EDDIE CANTOR HERE AGAIN

Evening Star, Issue 20999, 13 January 1932, Page 12

EDDIE CANTOR HERE AGAIN

' PALMY DAYS' FDD REGENT Eddie Cantor’s memorable entry into the motion picture firmament by making ‘ Whoopee ’ has been eclipsed in ‘ Palmy Days,’ the famous comic’s second screen vehicle, which will be presented by Samuel Goldwyn at the Regent on Thursday next at a midnight matinee. Surrounded by myriads of feminine pulchritude, Pogany settings, an outstanding cast, and a story in which Cantor collaborated with Morrie Ryskind and David Freedman, the star of ‘ Palmy Days ’ projects himself from hilarity to unroariousness in a series of ingenious Cantor situations. Edward Sutherland, who rose to his mighty megaphone status after assisting Charlie Chaplin in ‘ A Woman of Paris,’ and since directing twenty-five comedy successes, has inspired a dash and movement in' Cantor’s latest endeavour that gathers whirlwind momentum as it approaches its side-split-ting climax. More than five thousand applicants appeared for the ‘ Palmy Days ’ chorus when production began. Fifty girls were accepted as the most beautiful, and the gorgeous ensembles in which they appear give unique enchantment” to a story continuity through which Cantor plunges goggleeyed. In a startling swimming pool set designed by Willy Pogany, the chorus engages in applause provoking frolics led by three Olympic mermaids, each an aquatic champion. They are Olive Hatch, Southern California lOGyds champion; Georgia Coleman, national diving champion; and Dorothy Poynton, runner-up to Miss Coleman. Youthful Barbara Weeks sings, dances, and laughs her way through the picture as an accomplice and coadjutor to Cantor and the elongated Charlotte Greenwood. ‘ Palmy Days ’ boasts the presence of three former musical comedy stars. First, of course, is Eddie Cantor, who ended several years as star of musical shows with the Ziegfeld production, ‘ Whoopee.’ Charlotte Greenwood, Cantor’s foil, starred in such stage productions as ‘ So Long Letty,’ ‘ Linger Longer Letty,’ ‘ The Tik Tok Man of Oz,’ and the ‘ Ritz Revue.’ Walter Catlett, completing the trio, has been on the stage for several years. In ‘ Palmy Days ’ Cantor uses the bland nonsense of his newest picture as an attack on the practice of spiritualism and fortune telling. Eddie appears as the unwilling assistant to a gang of fake mystics, through which is revealed some of the crooked tactics of the craft that annually is §aid to mulct the public out of 125,000,000 dollars. To get detail and experience and atmosphere for the picture, Eddie visited numerous fortune tellers in New York, Los Angeles, and other cities, gathering together actual instances exposed by the late Houdini. A deviation from spiritualism to the role of bakery efficiency manager provides one of the highlights in successive waves of mirth and excitement experienced by Cantor and his troupe. Howls of humour are bound to trail Eddie’s bare feet in their scramble for safety when a bevy of beauties pursue him through a house party, a_ robbery, a jilting, and an anti-climax in which, despite Eddie’s comical and agonised pleadings, he is hailed as a hero and claimed as a mate.