Merolliv I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Gurlyndrobb While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Sammy-Jo Cervantes There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

mark.waltz I guess even butch, straight women need love, and for bakery supervisor, Charlotte Greenwood, this Amazon woman of the bread line is looking for a man she can mold like the dough she's kneading. Poor Eddie Cantor gets the work-out of his life, first with a medicine ball, and later with a mechanical bull, with Greenwood becoming more head over heels in love with him as she realizes the challenge that lies ahead. Literally, Cantor does end up with his heels over head as she gives him an exercise regime he will never forget. "Reach for a pickle instead of a pie!", she tells one of her pretty Goldwyn Girl employees as she heads into the film's first big musical number, "Bend Down Sister!". A few of Greenwood's famous high kicks mix well with the Busby Berkley overhead shots, and when Cantor breaks into his big number, "Yes Yes, My Baby Said Yes Yes!", it is Greenwood in the wedding veil in the finale shot of that number, not the boss's daughter as he had hoped.Delightfully silly and fast moving, "Palmy Days" was the follow-up vehicle after Cantor's first major Goldwyn film, "Whoopee!", casting him as the sap working for evil phony psychic Charles Middleton (the villain of the "Flash Gordon" serial) and making all sorts of hilarious mistakes as he tries to get out of this racket. A very young George Raft is one of Middleton's henchmen who work Cantor over in order to get the combination to the safe where the bread factory owner has put employee bonuses. When the money is found missing, Cantor is blamed, and a chase with the villains ensues, resulting in a hysterical finale. Cantor even gets into drag, posing as a waitress, and ends up in a pool where Greenwood tries to strip him of his clothes. Hey, Cantor's not the first drag queen I've seen wearing a shower curtain although he probably is the only one who didn't bother to take out the rings.The film opens with a hysterical gay reference that rivals Jolson's encounter with two men dancing in "Wonder Bar". Later on, insinuations about Cantor himself are tossed about, although his character is clearly heterosexual. Pretty daring, even in the pre-code Hollywood era, and not as offensive as some overly sensitive P.C. advocates would make it out to be. But it's the musical numbers which stand out (only 3, but what's there is top grade), and fans of the Steve Martin film "Pennies From Heaven" will enjoy hearing "Yes Yes, My Baby Said Yes Yes", which was utilized in the 1981 MGM musical. So go ahead, flirt with noodle soup, sniff but don't give in.... Greenwood and Cantor are a hysterical pair together, and "Palmy Days" ranks as one of Cantor's best.

John (opsbooks) The other more knowledgeable reviewers have given comprehensive overviews of this movie so I'll stick to giving reasons for why I rate this as one of my favourite American musicals of all time.Charlotte Greenwood, she of the L O N G legs and faultless timing. This is one of three movies in which Miss Greenwood, for me anyway, made those movies worth watching time and time again, the others being "Springtime in the Rockies" and "The Gang's All Here". Her appearances are a joy to behold; she never puts a foot (or leg) wrong, and delivers lines as only she can. Wow, what a gal! The musical numbers. Yes, there are only three of 'em, but what great numbers. The best is "Bend Down, Sister", consisting of a magical song I've whistled my way through at least a couple of times every week for the past 40 years.Eddie Cantor. A unique talent, along the lines of Al Jolson. I remember Eddie in the early days of television; he could always deliver a song which would keep me transfixed, unlike most of the other singers appearing on television at the time. When I finally caught up with his early musicals in the 1960s, it was a revelation.Here's to you, Eddie, Charlotte and of course, The Master, Busby Berkeley!

ellaf How can you NOT like Eddie Cantor? Even after all those years, his charisma is absolutely intact. You look at those big dark sad eyes once and you fall in love with that very generous and charismatic performer. He was a dynamo. And so cute! He spares nothing to please you and it is very effective. He's not that good a singer, though. He had a too high-pitched voice.And what about the great Charlotte Greenwood! How do I adore that strong performer with her high kicks, her almost frightening physical stamina and energy, her generosity! She's old-school all right and very, very entertaining. She never fails to give you a very great time. She's a scene stealer too. But we love her even more for it! See it if only for her as well as all the other movies she's in! As for the plot, well, it is a pure slapstick comedy. You have to like the genre but if you do as I do, you'll like the movie.Interesting to see a glimpse of Betty Grable as a teenager. Try to find her! Haha! One wishes she would have at least one scene with Eddie Cantor.See it, it's good.

lugonian PALMY DAYS (United Artists, 1931), directed by Edward Sutherland, became Samuel Goldwyn's second annual Eddie Cantor production, and another laugh fest with dance numbers and smiling chorines, compliments from choreographer, Busby Berkeley. This being the shortest Cantor musical in the Goldwyn series (77 minutes), it also consists of the least amount of songs (a total of three), plus a handful of funny dialog as well as some violent physical comedy that would be considered something of a throwback during the Mack Sennett silent comedy days.In this venture, Eddie Cantor plays Eddie Simpson, a nervous little man (as he was in his initial Goldwyn musical, WHOOPEE, in 1930, this time singing whenever he becomes excited), who becomes an unwitting assistant to Yolando (Charles Middleton), a phony spiritualist. Helen Martin (Charlotte Greenwood), a single woman in search for a husband, who manages a gymnasium, regularly attends Yolando's séances. Merry mix-ups follow when Helen mistakes Eddie for her future husband, while Eddie is mistaken for the predicted efficiency expert by Yolando's gullible but millionaire client, A.B. Clark (Spencer Charters), owner of a gigantic bakery business. Eddie becomes interested with Clark's doll-faced daughter, Joan (Barbara Weeks), whom he believes is in love with him, but she is really interested in Steve Clayton (Paul Page). Because Eddie stands in the way of Yolando's corrupt scheme to rob Clark of his $25,000, he hires his two thugs, Joe (George Raft) and Plug Moynihan (Harry Woods) to do away with him, but Eddie has his own problems being pursued by the man-chasing Miss Martin who won't take no for an answer from her "Romeo."The musical numbers for PALMY DAYS include: "Bend Down Sister" by Ballard MacDonald and Con Conrad (sung by Charlotte Greenwood and Goldwyn girls); "There's Nothing Too Good For My Baby" by Benny Davis, Harry Akst and Eddie Cantor (sung by Eddie Cantor in blackface); "My Honey Said Yes, Yes" by Cliff Friend (sung by Cantor/ performed by Goldwyn Girls); and "My Honey Said Yes, Yes" (finale reprise by Cantor and Greenwood). If the "My Honey Said Yes, Yes" score sounds familiar, it was later used for the 1981 Steve Martin musical, PENNIES FROM HEAVEN.Aside from two production numbers with the Busby Berkeley overhead camera shots and kaleidoscopic routines, trademarks that would make him famous, PALMY DAYS features several very funny comedy routines, including Greenwood giving Cantor a workout in the gymnasium, even at one point having him twisted in pretzel fashion like a contortionist; being offered a medicine ball with Cantor feeling it too big to swallow; and later being pursued by gangsters (Raft and Woods), hiding out into the company gym locker room while the girls prepare to take their daily swim, thus having Eddie disguising himself as one of the girls (looking almost amazingly like Jack Lemmon's cross dressing character in the 1959 comedy classic, SOME LIKE IT HOT), and being forced to strip by Helen Martin for a shower and a dip into the pool. (Watch Eddie get himself out of that!) The movie is highlighted with a comedic chase in the Clark bakery involving Eddie, Helen, Yolando and his gang over the $25,000 which is hidden in the dough of bread. The one brief scene in which Eddie tries to show off his operation to Mr. Clark (Spencer Charters), is a little inside humor lifted from their comedy routine in WHOOPEE. And let's not overlook a line uttered by Cantor during a séance early in the story, "There is a Minneapolis in heaven, just as there is a St. Paul." The chemistry between Eddie Cantor and Charlotte Greenwood is priceless. It's a pity they didn't do another movie together. In recent years, PALMY DAYS enjoyed some frequent cable television revivals briefly on Turner Network Television (TNT) in the early 1990s, the Nostalgia Channel, and on American Movie Classics during the season of 1992-93. It was distributed on video cassette, and one of the six package set of Cantor/Goldwyn musicals, but has since been discontinued, with the exception of ROMAN SCANDALS (1933) and KID MILLIONS (1934) which continued in video sale distribution for several years thereafter.PALMY DAYS would not rank as the American Film Institute's top 100 comedies of the twentieth century, but it's worth viewing, particularly due to Cantor's buffoonery that at times pre-dates the 1960s comedies of Jerry Lewis, but not to the extreme, and/or spotting some future film stars as George Raft (in a small role); watching the villainous Charles Middleton, five years before achieving fame as Ming the Merciless in the FLASH GORDON chaptered serials for Universal in 1936; and Betty Grable and Virginia Bruce, recognizable and visible in the opening dance routines. (***)