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My primary interest in picking up this film was to get a look at the acclaimed Eddie Cantor, a legendary entertainer in his day who you don't even hear of anymore. The first thing I was impressed with was the 'look' of the movie; filmed in the same year as "King Kong" it looked like the product of perhaps two decades later. The other eye openers had to do with the costuming, or lack thereof on the part of the slave girls in bondage during Olga's (Ruth Etting) "No More Love" number. There's enough skin showing on some of the girls to fuel an over active imagination, perhaps this is the film to inspire the term 'steamy', both literally and figuratively. There's also the risqué dialog, most notably in Cantor's black face routine when he sings - "You'll drive him half insane, in a bathing suit of cellophane". This was the 1930's?
Additionally, for anyone obsessed with the emphasis on looks and body image in today's entertainment media, the roots of that trend can be found here. The "Keep Young and Beautiful" number isn't complete without mentioning the next line - "If you want to be loved". I wonder how that message might have been received by Depression era movie goers.
Comedy wise, there are a few good bits - the lava gas (laughing gas) and parsley/poison gags come to mind, along with Josephus' (David Manners) naming of Eddie as 'Oedipus', that was clever. Overall though, I found the comedy to be severely dated, more of a curiosity piece than actually being funny, maybe it's just me upon my initial viewing.
As another reviewer mentioned, Lucille Ball is credited on the video sleeve as if she were Cantor's co star in the film, but be warned, you're going to have to look for her. By the same token, you can't miss the dynamic presence of Etting and Gloria Stuart, both simply gorgeous. Again, maybe it's just me, but Etting's Olga character reminded me a bit of a slimmed down Dolly Parton.
Fortunately, for fans of Cantor and the Busby Berkeley musical, this film looks like it's readily available. I actually found it on a drug store bargain shelf and decided it was too good to pass up for just a buck. Even though a lot of the scenes are dated and come off as politically incorrect today, the movie itself is a neat time capsule reminder of the way life used to be seventy years ago, when just like today, the average person went to the movies for a quick and fun escape.
score 7/10
classicsoncall 2 September 2006
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1464966/ |
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19-4-2021 18:06:14