Show Business

A clearly minor musical that nonetheless treasures the typical freshness of RKO productions of that time. Once again Cantor's peculiar comedy stands out, but also George Murphy's enthusiasm.

Along with them, the rest of the cast is quite unknown, highlighting the nice Joan Davis.

Although the story is quite simple and has been seen on the screen on many other occasions, this unpretentious film that mixes comedy and melodrama will appeal to all lovers of the musical or fans of Cantor.

In fact, the film is produced by him and is intended to be a self-tribute on the occasion of his 35-year career.

SHOW BUSINESS (1944) seems like a rather obscure old film, but it's surprisingly enjoyable. Nothing major, but it's a lot of fun.

The movie is a breezy tale about entertainers on the old vaudeville circuit (~1910s) and it showcases some classic songs like "It Had To Be You", "Dinah", and "Makin' Whoopee".

The cast may not be flashy, but they're a delight. The film is anchored by song and dance men George Murphy and Eddie Cantor. The two partners soon meet up with female showbiz duo Constance Moore and Joan Davis. There's singing, dancing, comedy bits, romance, and some dramatic beats along the way.

(Interestingly, the principal cast all play characters sharing their first names.)

I am not familiar with Joan Davis, but she's very funny as a wisecracking Eve Arden-type. Eddie Cantor plays the comedic sidekick role here, and I think I enjoyed him more than in his earlier starring vehicles. His comedy shtick is actually pretty sharp and he tones down some of his characteristic bug-eyed stuff. Cantor and Davis make an excellent comedy pair.

Eddie Cantor seemed to be in his comfort zone, essentially playing himself, an old-time vaudevillian hopping up and down a stage. Cantor produced the film, which leads one to suspect he might have been retracing his own steps through the glory days of vaudeville. "Makin' Whoopee", sung by Cantor in the film, had actually been popularized by Cantor himself in a Florenz Ziegfeld production.

Leading lady Constance Moore was not a typical fresh-faced beauty, but I thought she was lovely. She reminded me vaguely of other actresses but I'd never seen her in a film before. I'll have to keep an eye out for her.

I had low expectations for this B-musical, but I was pleasantly surprised. Give it a look.

And wit like you would never see nowadays.

The story of a four person act, two men Eddie Martin (Eddie Cantor) and George Doane (George Murphy) and two women Joan Mason (Joan Davis) and Constance Ford (Constance Moore) (lot of thought evidently went into those names), their lives, their loves, their highs, their lows and some very entertaining performances. Particularly from Joan Davis who gets all the fabulous one-liners.

There a some classic songs in there too, "Making Whoopee" and "It Had To Be You." All in all, a very entertaining way to spend a slow Saturday afternoon.

The copy I saw of "Show Business" was very flawed and I hope you can find a better one than the one on YouTube. The picture was scratchy, the sound tinny and whoever posted it stuck a giant watermark across the screen! Even worse is that they removed a blackface segment because it might offend. I personally hate censorship and wish they'd instead given a prologue discussing this scene instead of just removing it.

The story is about the burlesque singing and dancing team of Eddie and George (Eddie Cantor and George Murphy). Soon they meet up with Joan and Nancy (Joan Davis and Nancy Kelly) and they are so good they're able to move up to vaudeville. Things are just fine until George and Nancy marry. On the day their daughter is born, a STUPID misunderstanding tears them apart and the rest of the film is predictable....as years pass, you know eventually they'll get back together.

A serious problem for me was that I didn't care about George and Nancy. Their histrionics really took away from what I loved.... Eddie and Joan. They were wonderful together....just like they'd been in previous films. In hindsight, I really wish they film had just been about them and the other two written out of the picture. Worth seeing despite this...but not exactly a must-see picture.

SHOW BUSINESS (RKO Radio, 1944), directed by Edwin L. Marin, stars the legendary Eddie Cantor, who also produced, in a nostalgic down melody lane story set in the days of burlesque to Broadway (1914-1928). Though this could have been "The Eddie Cantor Story" considering how the plot somewhat borrows from Cantor's own stage origins, leading up to his signature number, "Makin' Whoopee" he introduced in Florenz Ziegfeld musical, WHOOPEE, the narrative belongs mostly to co-stars George Murphy and Constance Moore, with Cantor and Joan Davis in secondary comic leads, all assuming their actual first names in character roles.

Opening title: "In the glorified of belles - bloomers - and beer in buckets, troupes, ambitious groups of lovable hams known as Show Folks, all dreaming of big time. In the burlesque theater of those days were born many of today's great stars." In a story starting around 1914, George Doane (George Murphy) is introduced as a popular singer and dancer in a burlesque theater with a ladies man reputation. He is loved by Nancy Gaye (Nancy Kelly), a singer in the show, determined to hold onto him at all cost. After Eddie martin (Eddie Cantor) wins a $10 prize in an amateur contest, a friendship forms between he and George, who makes Eddie, the man with the jokes, as his new partner. To celebrate their union, they come to Kelly's Café where, through vaudeville agent, Charlie Lucas (Don Douglas), get to meet a struggling sister act team of Constance Ford (Constance Moore) and Joan Mason (Joan Davis). Due to George's interest in Constance, he adds the girls to his vaudeville to burlesque partnership. As Constance eventually gives in to George's proposal of marriage, Joan continues proposing unsuccessfully to Eddie, which doesn't discourage Joan as she frequently looks into the camera, saying, "I love that boy!" All goes well for George and Constance until Nancy's scheme to get George back interferes with their marriage.

With a grand selection of tunes from the early part of the twentieth century, the motion picture soundtrack includes: "They're Wearing Them Higher in Hawaiier" (sung by George Murphy); "Swanee River" (by Stephen Foster/solo dance number); "The Curse of the Aching Heart"(sung by Eddie Cantor); "It Had to Be You" (sung/danced by George Murphy and Constance Moore); "Strolling Through the Park One Day" (dance rehearsal); "I Want a Girl, Just Like the Girl That Married Dear Old Dad" (sung by Cantor, Constance Moore, George Murphy and Joan Davis); "Comin' 'Round the Mountain" (sung by Joan Davis); Comic Opera (performed by Cantor,Davis, Murphy and Moore); "Alabamy Bound" (Eddie Cantor); "Dinah" (Cantor, Murphy, Davis and Moore); "You May Not Remember" (sung by Nancy Kelly); "I'm in Love With a Beautiful Nurse," (Eddie Cantor/ George Murphy); "You May Not Remember" (reprise by Nancy Kelly); "Why Am I Blue?" (sung by Constance Moore); "You're All I Need" (sung by Murphy); "It Had to Be You," (separately sung by Moore and Murphy); "Makin' Whoopee" (sung by Eddie Cantor); "It Had to Be You" (sung by George Murphy).

SHOW BUSINESS may have all the familiarity of those period musicals pieces commonly found in 20th Century-Fox musicals of the forties, and that nostalgic feel from MGM's own FOR ME AND MY GAL (1942) which also featured George Murphy, but the film itself, though quite good, is quite underrated. Lacking the commonly use of Technicolor found in most 1940s musicals, it benefits highly with costumes and hair styles being close to accurate for its time frame. Quite enjoyable during its song and dance interludes, especially during Cantor and Davis exchanges, it makes one wonder why these two haven't been teamed before this. Davis is naturally funny, even when borrowing a comedy line often associated to W.C. Fields. Cantor and Davis would work together again in IF YOU KNEW SUSIE (RKO, 1948), becoming Cantor's final motion picture lead. Though amusing and still great together, the results weren't the same even with their comic opera sequence (with Murphy and Moore) clipped into it.

Formerly broadcast on American Movie Classics prior to 2001, SHOW BUSINESS, which had its distribution on video cassette in the 1990s through Turner Home Entertainment, can be seen occasionally on cable TV's Turner Classic Movies. A real treat for Cantor or Davis fans or both, Murphy and Moore should not be overlooked in their serious moments together, especially their split screen vocalization of the film's theme song, "It Had to Be You." Anyway, there's no business like SHOW BUSINESS. Sit back and enjoy this one. (***)