Whoopee! (1930)

Director:

Thornton Freeland

Writers:

William Anthony McGuire (story)
Owen Davis (play)

Release Date:

5 October 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:

Nurse | Hypochondriac | Sheriff | Rancher | Single

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
Walter Law	...	Jud Morgan
Spencer Charters	...	Jerome Underwood
Albert Hackett	...	Chester Underwood
Chief Caupolican	...	Black Eagle
Lou-Scha-Enya	...	Matafay

Also Known As:

Whoopee (USA) (alternative spelling)

Runtime:

93 min (copyright length)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (2-strip Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

USA:TV-G (TV rating)

Filming Locations:

Palm Springs, California, USA

Company:

Samuel Goldwyn Company, The

Trivia:

Based on a Broadway show produced by Florenz Ziegfeld Jr.. "Whoopee" opened at the New Amsterdam Theatre in New York on Dec. 4, 1928 and ran for 407 performances. Unfortunately, Ziegfeld lost everything in the stock market crash of 1929. At the time, "Whoopee" was still playing to full houses on Broadway. To bail himself out, Ziegfeld closed the show on Nov. 23, 1929 and sold the movie rights to Samuel Goldwyn. It is believed that the Broadway show could have run for another year.

Quotes:

Sally Morgan: But they'll give you twenty years.
Henry Williams: Twenty ye - ha ha ha ha ha ha...
Sally Morgan: What are you laughing at?
Henry Williams: Why, the joke's on them.
Sally Morgan: Why?
Henry Williams: I can't live but six months.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Biography: Betty Grable: Behind the Pin-up" (1995)

Soundtrack:

The Wedding March

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.