Palmy Days

this movie begins with the finest five minutes, principally consisting of a busby Berkeley dance number performed in the girls gymnasium. as they dance their daily exercise routine to stay slim and attractive (they work in a bakery), Charlotte greenwood sings "bend down sister". but leading up to that is a little gem that lasts less than 30 seconds in which a man comes in to order a cake. i won't "spoil" it for you by describing any further. suffice it to say, in my opinion of course, this could well be the best twenty eight seconds ever put on film. you see, inasmuch as it really has nothing whatever to do with the rest of the movie, it was simply put there for the sake of laughter. and it succeeds. o how it succeeds.

i would hope to see this film on television one day again. but hope springs eternal. it is apparently not available on DVD.

This is a very, very silly film. It's so childish and shallow that you'd be embarrassed to say that you really enjoyed it....but if you're not too cynical or humourless, you just might think it's great.

It's like a Christmas pantomime, which in a way is what vaudeville in America was and that's where the star of the show (and writer), Eddie Cantor came from. So we have an absurd story with unbelievable over-the-top acting (including Emperor Ming from Flash Gordon!) .....nevertheless, it is really funny.

The first ten minutes of this film are truly awesome. Holy mackerel, pilchard and halibut! God bless you Sam Goldwyn for the Goldwyn Girls and God bless you Busby Berkley for this. At some point Busby Berkley must have said: 'So, everyone who works in this bakery is a gorgeous young woman - they all sleep together so let's show them all getting out of bed and getting dressed into their super-skimpy aprons.' Someone may have then added: 'Then they will all go to the bakery's gym and do their exercises." "Good idea," says Buz, "but if they're bending over a lot they'll need to wear something even skimpier." It's all innocent seaside postcard fun, it's a bit naughty but not seedy and is so ridiculous that you can't take it seriously - nevertheless, wow, just wow! If our careers teachers had shown this to us at school when we were 12, every single boy would have wanted to be a baker.

This is Eddie Cantor's second Goldwyn/Berkley extravaganza, it's not quite as good as Roman Scandals which came a couple of years later - mainly because that one had a proper (almost) story and the same song writers who did the Busby Berkley movies at Warners. This however is fresh, cheerful and by having proper goodies and baddies chasing each other, it's actually quite exciting at times.

"Palmy Days" is one of comedian Eddie Cantor's funniest films, with some snappy songs, lots of pretty girls, and a genuinely exciting climax in which Eddie and a jacket full of money end up on a conveyor belt heading towards a giant bread-slicer. Even Eddie's obligatory blackface sequence is less obtrusive here (and less offensive) than usual. As with Al Jolson, audiences expected Eddie Cantor to "black up" in burnt cork for at least one song in most of his stage musicals and early movies. (Jolson and Cantor were friends in private life but bitter rivals professionally.)

In "Palmy Days", Eddie plays the meek assistant to a phoney medium, played by Charles ("Ming the Merciless") Middleton, who's trying to swindle Spencer Charters, the superstitious owner of a gigantic bakery/restaurant staffed by dozens of beautiful waitresses and she-chefs in skimpy outfits who perform Busby Berkeley dance routines while baking the crullers. A misunderstanding persuades Charters to engage Eddie as his new time-and-motion expert. When Charters hands Eddie $25,000 cash to dole out to the employees as efficiency bonuses, Middleton and his goons try to kill Eddie so they can steal the cash.

The songs are catchy, with good lyrics and some early Busby Berkeley choreography: not dancing as such, but lots of pretty girls marching in close formation. The jokes are (mostly) very funny. Eddie Cantor often had lacklustre leading ladies, but here he's teamed with Charlotte Greenwood, a long-limbed comedienne who's very funny in her own right and quite appealing (for those of us who fancy an assertive woman). Charlotte leads the girls in a neat gymnastic routine to the tune of "Bend Down, Sister". George Raft is well-cast as one of Middleton's goons.

Some of the gags in this movie are surprisingly blue. A very young Betty Grable does a brief comedy routine with a fussy young man whose favourite flower is a "pansy" (nudge, nudge). There's an amazingly kinky and protracted drag sequence in this film, when Eddie is fleeing from the thugs who are trying to kill him. Eddie puts on a blonde wig and one of the skimpy waitress uniforms, and he hides among several dozen real waitresses.

Eddie Cantor was a small, delicate man with large eyes: when he wears a female disguise in this movie, he comes amazingly close to resembling a good-looking woman! Meanwhile, gym-mistress Charlotte is herding all the waitresses into the changing room so they can undress and take a shower. Charlotte grabs "waitress" Eddie and orders "her" to undress and get into the shower with all the "other" girls. If "waitress" Eddie's male gender gets exposed, he'll get killed. Adding to the kinkiness is a quick reaction shot of Charlotte Greenwood, suggesting that she *knows* this particular "waitress" is really a man in drag. The end of this sequence is astonishing, and I'm surprised it got past the censors: if this movie had been made a year later, the Hays Office would definitely have scissored it.

There's an amusing continuity error in this film. When Charters first hands the $25,000 bonus money to Eddie, it consists of several large stacks of banknotes. A bit later in the film, this same $25,000 has somehow compressed so that Eddie can hide it all inside a single loaf of bread. During the fight scene at the climax of this film, the whole $25,000 has somehow morphed into a single fistful of cash.

They don't make 'em this funny anymore. "Palmy Days" has a big production budget, and most of it shows up on screen in the gorgeous sets and costumes. Try to ignore the brief subplot romance between bland Barbara Weeks (who?) and dull Paul Page (double who?). I'll rate "Palmy Days" 10 points out of 10. Bend down, sister!

First off: I've always liked this one - I thought it Eddie Cantor's best film, maybe partly because the 2 main songs in it were so wonderful and summed up the early Hollywood musical for me. Second: it's a classic anyway. Third: coming back to it after a 15 year gap brings it home to me just how weird this would probably appear to the unwary who stumble across it. Notwithstanding its relentless wit and charm, belief in character, plot and set logic must be totally suspended for the 77 minutes to get the most out.

Eddie is mistakenly employed as Efficiency Expert by scatty owner of an art deco bakery run by scantily clad females. He falls in love with the boss's daughter whilst gangly Charlotte Greenwood falls for him; meanwhile machinating phoney séancer Charles "Ming" Middleton and his henchmen are machinating in the background after their chance to rob the boss. The workers exercise routines may be coyly exploitative - but remember many Japanese multinational companies around the globe still use similar if more updated techniques on their benighted employees. Millions back then were probably thinking how lucky all the Goldwyn girls were to have a job, even if only as delightful looking objects. Favourite bits: Bend Down Sister sung by Greenwood and the girls with some nice patterns arranged by Busby Berkeley; There's Nothing Too Good For My Baby (but a Black-Face routine warning goes out for those with a weak constitution) – delivered with such vim; Yes Yes! My Honey Said Yes Yes! (at the engagement party with even nicer patterns. Astounding to think he never recorded it commercially); Greenwood's admission that Cantor was the key to her ignition (Roll over R Kelly); at the séance Greenwood being surprised it was her dog talking to her; many more - the smart ass one liners come so fast it's hard to pick the best.

Cantor was an incredible performer with zest and vitality up to the max, but it appears as time goes by he (with Al Jolson) becomes more and more of an acquired taste. This film is fast funny and farcical as well as far-fetched fanciful and fluffy; I love it - open not only your mind but your heart. Ya-da-da and Ohyoudon't, that's what Eddie had plenty of.

Light musical comedy set in a bakery business, with a couple of Busby Berkeley coreographies and lots of Eddie Cantor gags and numbers, helped by Charlotte Greenwood as a physical trainer, whose tall stature makes a comic contrast with Eddie. He stars as a false medium's assistant who is mistankenly taken by an expert and hired by the bakery owner, sucessfully transforms the business into a sort of show-cafè and then tries to prevent it to be robbed by the medium's gang (which includes a young George Raft), while falling in love with the boss' daughter (Joan Clark).