Note: No photo with this one because I couldn't find one without stereotyped Native imagery on it and given the racism issues with one, I figured it'd be best to just avoid it altogether.
IMDb plot summary: Western sheriff Bob Wells is preparing to marry Sally Morgan. Sally flees the wedding with hypochondriac Henry Williams, who thinks he's just giving her a ride; but she left a note saying they've eloped!
Directed by Thornton Freeland. Starring Eddie Cantor, Ethel Shutta, and Paul Gregory.
Whoopee! is a musical comedy starring Eddie Cantor as a hypochondriac in the Old West who is roped into helping a young woman escaped her arranged marriage. Her father won't let her marry the man she wants to marry because he is part Native American, so she asks Cantor to help her escape, and hijinks ensue. This was an unfortunate film because I was thoroughly enjoying it up until about the hour mark. Its style of dance and song and comedy are definitely dated in style but I was loving itm and those dance numbers were astonishingly beautiful at times... and then for basically the entire last half-hour of the film, we get Cantore first in blackface and then in redface. And it's one of the most uncomfortable unpleasant juxtapositions I've seen. It really brings the whole film down -- the last third is just racial stereotypes exploited for laughs. The first hour had its share of problematic moments, but they weren't the centerpiece of an entire act. I still may watch some of those early dance numbers again, but the movie itself is not worth a re-watch on the whole. it really lost its way and never regained it.
How it entered my Flickchart:
Whoopee! < The Keep
Whoopee! > The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane
Whoopee! < The Hills Have Eyes (1977)
Whoopee! > Fame (1980)
Whoopee! > The Big Sleep
Whoopee! < Snatch.
Whoopee! < Prisoners
Whoopee! > The Fighter
Whoopee! > August: Osage County
Whoopee! > Innocence Unprotected
Whoopee! < Pal Joey
Final spot: #2301 out of 3544, or 35%.
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