IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0021549/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
IMDB rating: 8,0
Director: Thornton Freeland
Main Cast: Eddie Cantor, Ethel Shutta, Paul Gregory, Eleanor Hunt, Jack Rutherford
Adapted from Owen Davis's stage comedy The Nervous Wreck (itself filmed in 1927), Flo Ziegfeld's musical spectacular Whoopee! was one of the solid hits of the 1928-29 Broadway season, thanks largely to the irrepressible Eddie Cantor. Filmed for a then eye-popping $1.5 million, Whoopee! is an example of the old fashioned star comic musical film. It features the cinematic debut of choreographer Busby Berkeley. While none of the numbers are shot entirely in the now-recognizable Berkeley style, many have touches that foreshadow that style, such as the use of an overhead shot in 'Cowboy' and the use of close-ups on beautiful chorus girls in 'Stetson'. There's an emphasis on the spectacular throughout, which helps to smooth over some of the rough patches in the script. Much of the humor seems tired by modern standards, and the use of blackface in 'My Baby Just Cares for Me' is off-putting, especially as Cantor is so otherwise appealing. He does here what he always does, playing a nervous wreck who happily can't seem to stay out of trouble. Cantor's vulnerability is leavened by his underlying rambunctiousness, and his talent was one of a kind. While Whoopee! is clearly his show, he does get some valuable support from Ethel Shutta, and the score is attractive.
Featured among the Goldwyn Girls are such future stars as Claire Dodd, Virginia Bruce, and 14-year-old Betty Grable, who energetically performs the very first chorus of the very first song in the film. Lensed in eye-pleasing early Technicolor, Whoopee was a success, launching a long and fruitful cinematic collaboration between Eddie Cantor and Sam Goldwyn. It was remade by Goldwyn in 1944 as Up in Arms, a showcase for the producer's 'new Cantor' Danny Kaye. - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/whoopee%21-v54440/
No comments:
Post a Comment