ROMAN SCANDALS (Frank Tuttle, 1933) ***
This very funny spoof on Roman-era epics (I had previously watched it one morning some 18 years ago on Italian TV) is considered to be star comedian Eddie Cantor's best vehicle - though I must say that it's the only one I've managed to catch up with myself over the years (but do own his debut film, WHOOPEE! , on VHS).The 'modern man dreaming himself in another era' plot line is a favorite comedy theme - an idea dating back to Mark Twain's "A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court". The film boasts a remarkable line-up of writers (George S. Kaufman, Robert E. Sherwood, Nat Perrin, Arthur Sheekman and George Oppenheimer), many of whom had worked with contemporaneous comedy acts - notably the Marx Bros.; though the star's personality doesn't lend itself to quite that level of lunacy, the script provides a satisfying balance of sight gags and one-liners (often commenting on the basic difference between the two ages). Alongside the humor are the musical sequences - virtually a requisite of the period - highlighting not only a couple of good tunes for Cantor (one of them sung in blackface!) but also Busby Berkeley's choreography featuring The Goldwyn Girls (among them Lucille Ball), including an outrageous number in which they're chained nude to revolving walls! Typical of Goldwyn's output, the production values are impeccable - with cinematography by the legendary Gregg Toland and the impressive set design of Richard Day.
The cast, too, is notable - with Eddie (amusingly dubbed Oedipus while in Ancient Rome) being flanked by the likes of David Manners and Gloria Stuart (supplying the romantic interest), Edward Arnold (the Emperor) and Alan Mowbray (as Cantor's prime foil, a Roman General); Arnold's favorite slave girl is played by Ruth Etting in one of her irregular film appearances: she was the chanteuse/gangster's moll later portrayed by Doris Day in the musical biopic LOVE ME OR LEAVE ME (1955)! The film's best gags include: Cantor cracking a whip and 'catching' Mowbray; an alligator flipping upside down in reaction to poisoned food given it by Cantor (appointed by Arnold as his personal food-taster); the prison scene in which Arnold and a couple of guards are exposed to laughing gas while torturing Cantor; Eddie demonstrating the correct moves in a fistfight on Mowbray. Incidentally, the wordplay gag involving the poisoned dish was re-used by Danny Kaye for his classic THE COURT JESTER (1955). Still, the undoubted highlight of the film remains the uproarious (and quite spectacular) chariot chase at the climax - supervised by Ralph Cedar.
score 7/10
Bunuel1976 13 April 2007
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1636348/36031
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