This week’s mystery movie was the 1936 film Strike Me Pink, with Eddie Cantor, Ethel Merman, Sally Eilers, Parkyakarkus, William Frawley, the Goldwyn Girls, Helen Lowell, Gordon Jones, Brian Donlevy, Jack LaRue, Rita Rio, Edward Brophy, Sidney H. Fields, Don Brodie, Charles McAvoy, Stanley Blystone, Duke York, Charles Wilson and Clyde Hager.

Based on Clarence Budington Kelland’s Saturday Evening Post story and novel Dreamland.

Adaptation and screenplay by Walter DeLeon, Francis Martin and Frank Butler. Additional dialogue by Philip Rapp.

Music by Harold Arlen.

Lyrics by Lew Brown.

Photographed by Merritt Gerstad.

Dances and ensembles photographed by Gregg Toland.

High and Low number photographed by Merritt Gerstad.

Special effects photographed by Ray Binger and Paul Eagler.

Art direction by Richard Day.

Musical direction by Alfred Newman.

Dances and ensembles directed by Robert Alton.

Special effects directed by Gilbert Pratt.

Costumes by Omar Kiam.

Edited by Sherman Todd.

Sound by Paul Neal and Oscar Lagerstrom.

Directed by Norman Taurog.

Produced by Samuel Goldwyn.

Further information on Strike Me Pink is available from the AFI Catalog.

Strike Me Pink is available on DVD from Critics’ Choice Video.

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I thought I should give equal time to some East Coast amusement parks, and what should pop up but another film featuring our familiar mysterious roller coaster, the Cyclone Racer. It’s an amusing film with a silly plot, but Cantor is excellent, and Ethel Merman’s High and Low sequence is remarkable in its use of music and strong, dramatic lighting. My print is marginal, so I wasn’t able to use any of the song and dance numbers.

The movie ends with an extended chase through the Pike, renamed Dreamland for the film, and the script misses few opportunities to employ the rides in the park. There’s lots of physical comedy and I imagine this is the sort of picture audiences needed in the depths of the Depression. Strike Me Pink has a surprising amount of silent comedy in the film, which may arise from the film being originally written for Harold Lloyd. (Note: The film is apparently unrelated to the 1933 Broadway revue of the same name featuring Jimmy Durante and Lupe Velez).

Are we in Mordaunt Hall territory? Let’s see!

It is Frank S. Nugent’s turn (The New York Times, January 17, 1936):

Eddie Cantor Week — the song, dance and slapstick festival which Samuel Goldwyn arranges for the multitudes each year — began yesterday at the Radio City Music hall with considerably less hilarity than we have come to expect of the annual Goldwyn-Cantor shows. Strike Me Pink, the latest gift from the Ziegfeld of the Pacific, appears to lack some of his customary expansiveness and much of the comic invention that has made the well-known father of five one of the screen’s most likable funnymen.

Perhaps this is an ungrateful way of summing up a lavish cinema enterprise, which does, after all, present several extended moments of low comedy, some handsomely executed dance spectacles and that always enjoyable singing of Ethel Merman and of Mr. Cantor himself….

….We suspect that the picture suffers chiefly through being a case of mistaken identity. When Clarence Budington Kelland wrote Dreamland, which is just a shorter word for Strike Me Pink, it was well established that he was hand-tailoring it to the measurements of Harold Lloyd. In altering it to fit Mr. Cantor and a musical show, Mr. Goldwyn’s four script writers resorted freely to padding and shears. The marks of travail are evident and the film’s transition from straight comedy to chorus interlude frequently is hard to take.

For Monday, we have our mysterious leading man (this will make sense later in the week).

Update: This is Eddie Cantor.

For “Tricky Tuesday,” we have a mysterious amusement park.

Update: This is the Cyclone Racer of the Pike in Long Beach.

For “Hm Wednesday,” we have some nefarious mystery guests.

Update: This is, from left, Don Brodie, William Frawley, Charles McAvoy and Jack LaRue.

And we have this apparently injured mysterious guest.

Update: This is Gordon Jones.

Finally, a mysterious woman.

Update: This is Ethel Merman in the High and Low number.

Brain Trust roll call: Sylvia (mysterious movie, Monday’s mystery guest and Tuesday’s enigmatic roller coaster), Anne Papineau (mystery movie, Monday’s mystery guest and Tuesday’s mysterious amusement park), Greg (mysterious movie, Monday’s mystery guest and Tuesday’s mystery amusement park), L.C. (mystery movie and mysterious cast) and Stacia (mysterious amusement park and mystery roller coaster).

For “Aha Thursday,” we have a mysterious fellow.

Update: This is Parkyakarkus (Harry Einstein).

And these two mysterious chaps.

Update: This is Brian Donlevy, left and William Frawley.

And this enigmatic fellow.

Update: This is Edward Brophy.

Brain Trust roll call: Sylvia (Wednesday’s mystery guests), Megan and Thom (mystery movie, Monday’s mysterious guest, Wednesday’s mysterious guests), Stacia (mystery movie, Monday’s mysterious guest and Wednesday’s mystery guests), Chrisbo (Wednesday’s mystery thug No. 2), Funky PhD (mystery movie, Monday’s mystery guest, Tuesday’s mystery roller coaster, Wednesday’s mystery Thug No. 2 and mystery singer), Roget-L.A. (mystery movie, Monday’s mystery guest, Tuesday’s mysterious amusement park, Wednesday’s mystery guests), Suz n Chaz (mystery movie, Monday’s mystery guest, Tuesday’s mystery amusement park, Wednesday’s mystery thugs and mysterious singer), Mike Hawks (mystery movie, Wednesday’s mystery guests). B.J. Merholz. Wrong movie, right mysterious guests.

For Friday, we have this mysterious chap.

Update: This is Eddie Cantor.

And again, with a mysterious companion.

Update: This is Cantor with Sally Eilers.

Brain Trust roll call: Chrisbo (Thursday’s mysterious thug No. 3), B.J. Merholz (mystery movie and Thursday’s mysterious thug No. 1), Mike Hawks (Thursday’s mysterious guests), Michael Lott (mystery movie, Tuesday’s mystery roller coaster and Wednesday’s and Thursday’s mysterious future TV star) and Sylvia (Thursday’s mysterious guests).