Whoopee!

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.

Loved it! What a treat this was. Great color, costumes and sets and of course Eddie Cantor, who now ranks as one of my favorites.

Surreal plot if full of schtick and is VERY non-PC (another reason to love it) as Blacks, Indians, Jews, Gays, and Goys get lampooned by Cantor and company.

Several terrific songs by Cantor, "Making Whoopee" and "My Baby Just Cares for Me," and a couple of excellent production numbers by Busby Berkley. Ethel Shutta (pronounced shoo-tay) was smashing in her "Stetson" number. I wish it had been longer.

Among the show girls and dancers are Betty Grable, Ann Sothern, Virginia Bruce, Claire Dodd, and possibly Jane Wyman, and Dean Jagger (of all people) plays a deputy.

The typical 20s romantic subplot between white Eleanor Hunt and Indian Paul Gregory is a drag and is the same things we've seen in the early Marx Brothers and Wheeler and Woolsey comedies.

Spencer Charters plays Underwood, Marian Marsh is his daughter, Jack Rutherford is the sheriff, etc.

The colors are great, the costumes fun. Flo Ziegfeld was involved show there are plenty of show girls in outrageous costumes.

Shutta is a find, but it's Eddie Cantor's show all the way and he's very very funny.

"Whooppee!" was made at a perfect time, 1930. It has experimentation with the new two-strip Technicolor process (which gives an unreal, pleasing pastel quality). The Hays Office (the censorship arm of movies from 1934 to 1956) hadn't come in, allowing for some funny off-color jokes, and some wild costuming of shapely dancing girls. The star, Eddie Cantor was in his prime. Eddie plays a hypochondriac on a cross country auto trip. He winds up at an Indian reservation, wrongfully hunted by the Sheriff. The film moves from being a comic gift from long ago, to a scary reminder of poor race relations only 70 years ago. Eddie hides in coal stove that explodes, and he emerges in black face, allowing him to walk past his pursuers in disquise. He approaches the leading lady of the film. She sees him and yells "How dare YOU speak to ME?!" Looking past the social-incorrectness of the film, the dance numbers have some amazing choreography by Busby Berkeley, who was just beginning to discover new and exciting ways to film dancers.

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.