Palmy Days | |
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Theatrical release poster | |
Directed by | A. Edward Sutherland |
Written by | Eddie Cantor Morrie Ryskind David Freedman |
Produced by | Samuel Goldwyn |
Starring | Eddie Cantor Charlotte Greenwood George Raft |
Cinematography | Gregg Toland |
Edited by | Sherman Todd |
Music by | Harry Akst |
Production company | |
Distributed by | United Artists |
Release date | October 3, 1931 |
Running time | 77 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Box 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]
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]
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]