Palmy Days

PALMY DAYS (United Artists, 1931), directed by Edward Sutherland, became Samuel Goldwyn's second annual Eddie Cantor production, and another laugh fest with dance numbers and smiling chorines, compliments from choreographer, Busby Berkeley. This being the shortest Cantor musical in the Goldwyn series (77 minutes), it also consists of the least amount of songs (a total of three), plus a handful of funny dialog as well as some violent physical comedy that would be considered something of a throwback during the Mack Sennett silent comedy days.

In this venture, Eddie Cantor plays Eddie Simpson, a nervous little man (as he was in his initial Goldwyn musical, WHOOPEE, in 1930, this time singing whenever he becomes excited), who becomes an unwitting assistant to Yolando (Charles Middleton), a phony spiritualist. Helen Martin (Charlotte Greenwood), a single woman in search for a husband, who manages a gymnasium, regularly attends Yolando's séances. Merry mix-ups follow when Helen mistakes Eddie for her future husband, while Eddie is mistaken for the predicted efficiency expert by Yolando's gullible but millionaire client, A.B. Clark (Spencer Charters), owner of a gigantic bakery business. Eddie becomes interested with Clark's doll-faced daughter, Joan (Barbara Weeks), whom he believes is in love with him, but she is really interested in Steve Clayton (Paul Page). Because Eddie stands in the way of Yolando's corrupt scheme to rob Clark of his $25,000, he hires his two thugs, Joe (George Raft) and Plug Moynihan (Harry Woods) to do away with him, but Eddie has his own problems being pursued by the man-chasing Miss Martin who won't take no for an answer from her "Romeo."

The musical numbers for PALMY DAYS include: "Bend Down Sister" by Ballard MacDonald and Con Conrad (sung by Charlotte Greenwood and Goldwyn girls); "There's Nothing Too Good For My Baby" by Benny Davis, Harry Akst and Eddie Cantor (sung by Eddie Cantor in blackface); "My Honey Said Yes, Yes" by Cliff Friend (sung by Cantor/ performed by Goldwyn Girls); and "My Honey Said Yes, Yes" (finale reprise by Cantor and Greenwood). If the "My Honey Said Yes, Yes" score sounds familiar, it was later used for the 1981 Steve Martin musical, PENNIES FROM HEAVEN.

Aside from two production numbers with the Busby Berkeley overhead camera shots and kaleidoscopic routines, trademarks that would make him famous, PALMY DAYS features several very funny comedy routines, including Greenwood giving Cantor a workout in the gymnasium, even at one point having him twisted in pretzel fashion like a contortionist; being offered a medicine ball with Cantor feeling it too big to swallow; and later being pursued by gangsters (Raft and Woods), hiding out into the company gym locker room while the girls prepare to take their daily swim, thus having Eddie disguising himself as one of the girls (looking almost amazingly like Jack Lemmon's cross dressing character in the 1959 comedy classic, SOME LIKE IT HOT), and being forced to strip by Helen Martin for a shower and a dip into the pool. (Watch Eddie get himself out of that!) The movie is highlighted with a comedic chase in the Clark bakery involving Eddie, Helen, Yolando and his gang over the $25,000 which is hidden in the dough of bread. The one brief scene in which Eddie tries to show off his operation to Mr. Clark (Spencer Charters), is a little inside humor lifted from their comedy routine in WHOOPEE. And let's not overlook a line uttered by Cantor during a séance early in the story, "There is a Minneapolis in heaven, just as there is a St. Paul."

The chemistry between Eddie Cantor and Charlotte Greenwood is priceless. It's a pity they didn't do another movie together. In recent years, PALMY DAYS enjoyed some frequent cable television revivals briefly on Turner Network Television (TNT) in the early 1990s, the Nostalgia Channel, and on American Movie Classics during the season of 1992-93. It was distributed on video cassette, and one of the six package set of Cantor/Goldwyn musicals, but has since been discontinued, with the exception of ROMAN SCANDALS (1933) and KID MILLIONS (1934) which continued in video sale distribution for several years thereafter.

PALMY DAYS would not rank as the American Film Institute's top 100 comedies of the twentieth century, but it's worth viewing, particularly due to Cantor's buffoonery that at times pre-dates the 1960s comedies of Jerry Lewis, but not to the extreme, and/or spotting some future film stars as George Raft (in a small role); watching the villainous Charles Middleton, five years before achieving fame as Ming the Merciless in the FLASH GORDON chaptered serials for Universal in 1936; and Betty Grable and Virginia Bruce, recognizable and visible in the opening dance routines. (***)

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.

I strongly recommend you try "Palmy Days"...it has a lot of energy and heart and it's also a lot of fun. However, be forewarned...it features a song and dance number with Eddie Cantor in blackface...something he did often with his stage act. Now before you get all excited and think Cantor is a horrible racist, there are two things to remember. First, while we realize that blackface acts are offensive today, back in the 1920s and 30s, they were popular...and some black performers even did blackface numbers...painting while around their mouths. Second, Cantor is the man Sammy Davis Jr. Credited for starting his career rolling...and Cantor was very effusive in his praise of Davis. So, simply labeling him a racist seems a bit simplistic. He did it, it was NOT good...but it's also a part of our history.

As far as the story goes, it begins with Eddie working for an evil phony psychic. Yolando (Charles Middleton) is simply concerned with money...and he has absolutely no scruples and will do ANYTHING to get it. Eddie is too nice a guy for this and soon quits...and spends much of the movie actually trying to stop Yolando and his thugs from robbing Mr. Clark. As for Clark, he has hired away Eddie from Yolando and made him his Donut company's new efficiency expert. Along the way, one of his employees, Helen (Charlotte Greenwood), falls for Eddie and Eddie THINKS that Clark's cute young daughter wants to marry him...but it's really Helen. What's next? See the film.

This film features several Busby Berkeley song and dance numbers....thought I really enjoyed Cantor's numbers even more. The lyrics were quite clever and cute. It also has a lot of energy, many nice laughs and is a movie that simply left me smiling! Having Charlotte Greenwood to support Cantor really helped...they were wonderful together. The film is one of Cantor's best, though his very best is the delightful "Forty Little Mothers"...one not to be missed.

By the way, look closely at Yolando's henchmen. One is George Raft before he became a star (in the mid-1930s).

This is fine but I didn't enjoy it as much as the previous years, Whoopee!, Eddie Cantor is still great but here some of the scenes no longer seem to work as they much have done back in the day. Also, spirited performance though she gives, Charlotte Greenwood, doesn't quite seem to shine as many other girls do. Indeed the rest of the girls, whether in factory working gear (backless and braless!), gymnastic wear or swimming gear (and seemingly nude(!)) look tremendous throughout. The Busby Berkeley are magical as ever and the songs fine. Its just that one or two of the comedy routines show their age and the protracted finale has not worn well. Have to say though, Mr Cantor amazes and must have been absolutely sensational at the time. Even now his contortions make one wince and his routine when appointed efficiency manager, really funny even now. He could certainly sing too, although we have to close one eye when he blacks up.

"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!