Starring Eddie Cantor, Ethel Merman, Sailly Eilers, and Harry Einstein (Parkyakarkus)
Directed by Norman Taurog
Music by Harold Arlen; Lyrics by Lew Brown
By the mid-30's, the Goldwyn/Cantor extravaganzas weren't the only game in town for merriment. Berkeley had moved to Warners, while the Production Code ensured that the Goldwyn Girls could no longer show skin and Cantor's blackface numbers couldn't be quite so suggestive. Musicals had come back into fashion, and now every studio was creating lavish spectaculars featuing big numbers with lots of pretty girls. How does Cantor's last movie for Goldwyn reflect these changes? Let's begin, not with Cantor, but with college student Butch Carson (Gordon Jones) as he defends a smaller student from bullies, and find out...
The Story: Butch is a sweet guy, but he's not very bright. He turns to his friend Eddie Pink (Cantor), the owner of the tailor shop where he studies, to help him ace his final exams. He was supposed to take over managing his mother Hattie Carson's (Helene Lowell) amusement park, but joins the Navy instead. Eddie, who has read a book on how to be more assertive, gallantly agrees to take the job.
He instantly regrets it when he realizes that a group of gangsters led by Mr. Couple (William Frawley) have been pushing to have their illegal slot machines in the amusement park and have killed all of Eddie's predecessors. He manages to avoid their bullets and hypnotize one of their men, though he doesn't have much luck dodging his meddling bodyguard Parkyakarkus (Einstein). His crush on nightclub singer Joyce Lennox (Merman) may be what does him in when she convinces him that she killed a man. He'll do anything to help her, but even he thinks there's something going on when gangsters phony ghosts who can burp and play cards start chasing him and Parkyakarkus all over the amusement park!
The Song and Dance: Cantor dominates this from start to finish. He does get some good routines, especially when he's hypnotizing gangsters or convincing them he's impervious to their bullets. (I also appreciate that this is one of two Goldwyn movies where he doesn't end up in blackface, not even to avoid the mob.) Eliers gets a few good lines as his disbelieving secretary, and Frawley's a decent menacing gangster. Goldwyn's usual lavishness gives us gorgeous gowns for the ladies and location shooting at the long-gone The Pike amusement pier in Long Beach, California.
Favorite Number: Taurog begins Merman's nightclub number "First You Have Me High" with a striking shot of her in black, with just her white face surrounded by a dark background. This eventually becomes dozens of dancing Goldwyn Girls who are joined by handsome partners as they swirl around her. Cantor admires comely Dona Drake and the Goldwyn Girls as they swirl across the stage, singing about how "The Lady Dances." Merman and Cantor sing on the Ferris wheel about how he'll be smoking a "Calabash Pipe" when they grow old together, despite her having no real interest in him. Merman gets to solo on the peppier "Shake It Off With Rhythm," this time joined by Sunnie O'Dea and the Goldwyn Girls tapping to their mirrored reflections.
Trivia: Look for a young Brian Donlevy among the thugs threatening Eddie.
What I Don't Like: No one besides Cantor and the gangsters really have all that much to do. Merman is top-billed with Cantor, but other than her numbers and luring Eddie with her phony murder story during the middle of the movie, she's barely there. You think Jones will be a prominent character, from what a big deal they make over Eddie helping Butch out in the opening, but he vanishes after ten minutes and is neither seen, nor heard from again. Harold Arlen and Lew Brown's songs are lovely, but not that memorable.
The Big Finale: Fine for major fans of Cantor or Merman. Casual viewers will want to start with one of his earlier, better-received vehicles like The Kid from Spain or Roman Scandals.
Home Media: Once again, easily found on streaming and DVD, the latter from the Warner Archives.
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