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WARNING: A blackface musical number is included. If sensitive to such, best not to view this film, or close your eyes during this portion.
The 4th in a series of Eddie Cantor musicomedies produced by Sam Goldwyn from 1930-36, contains my favorite song and musical production in this series ,in "Build a Little House". Within the context of a community having been just evicted from their homes, the idea of setting up the contents of their homes on their lawns and sidewalks is rather bizarre, which adds to the attraction They are expressing their defiance against Mr. Cooper: the 'town boss', who apparently owns their former homes or the mortgages on them, and who wants to build a new jail in place of their homes. At present, Mr. Cooper is leading the dedication ceremony for a Museum of Roman Art, which consists mainly of statues of ancient Roman big wigs and gods, which he previously donated land for. Somehow, Eddie got into the museum ahead of this ceremony, and hung his clothes on various statues, while sleeping. This, along with Eddie's constant correction of his identification of the beings represented by the statues much annoys Mr. Cooper. Eddie complains that he promotes destroying the homes of law-abiding citizens in order to build houses for statues and criminals. The idea of unjust, as well as justified, evictions was especially relevant to Depression audiences. For his embarrassments of Mr. Cooper and the rest of the town big wigs, Eddie is banished from his town of West Rome. During his walk out of town, he imagines he's back in ancient Rome, where hopefully there is less political corruption than in Depression America. However, Eddie finds that corruption and exploitation of the powerless by the powerful was just as pervasive in ancient Rome as in West Rome. He, himself, is sold as a slave, fortunately , to a kind-hearted aristocrat, who sets him free. However, he witnesses the selling of naked beautiful young women(Goldwyn Girls) as slaves. He witnesses the over taxation of the populace to finance construction of new monuments and other public buildings, while the excess is used to finance the exorbitant living expenses of the emperor and his retinue. Eddie is thrown in prison with a captured princess(Sylvia), from which he escapes by having his guards, and even the emperor, inhale a laughing gas from his magic vase.
The emperor comes up with a sneaky idea to get rid of Eddie. He orders him to be his new wine and food taster, knowing that the lifespan of recent food tasters has been very short. Seems the empress is determined to hasten the death of her husband by feeding him poisoned food and wine. After the royal crocodile dies from eating poisoned nightingale, the emperor orders Eddie thrown to the lions. However, Eddie escapes and takes over a chariot, with Josephus and Princess Sylvia in a chariot ahead of him, as they are chased by palace guards. As Eddie's chariot is wrecked, he awakens to find himself back on the edge of West Rome. He remembers a check he found on the street from Mr. Cooper to the police chief, for $5000. He thinks this is proof of bribery by Mr. Cooper. Apparently, it stands up in court, and the participants in the bribery are sent to jail. His friends now can move back into their homes, as Eddie reprises "Build a Little Home".
I have a problem with the whole business of Mr. Cooper's corruption and Eddie's discovery of it. The nature of Mr. Cooper's corruption is unclear to me. How does he benefit from donating property he owns toward construction of a jail? Tax breaks? Construction profits? Eddie's finding of the $5000. bribery check dropped on the street is highly unlikely, and how could he prove this check was for bribery?
Harry Warren and Al Dubin were borrowed from Warner to composed the new songs. It was found that they worked well with choreographer Busby Berkeley. This was Busby's last film for Goldwyn, he moving to Warner where he would again be teamed with Warren and Dubin for a series of very popular musicomedies. Then, both moved to 20th Century Fox, where they collaborated in "The Gang's All Here", with Mack Gordon in place of Al Dubin.
Besides the "Build a Little Home" production, in another big production, Eddie puts on blackface and sings "Keep Young and Beautiful" In one portion, a circle of Goldwyn Girls are nude, except for wigs of extra long hair that cover their breasts and privates. This was the year before the new Motion Picture Code went into full effect, when I'm sure, this would not be allowed.
score 9/10
weezeralfalfa 12 January 2017
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw3617962/ |
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19-4-2021 18:06:15