User reviews

Any film that gets Eddie Cantor to revive Making Whoopee and I Don't Want To Get Well is one worth seeing even with the skimpy plot.

Show Business is the story of a vaudeville act, how they got together and their trials and tribulations from the turn of the last century until the Twenties. It was right after talking pictures came in that vaudeville began slowly to decline.

This was an era that Eddie Cantor knew well, it was the kind of Show Business he cut his performing teeth with before hitting the big time on Broadway in the Ziegfeld Follies. The quartet is Cantor, George Murphy, Constance Moore, and Joan Davis.

Davis chases Cantor through out the film which is ironic because she got him in the real life. It was on this film that they had a discreet affair that was well known in performing circles, but the public never found out about lest Cantor's family image be ruined. Davis's comedy here and elsewhere was the physical sort of stuff that Lucille Ball so popularized on television. Davis too had her biggest success in her television series I Married Joan. She died way too young.

Murphy and Moore have an on, off, and on again romance with Nancy Kelly doing her best to break them up. Murphy's big number is the old standard It Had To Be You which at the time was enjoying a revival with a best selling duet record by Dick Haymes and Helen Forrest.

No original music for Show Business, just some good old standards. Unfortunately there is a blackface number that all four of the leads are involved in. Cantor did blackface though it never was THE centerpiece of his stage persona like it was for rival Al Jolson.

Show Business is a pleasant afternoon's diversion about the days of vaudeville. And what days they were.

SHOW BUSINESS (what an imaginative title) is a look back at the heyday of vaudeville, with nods to its antecedent, burlesque. When this was made in 1944, vaudeville wasn't that long gone, so I suspect a lot of the original audience must have found the movie a strong nostalgia pull. Eddie Cantor and George Murphy play two vaudevillians hooked up with a pair of female vaudevillians played by Joan Davis and Constance Moore. They perform classic number after classic number in a virtually plot-free movie. Cantor of course is marvelous, if a little long in the tooth for the role. Murphy and Davis, both pretty young at the time, hold their own. Only Moore seems out of place, although she does her best. Musical numbers\include "It Had to Be You" and the Al Jolson classic, "Dinah." A blackface number comes as a shock to these 21st century eyes, but what are you gonna do? Cut it out? I am sure it was in years past, but the number is integral to the proceedings and entertaining without being overtly offensive. It reminds the viewer of vaudeville's deepest roots, the minstrel shows of centuries past.

SHOW BUSINESS (RKO Radio, 1944), directed by Edwin L. Marin, stars the legendary Eddie Cantor, who also produced, in a nostalgic down melody lane story set in the days of burlesque to Broadway (1914-1928). Though this could have been "The Eddie Cantor Story" considering how the plot somewhat borrows from Cantor's own stage origins, leading up to his signature number, "Makin' Whoopee" he introduced in Florenz Ziegfeld musical, WHOOPEE, the narrative belongs mostly to co-stars George Murphy and Constance Moore, with Cantor and Joan Davis in secondary comic leads, all assuming their actual first names in character roles.

Opening title: "In the glorified of belles - bloomers - and beer in buckets, troupes, ambitious groups of lovable hams known as Show Folks, all dreaming of big time. In the burlesque theater of those days were born many of today's great stars." In a story starting around 1914, George Doane (George Murphy) is introduced as a popular singer and dancer in a burlesque theater with a ladies man reputation. He is loved by Nancy Gaye (Nancy Kelly), a singer in the show, determined to hold onto him at all cost. After Eddie martin (Eddie Cantor) wins a $10 prize in an amateur contest, a friendship forms between he and George, who makes Eddie, the man with the jokes, as his new partner. To celebrate their union, they come to Kelly's Café where, through vaudeville agent, Charlie Lucas (Don Douglas), get to meet a struggling sister act team of Constance Ford (Constance Moore) and Joan Mason (Joan Davis). Due to George's interest in Constance, he adds the girls to his vaudeville to burlesque partnership. As Constance eventually gives in to George's proposal of marriage, Joan continues proposing unsuccessfully to Eddie, which doesn't discourage Joan as she frequently looks into the camera, saying, "I love that boy!" All goes well for George and Constance until Nancy's scheme to get George back interferes with their marriage.

With a grand selection of tunes from the early part of the twentieth century, the motion picture soundtrack includes: "They're Wearing Them Higher in Hawaiier" (sung by George Murphy); "Swanee River" (by Stephen Foster/solo dance number); "The Curse of the Aching Heart"(sung by Eddie Cantor); "It Had to Be You" (sung/danced by George Murphy and Constance Moore); "Strolling Through the Park One Day" (dance rehearsal); "I Want a Girl, Just Like the Girl That Married Dear Old Dad" (sung by Cantor, Constance Moore, George Murphy and Joan Davis); "Comin' 'Round the Mountain" (sung by Joan Davis); Comic Opera (performed by Cantor,Davis, Murphy and Moore); "Alabamy Bound" (Eddie Cantor); "Dinah" (Cantor, Murphy, Davis and Moore); "You May Not Remember" (sung by Nancy Kelly); "I'm in Love With a Beautiful Nurse," (Eddie Cantor/ George Murphy); "You May Not Remember" (reprise by Nancy Kelly); "Why Am I Blue?" (sung by Constance Moore); "You're All I Need" (sung by Murphy); "It Had to Be You," (separately sung by Moore and Murphy); "Makin' Whoopee" (sung by Eddie Cantor); "It Had to Be You" (sung by George Murphy).

SHOW BUSINESS may have all the familiarity of those period musicals pieces commonly found in 20th Century-Fox musicals of the forties, and that nostalgic feel from MGM's own FOR ME AND MY GAL (1942) which also featured George Murphy, but the film itself, though quite good, is quite underrated. Lacking the commonly use of Technicolor found in most 1940s musicals, it benefits highly with costumes and hair styles being close to accurate for its time frame. Quite enjoyable during its song and dance interludes, especially during Cantor and Davis exchanges, it makes one wonder why these two haven't been teamed before this. Davis is naturally funny, even when borrowing a comedy line often associated to W.C. Fields. Cantor and Davis would work together again in IF YOU KNEW SUSIE (RKO, 1948), becoming Cantor's final motion picture lead. Though amusing and still great together, the results weren't the same even with their comic opera sequence (with Murphy and Moore) clipped into it.

Formerly broadcast on American Movie Classics prior to 2001, SHOW BUSINESS, which had its distribution on video cassette in the 1990s through Turner Home Entertainment, can be seen occasionally on cable TV's Turner Classic Movies. A real treat for Cantor or Davis fans or both, Murphy and Moore should not be overlooked in their serious moments together, especially their split screen vocalization of the film's theme song, "It Had to Be You." Anyway, there's no business like SHOW BUSINESS. Sit back and enjoy this one. (***)

This very funny and often very rude musical comedy is basically a biography of a burlesque to vaudeville song and dance team over the first 30 years of the 20th century. Produced in 1944 by RKO it forms part of the series of looser censorship titles that seemed to find some freedom to be more realistic (with a franker sexuality) during the war years. It is also part of the nostalgia mentality of WW2. SHOWBUSINESS is not a WW2 film but one made to shore up reasons why America fought, displaying a warm hearted Americana that justifies the American spirit - on stage in crummy burlesque and splashier vaudeville. The main stars are the unconvincing grinning George Murphy, always awkward and odd especially when tap dancing and the reliable and then retired 30s mega star Eddie Cantor who I personally find hilarious. Pratfall queen and camp comedienne Joan Davis becomes Edde's love interest: but... in this film Eddie's character is so clearly gay (the script makes no doubt he is both a sissy and not interested in a female lover that it is up to Joan to constantly turn to the camera and exclaim "but I just love that boy" chasing and embracing him while he squirms, even to the final fade out. One genuinely laugh out loud gag between them involves a massive salami...since she knows what Eddie likes. The dance numbers are pedestrian and just a blip above curiosity and there are so many montages using RKO musical stock footage that they almost take over the interest in the film, picking what obscure old title they have been lifted from. However, Joan and Eddie provide such a font of vulgar sex jokes and sly camp farce that they save the film from being bland. Oddly enough with all the vulgar jokes on hand, the Eddie Cantor song 'Makin Whoopee" is delivered in a slurred tone as if not to make such a big obvious deal of what 'makin whoopee' is actually referring to. A case of when the 1930 rendition is better than the 1944 one.

The copy I saw of "Show Business" was very flawed and I hope you can find a better one than the one on YouTube. The picture was scratchy, the sound tinny and whoever posted it stuck a giant watermark across the screen! Even worse is that they removed a blackface segment because it might offend. I personally hate censorship and wish they'd instead given a prologue discussing this scene instead of just removing it.

The story is about the burlesque singing and dancing team of Eddie and George (Eddie Cantor and George Murphy). Soon they meet up with Joan and Nancy (Joan Davis and Nancy Kelly) and they are so good they're able to move up to vaudeville. Things are just fine until George and Nancy marry. On the day their daughter is born, a STUPID misunderstanding tears them apart and the rest of the film is predictable....as years pass, you know eventually they'll get back together.

A serious problem for me was that I didn't care about George and Nancy. Their histrionics really took away from what I loved.... Eddie and Joan. They were wonderful together....just like they'd been in previous films. In hindsight, I really wish they film had just been about them and the other two written out of the picture. Worth seeing despite this...but not exactly a must-see picture.

Another Leslie Halliwell favourite, this period musical follows the pattern of several others of its ilk – the career from obscurity to popularity, hitting the skids and the climb back to the top of a burlesque/vaudeville troupe (apparently, the former is deemed a low- grade art form and despised by the latter, but there is little to differentiate them in this film and elsewhere!). Incidentally, co-star George Murphy – whom the fall from grace hits the hardest here – had also featured in the very similar (also comparable quality-wise) FOR ME AND MY GAL (1942), where it was Gene Kelly who got on the wrong end of fame and fortune.

The movie under review was actually instigated by comedian Eddie Cantor (who personally produced it): he had had a successful run of star vehicles with Samuel Goldwyn in the 1930s, followed by a couple of well- regarded efforts for other studios later on – Warners' star-studded THANK YOUR LUCKY STARS (1943) and this one, made over at RKO (its success even prompted a sequel, named after one of Cantor's best-known tunes i.e. IF YOU KNEW SUSIE {1948}). There is actually an autobiographical element to SHOW BUSINESS, since the character he plays obtains his greatest hit with Cantor's very own "Makin' Whoopee" (which inspired his 1930 star vehicle)! Also on hand is comedienne Joan Davis, whose initial disdain for Cantor grows into a true and almost protective love – frequently breaking the fourth wall to assure the viewer that she cannot help herself; their Cleopatra routine is a hoot!

The film encompasses comedy, songs (notably the standard "It Had To Be You", sung – either alternately or concurrently – by Murphy and love interest Nancy Kelly), romance (the latter broken up by his former partner, in both senses of the word) and nostalgia and, while neither the classic Halliwell deems it to be (conversely, Leonard Maltin rated it a more modest **1/2) nor Cantor's most representative work (that would be ROMAN SCANDALS {1933}), there is no doubt that it offers solid entertainment throughout and, as stated in an after-credits title-card, was conceived primarily as wartime escapism for American audiences, be they at home or abroad fighting.

And wit like you would never see nowadays.

The story of a four person act, two men Eddie Martin (Eddie Cantor) and George Doane (George Murphy) and two women Joan Mason (Joan Davis) and Constance Ford (Constance Moore) (lot of thought evidently went into those names), their lives, their loves, their highs, their lows and some very entertaining performances. Particularly from Joan Davis who gets all the fabulous one-liners.

There a some classic songs in there too, "Making Whoopee" and "It Had To Be You." All in all, a very entertaining way to spend a slow Saturday afternoon.

We have a musical that starts well but then fades until you are finally glad that it has come to an end. The cast are fine when it comes to singing and dancing especially in the first half of the film – some great songs and sequences. However, the lead character as played by George Murphy isn't nice to his girlfriend Nancy Kelly from the start and so the audience aren't really on his side from the beginning. In fact, none of the relationships make sense – his other alliance with Constance Moore is totally confusing. She divorces him, then wants him back – it never makes sense. The film suffers because it chooses to follow this unrealistic love triangle story that would just never be there. Eddie Cantor and Joan Davis provide the comedy partnership and deliver their lines well, but you have to be a Cantor fan to enjoy his schtick.

There are moments of humour and good songs but why perform "It Had to Be You" three times? It was good on the first occasion but then becomes corny. The film gets boring, I'm sad to say.

SHOW BUSINESS (RKO - 1944)

SHOW BUSINESS is a grand little vaudeville musical, akin to so many original film musicals of the 1940s, but this one seems special in some way. It was the first of two pairings of Eddie Cantor and Joan Davis - a match made in heaven - and the songs are so earnestly and robustly performed, as to give the appearance of having their first airings here, in spite of them all being standards.

The quartet of players are all at their peak. Cantor and Davis perform their personal shticks with aplomb, while Murphy always delights as the perfect combo of actor and song and dance man (ala Cagney.) The only one to come off weaker than the rest is Constance Moore, who is pretty and who can act, sing and dance, but who lacks star quality. Nancy Kelly makes a beautiful temptress and home breaker and acts the role well.

All the lead players' characters sport the same first names as those who play them. Saves having to retake a scene when someone flubs a line addressing the other characters. Oddly, Constance Moore's character is named Constance Ford, a film actress in her own right, who at the time of release was only 20 and a stranger to Hollywood.

The plot is a simple tale of two duos who become a quartet to storm vaudeville and Broadway. Cantor's character (Eddie Martin) ends the show with Makin Whoopee, from his Ziegfeld stage and film success, Whoopee!, although the studio here (RKO) and that of the original film version of Whoopee! (Goldwyn) had to make a deal to allow the use of the song.

The show is nearly stopped early on when the two boys meet the two girls in a bar and Murphy leads Moore into a song and tap dance number to It Had To Be You, which becomes the couple's love theme. It is an inspired piece of choreography, style, grace and charm. The other numbers are all energetic and top-notch. The film's pacing is quite brisk and the 90 minute playing time just whizzes along. There is a dramatic hitch to the film, involving unfounded jealousy and divorce, but I won't go into details here. All comes right in the end.

Musical Numbers: 1. They're Wearing Them Higher in Hawaii (Murphy); 2. The Curse of An Aching Heart (Cantor); 3. It Had To Be You (Murphy, Moore); 4. Strolling In The Park One Day (instrumental); 5. I Want A Girl (Quartet); 6. Lucia Sextette (Quartet); 7. Alabamy Bound (Cantor); 8. Dinah (Quartet); 9. You May Not Remember (Kelly); 10. I'm In Love With A Beautiful Nurse aka I Don't Want To Get Well (Cantor, Murphy); 11. You May Not Remember (Kelly); 12. Why Am I Blue? (Moore); 13. Waiting In Vain (Murphy); 14. It Had To Be You (reprise) (Murphy, Moore); 15. Makin Whoopee! (Cantor); 16: It Had To Be You (reprise) (Murphy).

A highly recommended film for lovers of musicals. It is to be noted that Cantor and Davis would appear again in Cantor's last film, If You Knew Susie, which is an unofficial continuation of Show Business. Whereas in the latter the couple spar, romance and marry, in Susie, they are already a couple retiring from the stage and deciding to run an inn (shades of Holiday Inn/White Christmas). Susie would be Cantor's last film and Davis would have only four more before both turned to the television medium for their further performances.

A clearly minor musical that nonetheless treasures the typical freshness of RKO productions of that time. Once again Cantor's peculiar comedy stands out, but also George Murphy's enthusiasm.

Along with them, the rest of the cast is quite unknown, highlighting the nice Joan Davis.

Although the story is quite simple and has been seen on the screen on many other occasions, this unpretentious film that mixes comedy and melodrama will appeal to all lovers of the musical or fans of Cantor.

In fact, the film is produced by him and is intended to be a self-tribute on the occasion of his 35-year career.

SHOW BUSINESS (1944) seems like a rather obscure old film, but it's surprisingly enjoyable. Nothing major, but it's a lot of fun.

The movie is a breezy tale about entertainers on the old vaudeville circuit (~1910s) and it showcases some classic songs like "It Had To Be You", "Dinah", and "Makin' Whoopee".

The cast may not be flashy, but they're a delight. The film is anchored by song and dance men George Murphy and Eddie Cantor. The two partners soon meet up with female showbiz duo Constance Moore and Joan Davis. There's singing, dancing, comedy bits, romance, and some dramatic beats along the way.

(Interestingly, the principal cast all play characters sharing their first names.)

I am not familiar with Joan Davis, but she's very funny as a wisecracking Eve Arden-type. Eddie Cantor plays the comedic sidekick role here, and I think I enjoyed him more than in his earlier starring vehicles. His comedy shtick is actually pretty sharp and he tones down some of his characteristic bug-eyed stuff. Cantor and Davis make an excellent comedy pair.

Eddie Cantor seemed to be in his comfort zone, essentially playing himself, an old-time vaudevillian hopping up and down a stage. Cantor produced the film, which leads one to suspect he might have been retracing his own steps through the glory days of vaudeville. "Makin' Whoopee", sung by Cantor in the film, had actually been popularized by Cantor himself in a Florenz Ziegfeld production.

Leading lady Constance Moore was not a typical fresh-faced beauty, but I thought she was lovely. She reminded me vaguely of other actresses but I'd never seen her in a film before. I'll have to keep an eye out for her.

I had low expectations for this B-musical, but I was pleasantly surprised. Give it a look.