Main Cast: Nancy Carroll, Stanley Smith, Lillian Roth, Harry Green
Release Year: 1930
Country: US
Run Time: 75 minutes
Plot
The 1916 Alice Duer Miller play Come Out of the Kitchen, previously filmed in 1921 with Marguerite Clark, was expertly transformed into early musical Honey. The story takes place in a poverty-stricken Virginia household, where blue-blooded brother and sister Olivia and Charles Dangerfield (Nancy Carroll and Skeets Gallagher) are reduced to renting out their mansion. Pretentious Yankee dowager Mrs. Falkner (Jobyna Howland) moves in with her spunky daughter Cora (Lillian Roth) in tow, while Olivia and Charles remain as servants. It isn't long before Cora has fallen in love with Charles, and Olivia has done likewise with Cora's former fiancee Burton Crane (Stanley Smith). The songs range from the self-spoofing "In My Little Hope Chest" to the lively "Sing You Sinners" (later used as a jazzy leitmotif in several Popeye and Betty Boop cartoons!) The Alice Duer Miller original was filmed again in 1934 as the British comedy Come Out of the Pantry. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Honey Daniels wants to be a big time dancer, but she's having trouble making it to the top. Finally she's spotted by big-time producer Michael Ellis, who offers her a job. Honey willingly accepts and gets started straight away. She's a big hit and even gets a promotion, but soon her boss tries to make sexual advances on her, which Honey declines and loses her job. Meanwhile, the community center where Honey works voluntarily as a hip-hop dance teacher is falling apart. Soon, Honey is forced to find a new dance studio and finds herself in a financial snag because of her previous job loss. She decides to put on a big dance performance to raise money for a studio. It's a hit, and Honey opens up her own dance studio.
Critical response
Honey was released to poor reviews. On Yahoo! Movies Critical Response, the average professional critical rating was a C. Rotten Tomatoes rated the film as being "rotten", with only 20% of 111 reviews having favorable responses.[1]
