Palmy Days

1931 film

October 3, 1931 (1931-10-03)

Running time

77 minutesCountryUnited StatesLanguageEnglishBox office$1,601,000^[1]^[2]

Palmy Days is a 1931 American Pre-Code musical comedy film written by Eddie Cantor, Morrie Ryskind, and David Freedman, directed by A. Edward Sutherland, and choreographed by Busby Berkeley (who makes a cameo appearance as a fortune teller). The film stars Eddie Cantor. The famed Goldwyn Girls make appearances during elaborate production numbers set in a gymnasium and a bakery ("Glorifying the American Doughnut"). Betty Grable, Paulette Goddard, Virginia Grey, and Toby Wing are among the bevy of chorines. George Raft had an early role.^[3]

Plot

Eddie Simpson's family bakery/restaurant grows into a huge success; thanks to Simpsons's entertainment shows and a fortune-telling booth run by the mysterious Yolando.

When Simpson discovers the fortune-teller is running a racket that cheats people out of their savings; Yolando and his henchman do their best to dispose of him by feeding him into one of the large bakery ovens. However, their efforts fail.

Cast (in credits order)

Charlotte Greenwood as Helen Martin
Barbara Weeks as Joan Clark
Spencer Charters as Mr Clark
Paul Page as Steve
Charles Middleton as Yolando
George Raft as Joe – Yolando's Henchman
Harry Woods as Yolando's Henchman
Eddie Cantor as Eddie Simpson

Music

Cantor's major musical numbers are "My Baby Said Yes, Yes" and "There's Nothing Too Good For My Baby".

Reception

The film was one of the most popular movies of the year.^[4]

New York Times movie critic Mordaunt Hall, described Palmy Days as "a more or less funny diatribe" with "two or three inconsequential melodies and a great deal to gaze, including pretty damsels from the Pacific Coast and effectively photographed groups of dancers."^[5]

Product placement

Brand-name products rarely appeared in movies of this period, partly because of the campaign against that practice by the motion picture trade periodical Harrison's Reports. In an editorial, that publication reported the on-screen appearance of an Underwood Typewriter and product of Continental Baking Company.^[6]

References

^ Quigley Publishing Company "The All Time Best Sellers", International Motion Picture Almanac 1937-38 (1938) (pg. 942); accessed April 19, 2014
^ "WHICH CINEMA FILMS HAVE EARNED THE MOST MONEY SINCE 1914?". The Argus. Melbourne. March 4, 1944. p. 3 Supplement: The Argus Weekend magazine. Retrieved August 6, 2012 – via National Library of Australia.
^ Vagg, Stephen (February 9, 2020). "Why Stars Stop Being Stars: George Raft". Filmink.
^ Everett Aaker, The Films of George Raft, McFarland & Company, 2013 p 18
^ New York Times, Movie Review, "Palmy Days (1931) The Screen; A Frolic, With Mr. Cantor" September 24, 1931
^ Harrison's Reports November 28, 1931, page 189

External links

Palmy Days at IMDb
Palmy Days at the TCM Movie Database
Palmy Days at AllMovie

Films directed by A. Edward Sutherland

Coming Through (1925)
Wild, Wild Susan (1925)
A Regular Fellow (1925)
Behind the Front (1926)
It's the Old Army Game (1926)
We're in the Navy Now (1926)
Love's Greatest Mistake (1927)
Fireman, Save My Child (1927)
Figures Don't Lie (1927)
Tillie's Punctured Romance (1928)
The Baby Cyclone (1928)
What a Night! (1928)
Close Harmony (1929)
The Dance of Life (1929)
The Saturday Night Kid (1929)
Fast Company (1929)
Pointed Heels (1929)
Burning Up (1930)
Paramount on Parade (1930)
The Social Lion (1930)
The Sap from Syracuse (1930)
The Gang Buster (1931)
June Moon (1931)
Up Pops the Devil (1931)
Palmy Days (1931)
Mr. Robinson Crusoe (1932)
Secrets of the French Police (1932)
Murders in the Zoo (1933)
International House (1933)
Too Much Harmony (1933)
Mississippi (1935)
Diamond Jim (1935)
Poppy (1936)
Every Day's a Holiday (1937)
Champagne Waltz (1937)
The Flying Deuces (1939)
Beyond Tomorrow (1940)
The Boys from Syracuse (1940)
One Night in the Tropics (1940)
The Invisible Woman (1940)
Nine Lives Are Not Enough (1941)
Steel Against the Sky (1941)
Sing Your Worries Away (1942)
The Navy Comes Through (1942)
Army Surgeon (1942)
Dixie (1943)
Follow the Boys (1944)
Secret Command (1944)
Abie's Irish Rose (1946)
Bermuda Affair (1956)

v t e Busby Berkeley
Broadway plays choreographed	A Connecticut Yankee (1927) Present Arms (1928) Sweet and Low (1930)
Films directed	42nd Street (musical numbers, 1933) She Had To Say Yes (1933) Footlight Parade (musical numbers, 1933) Dames (musical numbers, 1934) Fashions of 1934 (musical numbers, 1934) Gold Diggers of 1935 (1935) Bright Lights (1935) I Live for Love (1935) In Caliente (musical numbers, 1935) Stars Over Broadway (musical numbers, 1935) Stage Struck (1936) Varsity Show (finale, 1937) The Singing Marine (musical numbers, 1937) Gold Diggers of 1937 (musical numbers, 1937) The Go Getter (1937) Hollywood Hotel (1937) Men Are Such Fools (1938) Gold Diggers in Paris (musical numbers, 1938) Garden of the Moon (1938) Comet Over Broadway (1938) Broadway Serenade (finale, 1939) They Made Me a Criminal (1939) Fast and Furious (1939) Babes in Arms (1939) The Wizard of Oz (scenes cut, 1939) Forty Little Mothers (1940) Strike Up The Band (1940) Blonde Inspiration (1941) Lady Be Good (musical numbers, 1941) Ziegfeld Girl (musical numbers, 1941) Babes on Broadway (1941) For Me and My Gal (1942) Born to Sing (finale, 1942) Cabin in the Sky ("Shine" sequence, 1943) The Gang's All Here (1943) Girl Crazy ("I Got Rhythm" sequence, 1943) Cinderella Jones (1946) Take Me Out to the Ball Game (1949) Annie Get Your Gun (scenes cut, 1950)
Films choreographed only	Whoopee! (1930) Kiki (1931) Palmy Days (1931) Flying High (1931) Sky Devils (1932) Girl Crazy (1932) Night World (1932) Bird of Paradise (1932) The Kid From Spain (1932) Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933) Roman Scandals (1933) Wonder Bar (1934) Romance on the High Seas (1948) Call Me Mister (1951) Million Dollar Mermaid (1952) Small Town Girl (1953) Rose Marie (1954) Billy Rose's Jumbo (1962)

v t e Films produced by Samuel Goldwyn
The Pest (1919) Slave of Desire (1923) Potash and Perlmutter (1923) The Eternal City (1923) Cytherea (1924) In Hollywood with Potash and Perlmutter (1924) A Thief in Paradise (1925) His Supreme Moment (1925) The Dark Angel (1925) Stella Dallas (1925) The Winning of Barbara Worth (1926) Partners Again (1926) The Night of Love (1927) The Magic Flame (1927) The Devil Dancer (1927) Two Lovers (1928) The Awakening (1928) Condemned (1929) The Rescue (1929) This Is Heaven (1929) Bulldog Drummond (1929) Raffles (1930) Whoopee! (1930) The Devil to Pay! (1930) One Heavenly Night (1931) Street Scene (1931) Palmy Days (1931) The Unholy Garden (1931) Arrowsmith (1931) Tonight or Never (1931) The Greeks Had a Word for Them (1932) The Kid from Spain (1932) Cynara (1932) The Masquerader (1933) Roman Scandals (1933) We Live Again (1934) Nana (1934) Kid Millions (1934) The Dark Angel (1935) The Wedding Night (1935) Barbary Coast (1935) Splendor (1935) These Three (1936) Dodsworth (1936) Come and Get It (1936) Strike Me Pink (1936) Beloved Enemy (1936) Woman Chases Man (1937) Stella Dallas (1937) Dead End (1937) The Hurricane (1937) The Adventures of Marco Polo (1938) The Cowboy and the Lady (1938) The Goldwyn Follies (1938) They Shall Have Music (1939) Wuthering Heights (1939) The Real Glory (1939) The Westerner (1940) The Little Foxes (1941) Ball of Fire (1941) The Pride of the Yankees (1942) They Got Me Covered (1943) The North Star (1943) Up in Arms (1944) The Princess and the Pirate (1944) Wonder Man (1945) The Kid From Brooklyn (1946) The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) The Bishop's Wife (1947) The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947) A Song Is Born (1948) Enchantment (1948) Roseanna McCoy (1949) My Foolish Heart (1949) Our Very Own (1950) Edge of Doom (1950) I Want You (1951) Hans Christian Andersen (1952) Guys and Dolls (1955) Porgy and Bess (1959)

Films produced by Samuel Goldwyn