest of the movie does not stay on that level. This time, Cantor's comedy misses about as often as it hits, like in his terrible blackface routine or his "quacking" (which should have been a single-scene gag). Fortunately, there is another great, crazy Berkeley number near the end. Charlotte Greenwood is an energetic and physical partner for Cantor, and the largely unknown Barbara Weeks is about as beautiful as any other famous actress of her day. **1/2 out of 4.
Review of Palmy Days
