Starring Eddie Cantor, Ethel Merman, Ann Southern, and Warren Hymer
Directed by Roy Del Ruth
Music and Lyrics by various
Cantor's vehicles became an annual event for moviegoers in the early 30's. Every year in November or December, they could count on seeing Cantor clowning and dodging the advances of a crusty comedienne, doing a blackface routine or two while Busby Berkeley created incredible chorus routines around half-naked Goldwyn Girls. Berkeley moved to Warners after the success of 42nd Street in 1933. The Production Code went into effect earlier in 1934, and among the things it forbid was scanty costumes.
Goldwyn had to find other diversions to pair with Cantor. He came up with a new Broadway comedienne who had just made a splash two years before and an improved three-strip Technicolor process. How does all this reflect on the story of a young man who is literally chased to Egypt and back to get a fortune? Let's begin as singer Dot Clark (Merman) learns about the death of her ex-boyfriend Professor Edward Wilson (Cantor) at the shop where she works and find out...
The Story: Professor Wilson wanted his son Eddie (Cantor) to inherit the 77 million dollar fortune he found in the pyramids of Egypt. Eddie lives with his abusive adoptive father (Jack Kennedy) and stepbrothers on a leaky barge in Brooklyn, watching over the children who also live there. He only agrees to go so he can marry his girl Toots (Nora Davenport).
Turns out, he's not the only one who thinks he deserves a cut of that cash. Dot and her current boyfriend Louie (Warren Hymer) claim to be Eddie's mother and uncle and try to kill him. Colonel Harrison Larrabee (Berton Churchill) says his company financed Wilson's explorations and should get a cut, too. Wilson's assistant Jerry Lane (George Murphy) just wants to marry Larrabee's niece Joan (Sothern), but she's angry when he tells her the money belongs to Eddie. And then after Eddie inadvertently rescues the daughter (Eve Sully) of a shiek (Paul Harvey), it turns out the money really belongs to his ancestors, and he intends to kill the son of the man who stole it!
The Song and Dance: Cantor gets a better supporting cast and a terrific production backing him this time. He and Merman are hilarious together, especially on the ship when she plays leapfrog and tickles him in order to get him to sign over the money. Sothern and Murphy have slightly more to do than usual for the young lovers in Cantor's films. Hymer's hilarious as the gangster who just wants to bump Eddie off and get the dough, and Harvey is a riot as the shiek whose sense of humor overrides the fact that he actually thinks Eddie is a nice guy. The finale in the ice cream factory of Eddie's dream is gorgeous Technicolor in shades of sherbet and candy straight out of banana splits.
Favorite Number: We open right with Merman performing "An Earful of Music" at a song sheet store, backed by a chorus of Goldwyn Girls. Cantor sings "When My Ship Comes In" for the kids on the barge, promising them a better life with free ice cream and no spinach. The Nicholas Brothers and Goldwyn Girls give us a huge minstrel show on the barge, singing "I Want to Be a Minstrel Man." Blackface-clad Eddie gets Irving Berlin's hit "Mandy," while Murphy woos Sothern in massive hoop skirts with "Your Head On My Shoulder."
The Goldwyn Girls amuse Cantor, Harvey, and the sheik's audience with "The Harem Dance." Cantor sings "Ok, Toots" to explain why he's devoted to his girl. The movie ends in blazing Technicolor with "The Ice Cream Fantasy," as the Girls mix the flavors in Eddie's massive streamline factory and the kids wait impatiently to get in.
Trivia: The music for "I Want to Be a Minstrel Man" would be reused as "You're All the World to Me" in the 1951 MGM film Royal Wedding.
Look for Lucille Ball among the Minstrel Show Goldwyn Girls.
Cantor originally introduced "Mandy" in The Ziegfeld Follies of 1919.
What I Don't Like: This may be the strangest Cantor movie yet. Nothing makes the tiniest bit of sense, including the Egyptian setting. The second half is awash in the goofiest Middle Eastern stereotypes I've ever seen, and there's Eddie's blackface during the "Mandy" minstrel number, too. The lavish ice cream number is nifty to look at to this day, but the choreography misses Berkeley's creative and outrageous touch.
The Big Finale: Strange as the plot is, Cantor's antics and the nice supporting cast makes this one of his better vehicles. Highly recommended if you're a fan of him or the wacky comic musicals of the 30's and 40's.
Home Media: Easily found on DVD from the Warner Archives and on streaming. Like many Goldwyn offerings, it's currently free with commercials at Tubi.
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