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This film is billed as a comedy, fantasy and musical, and it is all of that. And it clearly seems to be a social statement for the time about the wealthy, proud and powerful and their seeming disregard for the common man, especially the less fortunate. I suppose that would ring well with audiences of 1933, right in the middle of the Great Depression. Anyway, "Roman Scandals" opens that way. A local founder of the town of West Rome is being hailed at the dedication of the new museum he funded. Then we see families evicted from their homes where a new jail is to be built.
Eddie Cantor is the hero, Eddie, who livens things up with his witty remarks and a song. When he's evicted from town as a troublemaker, the film transforms to the days of Imperial Rome. In this setting, Eddie become Oedipus. There we see "scandals" of that time and place. There's little sense in this switch in the plot, other than to create the fantasy picture of ancient Rome under Emperor Valerius (most likely the historic Emperor Valerian). The plot has some bizarre twists. It has black face, takes on slavery, and some satire.
Eddie has a couple more songs and Ruth Etting sings "No More Love." This is one of the few feature films that Etting made, and one would like to have seen and heard this great singer of the 20s and 30s in more numbers. Busby Berkeley stages a couple of extravagant numbers with dancers and players. One of the public come-ons for the film was the inclusion of six attractive blond women in the nude except for their long hair that covered their private parts. This might be off-putting to some adults and a concern for parents who are careful about movies that their children watch.
This was in the days before the Breen Office enforcement of the Hays Code. That was a self-imposed means for Hollywood studios to police themselves against public uproars and possible government sanctions. As it turns out, the Hays Code led to some very funny comedies throughout the 1930s. They were all the more funny because of their script changes and comedic ways the directors and writers tried to worm around the code. Hollywood discovered that innuendo had great comedic power, that would be missing in scenes that were played straight.
The original story for this film came from writer/actor George S. Kaufman. But many squabbles developed over the movie. It took some imagination to make this a comedic situation. Emperor Valerian was a principal persecutor of Christians, condemning many to death. It would be a huge stretch to equate such persecution to the modern eviction of families from their homes. The producers here obviously concluded that audiences may not find it very humorous. So, the ancient Roman segment is devoted to the intrigue around a plot to kill Valerius, with some allusion to the pagan worship and likely hedonism of the time.
The cast are all quite good. Besides Cantor and Etting, some who would become very familiar Hollywood faces have roles. Edward Arnold plays Valerius and Alan Mowbray is Majordomo. Gloria Stuart is Princess Sylvia and Verree Teasdale is Empress Agrippa. David Manners plays Josephus and Lucille Ball is on screen a short time as one of the Goldwyn Girls.
Quite a lot went into the lavish production of this film. Huge sets, very large casts with many extras, the Roman costumes and settings. And a chariot chase-race is very well done. The songs are good, but nothing special to remember. Cantor is good and not overly bombastic as he often was on radio shows and public appearance, especially later in his career. Ruth Etting played Olga. It would have been nice if she had been given one or two more songs.
score 7/10
SimonJack 9 July 2016
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw3501575/ |
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19-4-2021 18:06:15