Whoopee! (1930)

User Rating:

8.1/10   

Director:

Thornton Freeland

Writers:

E.J. Rath (story) &
Robert Hobart Davis (story) ...

Release Date:

7 September 1930 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Musical

Plot:

Western sheriff Bob Wells is preparing to marry Sally Morgan; she loves part-Indian Wanenis, whose race is an obstacle...

Plot Keywords:

Disability | Courtship | Two Strip Technicolor | Racial Prejudice | Based On Play

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar.

Cast

Eddie Cantor	...	Henry Williams
Ethel Shutta	...	Mary Custer
Paul Gregory	...	Wanenis
Eleanor Hunt	...	Sally Morgan
Jack Rutherford	...	Sheriff Bob Wells
Spencer Charters	...	Jerome Underwood
Albert Hackett	...	Chester Underwood
Chief Caupolican	...	Black Eagle
Lou-Scha-Enya	...	Matafay
George Olsen	...	Himself, George Olsen (as George Olsen and His Orchestra)

Also Known As:

Whoopee (USA) (alternative spelling)

Runtime:

94 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (2-strip Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Filming Locations:

Palm Springs, California, USA

Company:

Samuel Goldwyn Company, The

Trivia:

Eddie Cantor reprises his role from the original 1928 Broadway show. Many film cast members were also in the original show, including Eleanor Hunt, Ethel Shutta, Paul Gregory, Jack Rutherford, Spencer Charters, Albert Hackett and Chief Caupolican. Appearing in the original play, but not the film, was Buddy Ebsen, best known to today's audiences as a cast member of TV's "The Beverly Hillbillies" (1962) and "Barnaby Jones" (1973).

Quotes:

Jerome Underwood: You know who I am?
Henry Williams: Who?
Jerome Underwood: I'm an Underwood.
Henry Williams: Indian no care for typewriter!

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Broadway: The American Musical: Syncopated City: 1919-1933 (#1.2)" (2004)

Soundtrack:

MAKIN' WAFFLES

A fun, antique little musical-comedy. One of the better "pre-code" musicals.

"Whooppee!" was made at a perfect time, 1930. It has experimentation with the new two-strip Technicolor process (which gives an unreal, pleasing pastel quality). The Hays Office (the censorship arm of movies from 1934 to 1956) hadn't come in, allowing for some funny off-color jokes, and some wild costuming of shapely dancing girls. The star, Eddie Cantor was in his prime. Eddie plays a hypochondriac on a cross country auto trip. He winds up at an Indian reservation, wrongfully hunted by the Sheriff. The film moves from being a comic gift from long ago, to a scary reminder of poor race relations only 70 years ago. Eddie hides in coal stove that explodes, and he emerges in black face, allowing him to walk past his pursuers in disquise. He approaches the leading lady of the film. She sees him and yells "How dare YOU speak to ME?!" Looking past the social-incorrectness of the film, the dance numbers have some amazing choreography by Busby Berkeley, who was just beginning to discover new and exciting ways to film dancers.