Palmy Days

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.

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!

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).

Palmy Days was Eddie Cantor's first original feature film, the previous two Kid Boots and Whoopee were film adaptions of Cantor's previous Broadway successes that presumably carried built in audiences. Palmy Days could be said to be Cantor's first personal film success. It sure came at a time he needed it because being wiped out in the stock market crash Cantor was working real hard to rebuild his nest egg and support his wife and five daughters.

His innocent schnook character who turns the tables often on bigger and cleverer foes was finding real appeal with the movie going public. Cantor works for phony psychic Charles Middleton working all the special effects to convince Middleton's marks during séances that their dearly departed are actually communicating with them. One of Middleton's bigger suckers is bakery owner Spencer Charters who employs a flock of beautiful Goldwyn Girls as his bakers. Cantor who's been abused by Middleton decides to trip up one of his cons by getting a job at Charters's bakery, but Charters mistakes him for someone else and hires him as an efficiency expert. You have to love some of Cantor's brilliant ideas like sawing the corners of Charters's desk so that folks would not be tempted to linger awhile sitting on said corners and taking up his time.

Eddie also hooks up with Amazonian physical culturist Charlotte Greenwood who is always a delight. The two worked well together, they should have done more joint films. Charlotte also has the first musical number in the film Bend Down Sister or exercising with the Goldwyn Girls. Busby Berkeley did the choreography and while he hadn't really reached the creative heights as he did with Warner Brothers his style is unmistakable.

Cantor gets two numbers My Baby Said Yes Yes and There's Nothing Too Good For My Baby. Both are delivered in his quick tempo style, Michael Jackson had nothing on Eddie Cantor when it came to moving about on stage.

Of course Middleton is down, but not out. Cantor and Greenwood have a hilarious climax with Middleton and his two torpedoes Harry Woods and George Raft in the bakery. This was one of Raft's earliest films and he barely gets any dialog, but casting him as a gangster was definitely something he could always handle.

Palmy Days holds up well after more than 80 years, it's classic comedy is timeless and the film is great introduction to one of the funniest men of the last century Eddie Cantor.