I strongly recommend you try "Palmy Days"...it has a lot of energy and heart and it's also a lot of fun. However, be forewarned...it features a song and dance number with Eddie Cantor in blackface...something he did often with his stage act. Now before you get all excited and think Cantor is a horrible racist, there are two things to remember. First, while we realize that blackface acts are offensive today, back in the 1920s and 30s, they were popular...and some black performers even did blackface numbers...painting while around their mouths. Second, Cantor is the man Sammy Davis Jr. Credited for starting his career rolling...and Cantor was very effusive in his praise of Davis. So, simply labeling him a racist seems a bit simplistic. He did it, it was NOT good...but it's also a part of our history.
As far as the story goes, it begins with Eddie working for an evil phony psychic. Yolando (Charles Middleton) is simply concerned with money...and he has absolutely no scruples and will do ANYTHING to get it. Eddie is too nice a guy for this and soon quits...and spends much of the movie actually trying to stop Yolando and his thugs from robbing Mr. Clark. As for Clark, he has hired away Eddie from Yolando and made him his Donut company's new efficiency expert. Along the way, one of his employees, Helen (Charlotte Greenwood), falls for Eddie and Eddie THINKS that Clark's cute young daughter wants to marry him...but it's really Helen. What's next? See the film.
This film features several Busby Berkeley song and dance numbers....thought I really enjoyed Cantor's numbers even more. The lyrics were quite clever and cute. It also has a lot of energy, many nice laughs and is a movie that simply left me smiling! Having Charlotte Greenwood to support Cantor really helped...they were wonderful together. The film is one of Cantor's best, though his very best is the delightful "Forty Little Mothers"...one not to be missed.
By the way, look closely at Yolando's henchmen. One is George Raft before he became a star (in the mid-1930s).
