Whoopee! (film)

Infobox Film
name = Whoopee (1930)

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producer = Samuel Goldwyn
Florenz Ziegfeld
director = Thornton Freeland
writer = William M. Conselman
E.J. Rath (story)
Robert Hobart Davis (story)
Owen Davis (play)
William Anthony McGuire (musical)
starring = Eddie Cantor
Ethel Shutta
Paul Gregory
Eleanor Hunt
music = Nacio Herb Brown
Walter Donaldson
Edward Eliscu
cinematography = Lee Garmes
Ray Rennahan
Gregg Toland "(Technicolor)"
editing = Stuart Heisler
distributor = United Artists
released = September 7, 1930
runtime = 101 min.
language = English
country = USA
imdb_id = 0021549|

"Whoopee" is an "All-Talking All-Color" musical comedy film from 1930 photographed in two-color Technicolor. The film closely followed the stage show produced by Florenz Ziegfeld in 1928.

Production

The film was produced by Florenz Ziegfeld and Samuel Goldwyn and directed by Thornton Freeland. "Whoopee" made a movie star of Eddie Cantor, already one of the leading stars of Broadway revues and musical comedies as well as being a popular recording artist in the United States. George Olsen and his Music, already well-known Victor recording artists, repeated their work from the stage version. Other stars in the film were Eleanor Hunt, Ethel Shutta (George Olsen's wife), and Paul Gregory. Future stars Betty Grable, Ann Sothern, and Virginia Bruce appeared uncredited as "Goldwyn Girls". The film also launched the Hollywood career of Busby Berkeley and was Alfred Newman's first job in Hollywood. Richard Day did the set designs and behind the camera was Gregg Toland, who later found fame with Orson Welles.

Plot

The story line of "Whoopee" is somewhat aged by today's standards but there are several interesting moments in the movie, particularly Cantor's rendition of the song "Makin' Whoopee" (later a hit for Ray Charles), and some of the big production numbers with the Goldwyn Girls.

"Whoopee" is an important but overlooked film in the history of the Hollywood musical. Made a year before the movie industry began to fully feel the effects of the Great Depression, it had a ticket price of five dollars when it opened and made Samuel Goldwyn a lot of money. In the history of musicals, it shows a look years ahead of its time and foreshadows all of the great Warner Bros. musicals of the 1930s.

External links

* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0021549/ "Whoopee!"] at the Internet Movie Database