Customer Reviews

Whoopee [VHS]

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In 1930 Eddie Cantor was at the height of his career when "Whoopee" was made into a motion picture, taken from the 1929 play of the same title produced by "The Great Ziegfeld".
"Whoopee" is the story of two childhood friends who grew up together only to fall in love. One was a "white girl" the other "an Indian". Sally Morgan (Eleanor Hunt) is the girl and Wanenis (Paul Gregory) is the Indian. As time goes by Sally's father forbids the two from ever getting married. This lead Wanenis to leave the small town only to return as fate would have it, on the wedding day of Sheriff Bob Wells (Jack Rutherford) and Sally! Soon Sally has doubts about getting married to Bob when she sees Wenenis again. Now, perhaps your asking yourself, what has any of this got to do with Eddie Cantor? Absolutely nothing. Cantor plays Henry Williams. A neurotic who shys away from the advances made by his nurse, Mary Custer (Ethel Shutta) and perfers the company of a calf. He consistanly checks his temperature, and takes pills on every hour. And somehow finds himself helping Sally get away from Bob thus causing everyone trying to hunt him down, including his nurse who thinks Henry loves Sally instead of her.
"Whoopee" is actually quite funny. It's all Cantor's show from beginning to end. It's his energy that carries the whole film. Much of the films appeal will have to do with two things. Number one how much you like Cantor and two how much you like these old-fashion comedies. "Whoopee" though I must admit, is very very very suggestive. People tend to forget that while, yes, these types of movies have been reduced to "family entertainment" they were at one time meant strickly as "adult" entertainment.
"Whoopee" still makes me laugh after all these years from when I first saw it. One of my favorite momemts as to do with Henry and his Nurse;
Nurse: Do you know why I studied nursing?
Henry: No why?
Nurse: Because I'm romantic. Most girls like big strong healty men.
Henry: Husky!
Nurse: Not me, I like weak men. I have a positive passion for a weak man.
Henry: I suppose if I was paralyze you'd be absolutly cuckoo over me!
"Whoopee" also has good songs, and is probably best known for Cantor singing "Makin' Whoopee". He also sings "My Baby Just Cares For Me" & "A Girl Friend Of A Boy Friend Of Mine". There are some good dances. I assume very original for it's time. And there's even room for Cantor to go into his famous "black face". "Whoopee" was nominated for 1 Oscar "Best Art Direction". Also spot in the first scene a young Betty Grable. And look out for a young Virgina Bruce.
Bottom-line:Though perhaps thought of as a "dated" comedy Cantor's engery and some of the wise-cracks make the film enjoyable. Worth a look.

Cantor is a state-of-the-art hypochondriac whose imagined poor health causes him to bring many hilarious situations into view. The character he portrays - Henry Williams - is something of a busybody who moves to Arizona for his health's sake and gets himself involved in the affairs of Sally Morgan...The art direction and musical numbers are still fascinating to observe and Cantor is hilarious when he explains blithely that he could die from any one of his several diseases right on the spot. This film - which was co-produced by Florenz Ziegfeld and Samuel Goldwyn - made Eddie Cantor a film star of the early talkies. Based upon THE NERVOUS WRECK by Owen Davis, this primitive Technicolor musical still has the ability to entertain - especially if you are partial to Eddie Cantor's brand of comedy. Look for a 14 (!) year-old Betty Grable as one of the Goldwyn Girls in this opus which was remade in 1944 as the Danny Kaye star-making vehicle UP IN ARMS. As a footnote, Goldwyn opened his filmed musical extravaganza in the nadir of Great Depression and tickets sold for an astonishing $5 apiece: the equivalent of a day's wages back then!

This is certainly an oddity, from the hues of two-strip Technicolor to the scenes of Cantor emerging from his hiding place of an oven (in itself unsettling, given the added hindsight of WWII and Hitler's Ultimate Solution) in blackface. The songs, however, are superb, and "George Olsen's Music" in the background gives this underrated bandleader some nice exposure. Technically "Whoopee" fares better than the Marx Brother's "Animal Crackers" of the same year--they even manage to sneak in a couple of exterior shots!

If for no other reason, this is an amazing film because it was shot in Technicolor - in 1930! It's primitive color, but very interesting at times and intriguing to view. Although the story and humor are very dated, Eddie Cantor is very funny at times playing the super hypochondriac.

There are lots of gags, and like the Marx Brothers films, so many that you can't catch them all. Also like the MB, some of the humor is topical, so audiences of today aren't going to get what people would laugh at in 1930.

Through all the jokes - many stupid and many clever - Cantor is a likable guy and also a good singer. The songs in here are decent, too, some of them very catchy. They also have the added attraction of having the Busby Berkeley dancers/girls joining in.

Make no mistake: this is a "sappy" film, so dated it's extremely stupid in spots....but definitely something for the film collector. I am sorry this talented man doesn't have his films out on DVD. Someone has dropped the ball there, big-time. Cantor deserves better.

Eddie Cantor, the singing Woody Allen of the 1930s, is a treat in this film. He sings "Making Whoopee" & "My Baby just cares for me"---2 classic standards of the musical glory years of the 1930s. What an era for musical comedy, huh. Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Groucho Marx, Bing Crosby, Burns & Allen...& Eddie Cantor, while not as great himself, merits inclusion within this esteemed group of greats. Do check out "Damsel in Distress," "Horse Feathers," "Going Hollywood," & "Swingtime." And if you want to sample more Cantor after "Whoopee," consider the following: "Kid Millions" is good until its dopey ending; "Roman Scandals" is at least consistent (with the best songs after "Whoopee"), but the comedy is better in "Kid Millions". "The Kid from Spain" is a foul ball; it just doesn't measure up to the others herein. (Do also check out Cantor in "Hollywood Rhythm," a collection of musical shorts that has him singing "My wife is on a di-et"---& "since she's on a diet, I'm never at home, any-mooore"---as he tries to get out of a speeding ticket.) Cheers to the 1930s!

What a delightful item to own! Nostalgic for the generations that knew him, and an eye-opener (pun intended) for the ones who are seeing Cantor for the first time.

PARAMOUNT's 1930 Technicolor production of Flo Ziegfeld's western-flavored WHOOPEE! is a remarkable example of both early color photography and pre-Depression Era musical comedy.

A tip o' the hat reference is made in it to Jerome Kern's SHOWBOAT, the late '20s musical that changed this art form forever, when Eddie Cantor parodies "Old Man River" lyrics as "Old Black Eagle."

Eight Donaldson/Kahn songs are heard in the film, including Betty Grable with chorus performing "Cowboys" and Cantor's show-stoppers "Makin' Whoopee" and "My Baby Just Cares For Me." With this latter number, Eddie prances and claps his hands in a style much imitated but never equalled. Missing here however are most of the original stageshow numbers including Ruth Etting and her signature song, "Love Me Or Leave Me."

Busby Berkeley contributes some fine choreography for his big screen debut. Uncrediteds include Dean Jagger and Marian Marsh, who one year later co-starred as Trilby in SVENGALI (with John Barrymore). Some of the more noteworthy Goldwyn Girls (lookin' MIGHTY 'hippy,' ladies!): Miss Grable, Ann Sothern and Virginia Bruce.

Unfortunately for modern audiences, this historic motion picture may never appear on an authorized DVD due to the PC police, who would surely object to Cantor being in blackface for the last third of the story. Anyone interested then should seek out this fine work from one of the more reliable 'gray market' dealers.

From The New York Post, November 10, 2008 by Lou Lumenick:
"Fox and MGM have included two of Cantor's long-MIA vehicles for producer Samuel Goldwyn in a mega collection of 50 musicals for people with extremely eclectic tastes ..... The Goldwyn Cantors are "Whoopee'' (1930), based on a Cantor stage hit and filmed in gorgeous two-color Technicolor (complete with magenta skies, since the process couldn't reproduce true blue) ....."
The price was quoted as ca. $500-.
I was given a/the commercial release (or so it appears) of Whoopee as described above. Presumably the VHS is the same.
It appears to me that it is TCM, and other old film TV companies. that have provided an audience for long forgotten films, by long forgotten top stars. Between the appearance and hit status, on Broadway, of Whoopee, both Ziegfeld, its producer, and Cantor,its star, had gone broke in the Wall Street Crash of 1929. Ziegfeld made a deal with Sam Goldwyn which brought a number of his successes to the screen; he died before he could pay off his debts. Billie Burke, his wife, and a wonderful stage actress, movde to Hollywood and impoverished herself paying off his debts. Eddie Cantor, on the other hand, age 37 in 1929. went back on the vaudeville circuit, to begin to recoup his fortunes, which he solidified with top Hollywood box office success, in the first half of the 1930's.Whoopee began that job in 1930. In 1931, he entered radio, just before his friends, Jack Benny, Fred Allen, Burns and Allen, and others, like Jack Pear ("Vas you dere Sharlie"). With a brief hiatus, when his sponsor dropped him, ca.,1938-9, for anti-Hitler remarks on his show, he was near the top among radio comedians, until the advent of television. In television, he had his own NBC show (rotating with others,) in opposition to Ed Sullivan. Ill health drove him into retirement, punctuated only be a one-man radio show of nostalgia and record-playing. Not having made any films that achieved cult status, he no longer is an active presence for the general public, no,r even, the specifically film addicted part of it.
Whoopee, which is in primitive, but quite view-able technicolor, also brought Busby Berkeley, the creative dance director, (they had not yet come to be billed "choreographers"), to the screen, as well as many of the original Broadway cast. Ethel Shutta played, sang and danced, as the nurse in love with Eddie. With her husband, the bandleader George Olsen, she co-starred with Jack Benny, in his first series of radio programs(1932). Her Hollywood career was short and not marked by much success. In the first BB number, a girl in the ensemble, gets a few lines of words and song, to start the number off: she is the 14 year old Betty Grable, quite identifiable, if you know she is there. Cantor gets to do the song identified with him until he was forgotten, Making Whoopee, and a number of others, which demonstrate his comedic delivery and way with a song. Others in the cast, with the exception of Shutta and the dance/song ensemble, run from adequate to quite lackluster. They were just not ready for film. The script creaks at time but most of the comedy works. The singing and dancing are still fun, lively and lacking in pretentiousness. Oh, yes, the diction of the singer,s in ensemble and solo, resonates with clarity, something one misses in the grand videos of many of the current Rock stars.
Having been made before the Hayes Office clamped down on anything which might disturb anybody in the potential audience, the traditional patterns of ethnic comedy were still adhered to. Remarkably for the times, while the object of fun-making, as were other ethnics, Native Americans, came off pretty well, in-so-far as the comparison with the "white men" is concerned. If you dislike the traditions, then there will be things about the film that you will dislike.
I had fun with the film, completely enjoyed Cantor and Shutta in their song numbers and comedy, and took what is not fashionable today in my stride. Oh, yes, Cantor was a committed Jew in private life and, like Jolson, made allusions to it in his work, until it was no longer permitted. It is made clear in the film that, whatever the name of the character, he was a Jewish comedian.

its a good try for 1930//primitive color helps//the music is memorable//the dance sequences are interesting..eddie cantor is in good form///too bad the supporting cast is weak///a young betty grable is fun to see in the early musical number at the beginning of the film..even the mistake at the top where the opening fades in prematurly is forgiven

This picture is a scream! A big one!

Eddie Cantor acts more like Woody Allen in this movie as a person whos affected by and is allergic to everything! And he loves his cow more than his flerting nurse!
And he expects to die soon so he go's to the pcturesque south/west for the scenery. (setting for the funeral-with fruit!)

But....trouble starts when he findes out that he helped a girl escape from an unwanted marrage. She really loves indian boy from a tribe up in the mountians. Of corse (1930s view) this cannot be done.

I wont say much but the movie is a spinning technicolor/comedy mess of fun and frolic. (and Busby B. too!)