Too much of everything

Fresh and Exciting

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

"Whoopee!" was the first film that Busby Berkeley did the choreography for; he would later surpass his work here, but his innovative, synchronized numbers are an indication of things to come. It was also the feature-length talkie screen debut for Eddie Cantor; one way to advertise him would be "all 4 Marx Brothers rolled into 1"! He has energy to spare. Of course his jokes often miss - but what comedian can claim a 100%, or anything close to it, success rate? His "recital" of "Making Whoopee" and "A Girlfriend of a Boyfriend of Mine" is inimitable. The film is loaded with sexual innuendo (some of it blatantly homoerotic) and hip (then) pop references (from Al Jolson to Ronald Colman); it's overlong, set-bound and dated in some aspects, but there is a lot to enjoy here. *** out of 4.

My attention was drawn to this movie sometime over Christmas and it recently arrived from the US. Wondering if I really wanted to watch a 1930s musical featuring someone I'd never seen before, it wasn't until last night that I popped it in the player. Immediately I was surprised to see that it was in colour, primitive two strip colour but a beautiful, barely real representation giving the lovely ladies an unearthly look. Early sketch and dance routine only okay but before my eyes had a chance to begin to glaze over the film took off and blossomed into a splendid, surreal treat with a fantastic performance from Eddie Cantor (I'm now a fan and have ordered more!). The dance routines are sensational if slightly ragged but I guess the new boy Busby Berkeley was finding his feet. The girls certainly find theirs and by the time the final and most amazing set up with a whole parade of ladies in the most incredible near nude costumes and on horseback(!) we are panting for more rather than the end. For a film this early to retain its magic AND effective humour is amazing. I should also mention that I couldn't help but notice numerous similarities between the way Cantor, moved, spoke and gesticulated to the surprisingly similar actions of Woody Allen in his films. All in all a very pleasant surprise and highly recommended.

In its day, this must have been a fine picture and I'm sure it made Sam Goldwyn a lot of money. But, after 76 years, this film has not aged well. In fact, much of the humor seems pretty unfunny nowadays--especially since some of it is so offensive towards Indians and Blacks. Cantor in black face and natives who continually say "ugggh" were considered funny stereotypes when WHOOPEE was playing on stage and film, but this just provides uncomfortable today. In fact, considering that so many jokes are based on this, it may be very hard viewing for many, though I also believe you can't totally focus on this or else you'll be throwing out so much of our history. Now I am sure in 1930 they may have meant no harm by these scenes--nevertheless, this doesn't mean they are okay. Apart from these aspects of the film, the jokes seem old and the Busby Berkeley dance numbers also seem pretty out of date--though both are pretty risqué for the time--with a lot of sexual innuendos! Apart from the bizarre song and dance numbers in FLYING DOWN TO RIO, the Indian dance from this movie might just be one of the weirdest and most ridiculous numbers of the era.But the movie still gets a score of 4 because it was very competently made and the two-color Technicolor is pretty good for the era (though of course, nowhere near as nice as the later full color films). Plus, it is important historically. Even as a flawed film, it's good we still have an excellent copy--this isn't true of a lot of the films from 1930!By the way, before you assume I am a confirmed Eddie Cantor hater, understand that I have given excellent reviews to some of his later films. But just not this one.

WHOOPEE (United Artists, 1930), directed by Thornton Freeland, subtitled "A musical comedy of the great wide west," produced in collaboration with Florenz Ziegfeld and Samuel Goldwyn, is another one of those reworking Broadway shows to come out of Hollywood during the early days of talkies. Headed by Broadway's own Eddie Cantor, with co-stars, many of whom recreating their stage roles, WHOOPEE ranks one of the better stage-to-screen musicals released during the 1929-30 season. It's also the film responsible in elevating Cantor into major box office attraction. Not only was this his first for Samuel Goldwyn, but the introduction of choreographer Busby Berkeley to the motion picture screen. While Berkeley's now famous dance direction trademarks are evident here, they're far from the best to what he later created at the Warner Brothers studios in the 1930s.Set in an Arizona dude ranch, Sally Morgan (Eleanor Hunt) is about to marry Sheriff Bob Wells (John Rutherford), though she really loves Wanenis (Paul Gregory), a young Indian living on an Indian reservation near her father's ranch. Because Wanenis is of Indian blood, it is not permissible for a white girl to marry a "red skin." Also staying on the ranch is Henry Williams (played by Eddie Cantor with horn rim glasses), a hypochrondiac pill popper from the east, there for a rest cure, accompanied by his nurse, Mary Custer (Ethel Shutta), who not only feeds him medicine, but happens to be in love with him. Unable to go on with the wedding, Sally arranges for Henry to drive her away in his ran-shackle Ford, leaving Wells and guests at the altar. Since Wells refuses to take "No" for an answer, he goes in hot pursuit of them, as does Miss Custer, leading them all to another ranch, leading to complications, songs and dance numbers.The musical program includes: "The Cowboy Number" (sung by Betty Grable); "I'll Still Belong to You" (sung by Paul Gregory); "Makin' Whoopee" (sung by Eddie Cantor); "The Mission Number" (sung by chorus); "A Girl Friend of a Boy Friend of Mine" and "My Baby Just Cares for Me" (both sung by Cantor); "Stetson" (sung by Ethel Shutta); "I'll Still Belong to You" (reprise by Paul Gregory); "The Song of the Setting Sun" (sung by Chief Caupolian) and "My Baby Just Cares for Me" (reprise by Cantor).Of the song tunes, only three show off the Berkeley style: First "The Cowboy Number," featuring two overhead camera shots of dancing cowboys and girls doing circular formations shots climaxed by snake-like effects; "Stetson" having cowgirls dancing while passing their hats to one another, followed by individual close-ups and camera panning through a leg tunnel; and "The Setting Sun," highlighted with one overhead camera shot of Indian doing formations with their feather hats. Among those in the supporting cast are Albert Hackett as Chester Underwood; Marian Marsh as Harriet Underwood; the George Olson Band, and the 1930 Goldwyn Girls (the most famous one here being Betty Grable).WHOOPEE, the only Cantor musical reproduced from stage to screen, is a prestigious production. Done in early two-strip Technicolor, considering how many early Technicolor musicals are lost, it's fortunate this one has survived. Unlike the subsequent Cantor/Goldwyn musicals, WHOOPEE never played on commercial television in the 1960s and '70s. It was by 1980 did it finally turn up on cable television before turning up on home video in 1986. While the video transfer to this film is excellent, the color on the TV prints are not as good. It's reflection of the times by ways of making reference to popular hit names as Lawrence Tibbett and Amos and Andy are definitely names that would be of a loss today. Cantor's nervous wreck characterization would be carbon copies by future film comedians, especially Danny Kaye, who's Samuel Goldwyn debut, UP IN ARMS (1944), was a partial reworking to WHOOPEE, though not its remake.As with other Cantor comedies of the day, some gags are humorous (such as Cantor and character actor Spencer Charters comparing their operations, a gimmick they briefly reprized in Cantor's second Goldwyn musical, PALMY DAYS in 1931), others don't come off as well. One low point occurs when Henry (Cantor), disguised in black-face, calls out to Sally Morgan,. Failing to recognize him, she responds very bluntly, "How dare YOU speak to me!" Quite an uneasy feeling for its viewers that could have been handled differently, with her politely replying, "Do we know each other?" Ethel Shutta, repeating her Miss Custer role from the stage version, is a fine comedienne reminiscent to Warner Brothers' own Winnie Lightner. Unlike Lightner, who appeared in numerous films of the early 1930s, Shutta made this her only screen role during the "golden age of Hollywood."When WHOOPEE became one of a handful of Eddie Cantor musicals to play on cable channel's American Movie Classics in the 1990s, at one point, host Bob Dorian, before the presentation of the film, asked his viewers to watch the film as it was originally intended and not be offended by some racial slurs, jokes, and Cantor disguised in black-face to keep from being arrested. In spite of how viewers might have felt towards this film then and now, WHOOPEE, played longer and more frequently on AMC (1992 to 1998) than any other Cantor musical. WHOOPEE is one of those Broadway transfers to give contemporary audiences a basic idea of the kind of entertainment endured many generations ago. WHOOPEE, as it stands, remains an interesting antique. (***)