Strike Me Pink

Moviecut—Strike Me Pink

Strike Me Pink 1936 DVDRip x264

source: Strike Me Pink

Based on the Saturday Evening Post serial, "Dreamland" by Clarence Buddington Kelland, this is a delightful Cantor vehicle, lavishly produced by Sam Goldwyn. In fact, Cantor did five movies for Goldwyn -- all of them top notch. This was the last, but by no means the least. In fact, I found it most entertaining. There are some wonderful moments. The scene I like best is the one in the snooty café where Gordon Jones ends up ordering pancakes with maple syrup. Running it close is the scene where Cantor spits the bullets out of his mouth. Or how about the card game with the ghosts? Running Cantor close for expertise is art director Richard Day. I love the notice on Pink's door which comes up as people enter the shop. And how about that rustic background against which Helen Lowell is introduced before she toddles across to the amusement park? The songs are a riot too, especially the one with the flash-forward which Cantor and Merman sing on top of the Ferris Wheel. And how about Merman's opening number with all those fantastically close close-ups photographed by Gregg Toland, who handled all the dances and the singing ensembles (the rest of the movie was photographed by Merritt Gerstadt)? In all, this entry is a delightful feast for Cantor fans! Count me in!

The last of 6 films starring or including the inimical Eddie Cantor, produced by Sam Goldwyn Studios from 1930-36, which includes pre and post code films. It's also the only one that does not include a segment of Cantor in black face, if that's important to you. I suspect the inclusion of blackface is one reason why Cantor films have not been frequently shown on public TV. In 1937, he starred in a 20th Century-Fox film: "Äli Baba Goes to Town", which is also worth a look if you like his films in general. We have several threads pursued. Eddy(Pink) plays his usual overly timid nerd character, who initially runs a shop where he offers various services, including a machine that breaks in new shoes. He gives up his shop to become the manager of the amusement park Dreamland. There, he gets mixed up with a gang who want to fill Dreamland with crooked slot machines, threatening to dispose of him like they did the last half dozen managers who refused to cooperate. Eddie is much helped and encouraged by his secretary Claribel(Sally Eilers). Eddie has a fixation on nightclub singer Joyce Lennox (Ethel Merman). The slot machine gang figure out a way to use this obsession to blackmail Eddie into allowing the slot machines in Dreamland, Ethel being a friend of the gang. To effectively deal with the gang and his other duties, Eddie mail orders a book and record to teach him self-confidence. In addition to assuming a confident stance in the face of adversity, he learns about "the magnetic eye"(one eye shut), the "magnetic stance" (leaning far forward) and the "magnetic finger"(arm and forefingers thrust forward)(This could be interpreted as a stab at self-help advisers, in general). Anyway, this approach seems to mesmerize his adversaries. The last part involves a classic silent film-like chase of Eddie by the slot machine gang, including a race on a roller coaster, followed by a nail-biting balloon ride, then inadvertent participation in a trapeze act. All this time, Eddie is trying to protect a 78rpm recording of a full confession by the gang of murdering the prior managers, and the phoniness of the murder charge against Ethel. This whole sequence much reminds me of something silent film luminary Harold Lloyd might do. The music and dancing is nothing special. Ethel sings "First You Have me High" on a pitch black stage, except for her face: too long and not interesting to me. Eddie sings "The Lady Dances" on stage, abetted by chorus girls and specialty dancer and singer Dona Drake(also known as Rita Rio), who wiggles and gyrates her body, along with dancing and singing. Then, Eddie and Ethel sing "Calabash Pipe" while atop a Ferris wheel, followed by their singing it while imagined senior citizens in a buggy. Later, Ethel sings "Shake it off with Rhythm", abetted by a dancing chorus, in a big production. Dona Drake was a very light-skinned African American, who passed herself off as an exotic-looking Caucasian. She was very energetic, as shown in this film. Sometimes, as in this film, she was a specialist singer and/or dancer. In other films, such as the Crosby-Hope "The Road to Morocco", she had a significant role in the screenplay. Seems like she should have had a much more visible Hollywood career. Of the 5 members of the shot machine gang, I was already familiar with Brian Donlevy, William Frawley, and Jack La Rue..... Harry Parke served as Eddie's supposed body guard, who popped up every now and then. When Eddie and Ethel took a boat ride through the pitch black Tunnel of Love, we hear kissing sounds, but Eddie protested that he didn't kiss her. Turns out it was Parke, hiding in the back seat. Parke also accompanied Eddie in that perilous balloon ride. If you like Eddie's comedies in general, you should like this one, despite the disparaging remarks of some reviewers. Currently, it's part of a 4 film collection of Eddie's comedies, I can recommend.

To enjoy this film you need to be able to step back into another era. This film was made just 3 years before "Gone With The Wind", but it's amazing to think about the difference in quality in cinematography and screenplay between the former and the latter. Yes, you have to be willing to step back into that other era, when Eddie Cantor was one of the world's great entertainers. And, this is not one of the best Eddie Cantor vehicles. In fact, as I was watching, I thought it would have been better for Joe E. Brown. The setting is interesting -- Eddie tries to fend off gangsters whom are trying to install slot machines in the family amusement park he manages. They discover he has a crush on a singer (Ethel Merman) and they use her charms to persuade Eddie all is well (and necessary to save her from harm) with the slot machines. To be honest, it's often kinda dumb, but sometimes kinda fun. Not the strongest script, but watchable, particularly if you are a fan of the legendary performer. Not one for the DVD shelf, but worth a watch.

Following a somewhat similar formula from Cantor's earlier (and, in many ways, superior) films, this vehicle casts him as a quirky wimp who is thrown into unfamiliar territory and comes out on top. Cantor is the owner-operator of a cobbler/dry cleaner shop adjacent to a university. He tutors one of the numb-skulled, but kindly, jocks (Jones) while pining away for nightclub personality Merman, whose photos he keeps pasted in a nearby closet. When Cantor sends away for a book on assertiveness training and starts to practice the lessons, Jones' mother enlists him to help her fend off some thugs who are trying to infest her amusement park with rigged slot machines. Secretary Eilers aids Cantor in growing a backbone against the villainous Donlevy and his thugs, of which Frawley and La Rue are included. He also acquires the "assistance" of a bodyguard played by (and referred to in the film as) Parkyakarkus! Amidst the many failed attempts on his life, he finds time to moon over Merman in scenes that feature elaborate musical numbers. A rowdy finale includes an extended chase on a roller coaster which includes many members of the cast (though, sadly, not Merman.) Cantor is amusing here, though his humor has been tamed a little from the inception of the Hayes Production Code. If the movie falters, it's really more due to the script which lacks proper focus and meanders in several directions without a clear purpose for all of the scenes and characters. Virtually all Cantor movies are fanciful and silly and he's usually thoroughly watchable in them. He just doesn't get quite the mileage out of this that he did in some of his previous projects (and the budget doesn't seem to be as high either.) Merman delivers a couple of striking songs. The first is a moody and arty piece filmed in deep shadows with her face highlighted as she's surrounded by a Black chorus (the men in low cut shirts that reveal chiseled physiques.) She and Cantor share a duet in which they are depicted in old age makeup. Then, all in white, she sings in a big production number that also features a tap dancer whose reflection in the glossy floor has a mind of its own! It's great to see her in these scenes, though she is hardly the heart-stopping, sigh-inducing looker called for in the script. Cantor also has a song with sassy and undulating Drake who dances herself silly. Eilers does a nice job as the sharp assistant and Lowell is amusingly crusty as the park's owner. (A very busy lady, this actress would do about ten more films in a year's time before abruptly dying!) Parkyakarkus is certain to annoy a lot of viewers though sometimes his schtick provides a laugh or two. Some of the film's comedic material falls flat today, more so than in "Kid Millions" or "Roman Scandals" for example, yet it's still an amusing and entertaining little trifle. Some brief, vintage amusement park footage portrays a time, a lifestyle and a place that is forever gone. Frawley would go on, of course, to the legendary TV series "I Love Lucy".

If you have not seen "Whoopee!" or "Palmy Days" or "Kid Millions" or "Roman Scandals" or "The Kid from Spain", you may think that "Strike Me Pink" is a pretty funny comedy. However, compared to the films mentioned above, it just doesn't make it. Instead of writing for his usual "frightened and nervous little man" persona, Cantor is given a script which would be better suited to Harold Lloyd. The musical numbers, though serviceable, are not even close to the great songs introduced in the previous pictures. Casting Ethel Merman, so perfect in "Kid Millions", as the romantic lead was a total mistake. Parkyakarkus and Bill Frawley are descent comic foils for Cantor, but somehow it all seems a little contrived. If you have seen the other films Cantor made for Goldwyn, this one may be a little disappointing. Don't get me wrong! There are some funny bits in the film. It's certainly not a total disaster, but compared to the films which came before it, it leaves much to be desired.

This one has a slick, expensive look to it, but there's something tired about it, like you'd seen it all before. The humor is stale and highly predictable. The tunes within have to be the most forgettable in all of Cantor's films, indeed, maybe of all films of the decade of the 1930's. Nobody in it has any character depth. Eddie starts out as an easily bullied little nebbish, but just as soon as we meet him, he gets a little mail-order instruction course in how to be assertive. It works, he's self-confident, and he's a regular guy with no interesting character traits any more. To get in more gags and force the desired plot developments, coherence is sacrificed. For instance, Eddie has confidence enough to run the amusement park and stand up to the gangsters, but for no other reason than to make a slapstick sight gag, he meekly, quietly accepts the messy abuse from the potato peeler and beauty mud pitchman. At another point, with the gangsters now posing as police, convince Eddie that they won't take in Ethel as a murder suspect if he'll let crooked slot machines be placed in the park, and Eddie agrees to it. That's a preposterous bit of sloppy writing. It makes no sense. How could Eddie still believe they're cops? Logic takes a beating, and the viewer gets the lumps. The average Joe E. Brown feature has more sophisticated plotting.

I added one star due to the hilarious slap-stick comedy routine on the wheel at the end of the film. That took real imagination. As for the rest of the film, we're viewing pure junk as Eddie Cantor portrays Eddie Pink, a jerk who takes over the running of an amusement park and is besieged by gangsters wanting to put slot machines in. Brian Donlevy, a future film villain, has an early role as the head of the gang with no less than William Frawley as one of the gang members. Ethel Merman, the moll of the gang, belts out songs which are quite appropriate for 1936 times. She attempts to be funny in the make-believe murder scene, but it wouldn't be until 27 years later that Merman would show she was adept at comedy with Stanley Kramer's "It's A Mad, Mad, Mad World" masterpiece. The film is inane at best.