Simply Perfect

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

WARNING: a blackface musical number is included. If sensitive to such, best not to view this film, or close your eyes during that portion.Eddie Cantor leads another hilarious musicomedy. For those who couldn't find Betty Grable among the Goldwyn Girls, I'm sure the first girl featured was Betty. Looked and sounded just like her! After featuring close-ups of most of the girls, they change into bathing suits and peel off, on by one, into a swimming pool, and form a rotating wheel with a complex spoke structure, as seen from an overhead shot. All of these features are signature Busby Berkeley choreography. The next morning, the house mother arrives to wake up the co-eds, including a reluctant Eddie, hiding under his sheet. The mother scolds one of the girls, making her repeat "I'm a naughty girl". Eddie parrots her when revealed. Seems his Mexican friend Ricardo put him up to this prank. However, the Dean doesn't think it's funny, and expels them both.Eddie soon finds himself the accidental wheelman for a trio of bank robbers who mistake his car for theirs. They decide to take him to Mexico, despite his lack of a passport. He has quite a time of it with the immigration officer. This includes a segment where the officer is trying to talk to him and to his wife on the phone at the same time, getting everything mixed up. A private investigator shows up and wants to know Eddie's identity. Friend Ricardo tells him Eddie's the great bullfighter Sebastian II, newly arrived from Spain. They arrive at the hacienda of Ricardo's girlfriend, Anita. Eddie sings "In the Moonlight", with various of the Goldwyn Girls lounging around. Anita's father, Alonzo(Noah Beery) says Eddie's father was his best friend until he was killed. Eddie and Ricardo are put in jail for fighting with Pancho and friend Pedro over the girls(Anita and her blond friend Rosalie). Eddie is nearly executed by a firing squad by mistake and later escapes. Eddie returns to the Hacienda and thinks he has rescued Anita in an auto escape. Later, he discovers he has Anita's friend Rosalie, who wants some romance in the pale moonlight. Eddie is reluctant at first, but finally gives her a massive kiss and hug. Eddie then sings "Look What You've Done"The bank investigator says he will be at the bull fight to see if Eddie is really Sabastian II. Ricardo has arranged for Eddie to fight a bull trained to sit down when hears a magic word. But Pedro and Pancho switch bulls, giving Eddie the mean killer, Diablo. During a break in the action, Eddie sings "What a Perfect Combination", while in blackface. The Goldwyn Girls, in Mexican dress, dance to this tune. Sometimes an overhead projection is used, as the girls form fancy geometric circles.Now, for the bull fight: It starts out badly, as the spectators notice he forgot to put on his pants, under his cape. Then, the bull sits on him and he bites the bull's tail to restart the action. Diablo chases Eddie inside and outside of the arena. But, in the end, it's concluded Eddie is the winner. The bank investigator now reveals that Eddie was never a suspect in the robbery. He just wanted to see Eddie fight a bull!The musical numbers were composed by Harry Ruby and Bert Kalmar, who would be honored in the musical "Three Little Words", starring Fred Astaire and Red Skelton.I strongly suspect that Eddie's films are almost never shown on TV because of the small portion done in blackface, except for one film. He was an avid practitioner of blackface, failing to anticipate the eventual political incorrectness of the art.At first, I couldn't decide if Lyda Roberti(as Rosalie) was a poor actress, or if that was simply her style of comedy. Eventually, I concluded the latter. In a prior show, she had played a sexy dizzy blonde with a passion for chasing men, which is what she is here. Her father had been a circus clown, and she had performed in circuses since a child.J. Carrol Naish was an Irishman who was usually cast as an ethnic supporting actor, villainous or not, in more than 200 films. For example, he played Sitting Bull in the 1950 musicomedy "Annie Get Your Gun", as well as in the film "Sitting Bull".Several reviewers comment on the strange casting of Robert Young as a Mexican. Well, neither his girlfriend , Anita, nor Rosalie looked typical Mexican either. I think the casters wanted someone tall, with an aristocratic bearing, to match Anita's aristocratic status. Goofy Rosalie then seemed an appropriate match for goofy Eddie.This film may be purchased as a DVD in a set of 4 Eddie Cantor films.

Eddie Cantor musical where a jittery simpleton is forced to cross the border to Mexico and pretend he is a matador. It's nothing special all told. Some of the jokes are funny, yes, but the whole is thin and I'm sure recycled from previous film and radio work.What is of some interest, is that Busby Berkeley is here with his crafty engineering. Oh, both of his numbers feel tacky and have nothing to do with anything, which is more proof of zero vision behind this. Yet both numbers impress. Both are in that voluptuous mode he would cultivate in coming years: sexual tease, sparkle and shadowplay, the female body as the fulcrum of a continuously shifting erotic landscape. Eddie in blackface among Busby's radiant troupe feels crude and out of place. He would be on to 42nd Street and history the next year.

I have liked Eddie Cantor films for some time even though now in the twenty-first century he's practically forgotten. That's because even in the bad ones, his character and personality is very likable and sweet. Plus, when he is given excellent material, his films are tough to be beat--particularly FORTY LITTLE MOTHERS and Hollywood CANTEEN.Cantor was a huge name on stage and was famous for his comedic song and dance numbers. Like Al Jolson, Cantor also often performed in black-face--something that would definitely shock many people today but which was widely accepted and not criticized in the old days. This film, like a few of his others, does feature such a minstrel segment, so if you can't watch it without suffering a fatal heart attack, then this is one to skip. However, if you do, you may be missing out on a rather entertaining little comedy.Oddly, though, despite Cantor being a nice comic, the parts of the film that made me laugh the most were unintended by the producers. This is because Busby Berkeley designed and directed several huge production numbers that are so over-the-top that they are, in this day and age, funny to watch. The best of these is the opening number. It supposedly is set in a girl's dorm in college but school was never like this!! Seeing all the "Goldwyn Girls" running about in various states of undress as they performed the most complex and expensive dance number is something you won't soon forget! As for the plot, Eddie and his friend Robert Young (who plays, of all things, a Mexican) are on their way to Mexico. However, on the way, Eddie accidentally gets mixed up in a bank robbery and the police think he's part of the gang. So, once in Mexico, he pretends to be the son of a famous bullfighter to avoid being captured. In the end, of course, is the obligatory bull fight and Cantor manages to survive AND get the girl.The whole film is full of surprisingly engaging songs from Cantor and as I said above, his character is so likable you will probably find yourself having a good time--even with its various shortcomings (including a rather poorly filmed bull fight).

I like Eddie Cantor movies. This is an early talkie and one of his best. It has two superb dance sequences from Busby Berkeley.I'd have rated it an 8 but for the number done in black-face. Yes, I know that was fairly standard at the time. It grates today, though. The whole thing is fun. It's improbable but that can be the key to the charm of a Cantor movie.Nevertheless, the highlight for me was his leading lady. I'd heard the name Lyda Roberti. Probably I've seen her before, too. But I was knocked out by her delightful comic performance. Here was a pretty woman, svelte and attractive, who was a topnotch comic. She presaged such greats as Joan Davis and Judy Canova.I see she died young. What a loss to Hollywood then and to those of us who treasure vintage movies now! Lyda, you were sublime!