Insurance is a short that showcases Eddie Cantor's vaudeville style origins. Cantor plays Sydney B. Zwieback, a somewhat neurotic type with bulging eyes that comes to visit a doctor and his comely nurse because he needs a physical to get insurance. (He's been turned down by three companies so far). The doctor has a difficult time with the patient, whose answers to his questions are frustrating. When the doctor is told that Cantor is Irish and Jewish, he asks on what side he's Jewish. "The East Side," comes the reply. When he inquires if anyone in his family has died an unnatural death, Cantor replies that his grandfather died of "throat trouble -- they hung him." And that's how it continues, as the doctor tests his eyes, thumps his chest, etc. When he takes his blood pressure, Cantor's eyes stay still long enough to take in the sight of the nurse's shapely legs, raising his blood pressure to new heights and prompting him to sing "Now That the Girls Are Wearing Long Dresses." The physical ends with the doctor testing Cantor's knee reflexes, which causes him so much pain he limps out of the office, using the coat rack as a cane.
by Craig Butler
synopsis
