Roman Scandals

If you aren't a fan of the Wide-Eyed Wonder already, you should be. He takes the audience of romp after romp from Rome, New York to ancient Rome itself. Cantor was the emperor's food taster in the time of the Roman Empire; what a task! Who else could do it so whimsically? We to go to the movies for fun, right? You will definitely have fun skipping through a loosely written script with the man with the mesmerizing eyes. Considering the time(1930's) and the sad state the entire country was in (the Depression), this had to be the most enjoyable time of a person's week. Absolutely remarkable. And to prove it, this movie made a ton of money! Lucille Ball makes her screen debut in this film and rejoins Eddie a year later in 1934's Kid Millions. Eddie Cantor is said to have commended Lucy for putting "comedy before glamour" in her work on this film.

One of the underlying themes is slavery —- mostly as satire, but a disturbingly poignant scene at the climax of the slave bazaar number has a girl throwing herself to her death to escape from bondage. This was at a time when Busby Berkeley, the choreographer, was sometimes inserting serious byplay into his numbers (a la "42nd Street"). Boy, is this example a beaut! The Ruth Etting blues solo "No More Love" directly plays on the same theme. Both songs have undercurrents I've never seen suggested in a comedy before or since. These, along with the nutty, racially integrated "Keep Young & Beautiful" routine, add a curiously (yet fascinating) unsavory aspect to the proceedings that is not really easy to characterize.

Oh yeah, what about that lively beer garden drinking song near the beginning and Cantor in black-face! Offensive, absolutely —- but somehow, with Cantor, what's not to love? Politically incorrect? You betcha —- but this is not cruel or demeaning stuff. It's mostly just out-and-out dream-like crazy.

Others have noted the fine production values, and of course the great comic chariot race at the end. Add it all up and what you've got is a nice, unique, big 'ol pastry of a movie musical. If you wanted something to take your mind of things for 93 minutes in 1933, this was just the ticket. If you want something to take your mind off things for 93 minutes in 2007,this is still just the ticket

What needs to be understood about this entertainment film is that it is a revue. The 'hook" for its use of the time-travel gimmick, forward or in this case backward, which it helped to inspire for years to come is a parallel drawn by the authors between a corrupt West Rome, Oklahoma and the governors of ancient Rome's empire. The bridge between the two is opened in the mind of Eddie, played with verve and charisma by Eddie Cantor. In this the most lavish of his four 1930s musicals, with choreography by Busby Berkeley, Cantor imagines himself back in ancient Rome, where he uncovers corruption similar to his own small town's problems. In this musical comedy enlivened by Berkeley, with story and gags by George S. Kaufman, Nat Perrin and and Robert Emmet Sherwood among others, Eddie first finds bribery going on by a developer who wants to build a new jail, dispossessing many residents in the midst of the great Depression. As a result of his protests, after singing a song, Eddie is thrown out of town by police. He then finds himself inexplicably in ancient Rome, and after insulting the Empress, he is condemned to be sold as a slave. Narrowly escaping the clutches of an amorous hag, he is bought by Josephus, handsome David Manners, who wants him as a friend, not a slave. Meanwhile, the Emperor Valerius's favorite, played by Ruth Etting, is being sold away. This leads to the magnificent "No More Love" number involving naked girls covered only by long tresses chained to huge pillars and a Berkeley dance number involving a symbolic slave-girl dancer who plunges from the top of a huge staircase at the end of the number. Meanwhile, the story continues. The four strands involved are Josephus's love for a Princess (Gloria Stuart), Eddie falling afoul of Roman mores, the Empress Agrippina, Verree Teasdale, trying to poison her philandering husband, played with award-level gusto by Edward Arnold, and Valerius pursuing Sylvia (Stuart). Josephus has renamed Eddie "Oedipus"; an hilarious sequence involves "lava gas" being administered to Eddie, then to the royal torturers and finally the Emperor. The Emperor wants Olga back, but still has time to pursue Sylvia. Josephus tries to free both Eddie and Sylvia when the Emperor takes them but is rebuffed. Sylvia agrees to be taken to the palace--to remain there until she falls in love with Valerius-- if he will leave her people unpunished. Then the imperial food taster dies--Agrippina's work, of course; and Eddie gets the job. By this time he has introduced several U.S. vices including crooked dice into ancient Rome. Agrippina summons Eddie to her couch and tells him she wants to poison Valerius. As a precaution, Valerius banishes his rival Josephus who decides to wait for Sylvia, to be spirited away to him, in his chariot. After some tribulations with the palace's majordomo, Alan Mowbray, Eddie gets the message he's been given to Sylvia. After another song in the women's quarters, Eddie finds out about corruption involving Valerius and two senators--a parallel to the West Rome chicanery. Agrippina then warns Eddie not to eat the night's dinner, which he feeds to the royal crocodile. The Empress puts the blame for the animal's demise onto Josephus and Sylvia; Josephus takes Sylvia away in his chariot, and after being condemned to be thrown to the lions himself, Eddie escapes and tries to catch them, to prevent Josephus's being killed at the port of Ostia. After a memorably and funny chariot chase, Cantor wakes up in the U.S. again; and there is a bribe to the police chief as evidence of the wrongdoing he had claimed in his pocket. The satire ends happily, but not without having raised disturbing parallels between republicans' poisoning of the federal reserve and US corruption and the statism of Rome's authoritarian emperors. The piece is a satire from beginning to end, with elements of comedy, drama, parody and song. it is a difficult sort of film to do well, I assert; and to expect this to be any one sort of offering is to fail to comprehend its purpose. This is a thinking-man's light-entertainment, nothing more and a great deal more than less. Girls in revealing costumes, an escapist look at Roman parallels, some delightful actors, a few songs and several spectacular sequences; this was entertainment in the 1930s and for those willing to enjoy it on its own terms, as pure fun, it still is. Every time-travel comedy made since "A Connecticut Yankee" of 1931 and this film owes a great deal to the inspiration of both, but especially I suggest to "Roman Scandals". Frank Tuttle directed this fast-paced and sumptuous romp. The cinematography was by Ray June and Gregg Toland, with costumes by John W. Harkrider, and difficult art direction was provided by Richard Day. Alfred Newman did the music, Harry Warren the original songs. In the cast, Arnold and Teasdale are wonderful, the young leads are attractive throughout and Alan Mowbray delightful in a comedic turns. There are several important actors in small parts including Jane Darwell, Lucille Ball and Billy Barty. With an updated score, I suggest this seminal musical could be successfully remade; but the hard part would be to remove the Eddie Cantor contribution, which was as much a pattern for future comedic talents such as Lou Costello and Jerry Lewis as it was intrinsic to the fun of the production. This Samuel Goldwyn opus may be a trifle pretentious here and there, but not one moment of it I suggest is ever dull.

Lucille Desiree Ball's beginnings in Hollywood was inauspicious to say the least. Her first appearance in movies, in December 1933's "Roman Scandals" with Eddie Cantor, was brief that came with a major incident, yet it was a start. Fatherless at the age of four, Lucille caught the acting bug in her late teens when she was part of a Shriner's chorus line, receiving praise for her performance she never had growing up. Attending the John Murray Anderson School for Dramatic Arts in New York City with Bette Davis in 1926, she left early because her instructor told her she was too shy. But Ball persisted, and landed a number of small showgirl roles before she hopped on a train to Hollywood.

Lucille Ball made it known she would do anything, including having mud thrown in her face, during the production of "Roman Scandals." She's seen in the film's opening and the closing as an uncredited 'Shantytown resident,' saying her first line on film. During one provocative dancing sequence, she's a chained slave with very long blonde hair with no clothes on. Ball later said of her appearance, "I was classified with the scenery." In the Busby Berkeley number "No More Love," she and the other 'slave girls' are shackled high on a circular platform. To insure there was privacy for the women because of their nakedness, the production was scheduled at night in a closed set with a skeleton film crew. Several takes and retakes under the hot lights while the chorus girls had to stand between each shoot became an ordeal for Lucy, who became faint on the pedestal. Her fake chains broke loose and she fell. An extra playing a slave driver had the strength to catch her before she severely injured herself.

Singer/actor Eddie Cantor was consistently Hollywood's top box office draw since the introduction of talkies. "Roman Scandals" became the number one film for ticket receipts in 1933. One of Winston Churchill's most beloved songs was introduced in this movie, "Keep Young and Beautiful." Film reviewer Derik Winnert's assessment on Cantor's acting was "The star appears at his most engaging, exuberant and typical in a dynamic, winning performance."

Cantor plays Eddie, a delivery boy who stumbles upon members of a city graft operation, discovering residents of an entire neighborhood being kicked out to build a needless jail. Passionate with the history of ancient Rome, Eddie finds himself in that time period after a blow to his head. He soon discovers the emperor of Rome, Valerius (Edward Arnold), is just as crooked as the politicians back home. He spots a captured princess, Sylvia (Gloria Stuart), and sets out to free her. Stuart, who played Old Rose in 1997's "Titanic," received the role of the princess without taking a screen test because producer Samuel Goldwyn personally saw she got the part. Stuart met her future husband, Arthur Sheekman, a dialogue writer for "Roman Scandals," on the set and soon married him. They named their daughter Sylvia for the character Gloria played.

Even though for the next few years Lucille Ball was unable to capitalize on her innate talents, "Roman Scandals" did begin a lifelong friendship between her and Eddie Cantor. The two crossed paths a number of times, including on the radio, in fundraisers and appearing in television skits together. "Roman Scandals" was nominated as one of 500 motion pictures to be considered for the American Film Institute's Top 100 Funniest Movies.

A kind-hearted young man is thrown out of his corrupt home town of West Rome, Oklahoma. He falls asleep and dreams that he is back in the days of olden Rome, where he gets mixed up with court intrigue and a murder plot against the Emperor.

Based on how few people have rated this film (under 500), I am left with the impression that it must not be purchased, streamed or aired very often. And what a shame, because it is pretty funny, and would be enjoyed by anyone who likes the witty kind of humor the Marx Brothers were doing. (There is even a poison sequence that is not unlike a Danny Kaye skit twenty years later: "The pellet with the poison's in the vessel with the pestle; the chalice from the palace has the brew that is true!") I suppose the blackface skit may be one reason the film has fallen out of favor, but this is unfortunate. Whether you consider this racist or not, it is part of film history and should not be simply forgotten or hidden.