I just caught this film the other day on TV. It was shown at around lunch time on a weekday when mostly everyone is at school or work. I had the day off and so I decided to watch a little bit of it. I was suprised at how watchable the film was.
It is a story about the Parkers, a family of entertainers who decide to quit the showbiz world and settle down amongst a community who are linked to the Founding Fathers of the American Revolution. The community elders take a dislike to the Parkers and try to avoid their "Colonial" themed restaurant in the hope of bankrupting them.
One day the Parkers find a letter written by their ancestor who was a merchant around the time of the American Revolution who mentions that he is owed money by the Continental army for a shipment of arms and supplies.
The Parkers are overjoyed that the letter may finally give them recognition and acceptance from the community of the Founding Fathers. So Mr and Mrs Parker travel to Washington to try and get the letter verified by the US government. There they discover that they are owed millions by the US government for the shipment of weapons which brings them to the attention of the Press and also the attention of Mobsters.
This film turned out to be a very enjoyable film. I was surprised that I was able to watch it to the end as I am not a fan of musicals (Particularily B/W ones). However this film is not overladen with songs like other musicals (there are only 3 and they are all quite good!!)
The emphasis of this film is "light hearted comedy" and it delivers it very well. I thought Cantor and Davis made an excellent double act. But overall Joan Davis stole the show with her funny dance moves and witty one liners.
The choreography of the film is very good. Particularily at the very beginning of the film where Eddie Cantor (dressed as a B/W minstrel) does a musical number.
The comedy and the plot blended well together and the film ended quite satisfactorily. I am not saying that "If you Knew Susie" is an all time classic. But it is a very good film that suprisingly given its age and genre is very watchable today. Which is a lot more than one can say about many of the so called "entertainment" films that are made nowadays.
