This film manages a difficult feat--making Charles Butterworth and Jimmy Durante unfunny. Two of the greatest comic supporting actors of the 30s are completely done in by their lines.
And the film casts two singers who can't act as the romantic leads, Maxine Doyle and Phil Regan.
Add to this the spectacle of a "Chinese sage" selling his daughter to an American for $50. 1930s films didn't have to be politically correct, but slavery had been abolished 70 years before. Is it funny when it applies to Orientals?
The film has another chance at humor when it discusses philosophy. When students don't know who Descartes was, the professor decides he'd better check to make sure he has the name right. This is supposed to be funny?
The Freed-Brown songs are nice. But it's off-putting to see Nelson Eddy (whose song goes on too long) with a moustache.
And the film casts two singers who can't act as the romantic leads, Maxine Doyle and Phil Regan.
Add to this the spectacle of a "Chinese sage" selling his daughter to an American for $50. 1930s films didn't have to be politically correct, but slavery had been abolished 70 years before. Is it funny when it applies to Orientals?
The film has another chance at humor when it discusses philosophy. When students don't know who Descartes was, the professor decides he'd better check to make sure he has the name right. This is supposed to be funny?
The Freed-Brown songs are nice. But it's off-putting to see Nelson Eddy (whose song goes on too long) with a moustache.