Whoopee!

Eddie Cantor's a legend name of showbiz, but he's been lost to time, unlike, say, Laurel and Hardy or Jack Benny. Mainly, we've just heard his name. Whoopee! is a chance to finally see his act and--well, uh--he was quite energetic. The film's really just an excuse for Cantor to strut his stuff, so your loving of the film will depend mostly of your love of Eddie.

However, there are several things for a film buff to enjoy. The early two-strip Technicolor is quite nice and the print I've seen on TV is really quite gorgeous. (It seems strange that this, of all early talkies, would have been so well preserved.) Outside of Cantor's vaudeville style, Whoopee! feel nearly it's age. The camerawork can be quite clunky at times, like the jiggly attempt at an overhead shot during a dance number, but generally its acceptable for a simple musical. Additionally, the dances were the work of a young Busbey Berkley and you can tell it's his handiwork. Oddly, the dancers seem to have a problem dancing in-sync with one another, which seems to be a hallmark of every early musical I've ever seen.

In terms of cast the film Whoopee is a considerably cut down version of the Broadway show. That could be said of the Donaldson-Kahn score as well. But in terms of the film it was a valiant attempt, a trial run at making the musical not just a photographed stage play. For that effort Whoopee got an Academy Award nomination for Best Art Direction.

Before Eddie Cantor starred in the musical version of Whoopee on Broadway which ran for 407 performances in the 1928-29 season, it had been a straight comedy play The Nervous Wreck which ran for 279 shows in the 1923-24 season. I have to confess I was a little shocked when I saw that Otto Kruger had played Cantor's role of Henry Williams, the nervous hypochondriac who went west seeking a cure for his multitude of ailments. I sure didn't see that coming.

In any event Whoopee has Cantor at a dude ranch with his private nurse Ethel Shutta who was also repeating her role from Broadway. His good friend an Indian played by Paul Williams has an unrequited love for Eleanor Hunt and she him. But the racial differences make this romance impossible at least on the stage and screen of the Twenties. She's engaged to marry the sheriff John Rutherford, but rather than do that she tricks poor Cantor the schnook into running off with her. That leads all on a merry chase throughout the film.

Walter Donaldson and Gus Kahn wrote the score for Whoopee on stage and screen and of course Eddie Cantor's big number was his classic Making Whoopee. Even today this salute to the phrase 'cheaper to keep her' carries a lot of laughs. Donaldson and Kahn wrote some new songs including another that Cantor introduced on screen that also became associated with him throughout his career, My Baby Just Cares For Me.

Ethel Shutta was quite a performer herself and this is the only time we can see her in her prime as she competes with Cantor for laughs and does some nice dancing in the Stetson number. She was married to orchestra leader George Olsen who led the pit orchestra on Broadway for Whoopee and accompanies on the soundtrack in this film.

This film also introduced Busby Berkeley to the silver screen and according to Herbert Goldman's biography of Cantor, it was Cantor who persuaded Sam Goldwyn to hire Berkeley. His numbers are nicely staged though he wasn't anywhere near his peak creative years with Warner Brothers.

On Broadway Ruth Etting had a specialty part and introduced what became her theme song in Love Or Leave Me. Sadly Ruth and the song got eliminated from the film and that is a pity. If you remember the part that Patrice Wymore played in the Gus Kahn biographical film I'll See You In My Dreams her role was based on a combination of Etting and Clara Bow.

Sadly Whoopee does bow to the racial and racist mores of its time. A solution to the marital problems is found that would not fly today.

Despite that Whoopee is worth seeing in order to see one the great performers of the 20th Century in a role that Eddie Cantor made his own.

I just watched Whoopee! on an excellent laserdisc print, and my nostalgia conceit was fed yet again. The world seemed happier and lazier, the chorus girls sweeter and prettier, the tunes bouncier and brighter. Viewers' comments about Eddie Cantor prancing in blackface miss the point: it is not racism that is projected, but a society in which racism is meaningless. My conceit, of course, is absurd; there are no "good old days", and it was no bed of roses to be an average Joe or Jane in 1930 when Whoopee! was made. But movies like these are my escape to Happyland, and while a steady diet of the same would be cloying, a dip into an old musical guarantees me a dreamy uplift.

If for no other reason, this is an amazing film because it was shot in Technicolor - in 1930! It's primitive color, but very interesting at times and intriguing to view. Although the story and humor are very dated, Eddie Cantor is very funny at times playing the super hypochondriac.

There are lots of gags, and like the Marx Brothers films, so many that you can't catch them all. Also like the MB, some of the humor is topical, so audiences of today aren't going to get what people would laugh at in 1930.

Through all the jokes - many stupid and many clever - Cantor is a likable guy and also a good singer. As I wrote with another review (Roman Scandals) I am just sorry this talented man doesn't have his films out on DVD. The songs in here are decent, too, some of them very catchy. They also have the added attraction of having the Busby Berkeley joining in.

Make no mistake: this is a "sappy" film, so dated it's extremely stupid in spots....but definitely something for the film collector.

This hilarious and racy staged musical is correctly commented upon here as probably as close to a genuine Ziegfeld Broadway show of the 20s as any of us will ever see. In glorious two strip Technicolor too! A fore runner to GIRL CRAZY, HATS OFF, some ELVIS bumpkin re treads like STAY AWAY JOE or TICKLE ME and WHEN THEY BOYS MEET THE GIRLS (in itself a 60s remake of Girl Crazy)...WHOOPEE is by turns hilarious, gorgeous and utterly fascinating for a study of early talkie musicals. It also shows how Woody Allen mannerisms of the 60s with his nervous romantic stchik is not all new given Cantor's romance-tics here. I can watch the musical numbers over and over and find the STETSON HAT number with its excellent clunky tap dancing sound quite compelling. The SUNRISE FINALE is just jaw dropping with the most astonishing costumes draped over almost nude skinny showgirls. 200 eagles must have died in the feather department to create some of those outfits. Overall, the dance numbers have indicated just how modern this film truly is, not just for its time but even today, it just looks new: clothes, hairstyles and those fresh lovely faces. The haircuts on the boys are very much apparent today. One young cowboy in the early scenes of the STETSON number looks exactly like 80s actor Treat Williams (Noah Beery Jnr?), and the white jeans with the red berry patterns were revived as modern 90s. It is the pinnacle of the state of the art for the time and thoroughly hilarious in its risqué racist free pre code way.