Gospel and Jazz: All-Black Classics
City Cinematheque - February 2006
Saturday-Sunday: 9:00 PM
Repeated the following Friday at Midnight
January 28-29/Feb. 3, 2006
FILM: “The Blood of Jesus”
(1941/U.S., 57 min., b&w, drama) Dir.: Spencer Williams. Cast: Cathryn Caviness, Spencer Williams, Juanita Riley, Reather Hardeman. All-black cast in morality tale about an atheist and his Baptist wife and a vision of the afterlife. Discussion guest: Judith Weisenfeld, chair, Dept. of Religion, Vassar College.
Feb. 4-5, 10
FILM: “Go Down Death”
(1944/U.S., 56 min., b&w, drama) Dir.: Spencer Williams. Cast: Myra D. Hemmings, Spencer Williams, Samuel H. James, Eddye L. Houston. All-black cast in morality tale about a bar owner's feud with the town's new preacher. Includes a surrealistic descent into hell. Writer-director-star Williams later gained fame as Andy on TV's “The Amos 'n' Andy Show.” Discussion guest: Pearl Bowser, independent curator and scholar.
Feb. 11-12, 17
FILM: “The Duke is Tops”
(1938/U.S., b&w, 75 min., musical) Cast: Ralph Cooper, Lena Horne, Lawrence Criner. A small-time promoter loses his star performer to the big time show biz circuit. All-black musical which marked Lena Horne's film debut. Discussion guest: Farah Griffin, director, Institute of African-American Studies, Columbia University.
(Preceded by “St. Louis Blues,” a 1929 musical short with blues singer Bessie Smith, in her only film appearance.
Feb. 18-19, 24
Film: “Hi-De-Ho”
(1947/U.S., b&w, 64 min., musical) Cast: Cab Calloway, Ida James, Jeni Le Gon, George Wiltshire. Director: Josh Binney. Singer/bandleader Cab Calloway as himself in a slim plot with lots of musical numbers, including Calloway singing, “Minnie's a Hepcat Now” and “St. James Infirmary Blues.” Discussion guest: Krin Gabbard, Professor of Comparative Literature, SUNY/Stonybrook.
Feb. 25-26, March 3
FILM: “Reet, Petite and Gone”
(1947/U.S., 66 min., b&w, musical) Dir.: William Forrest Crouch. Cast: Louis Jordan, June Richmond, Milton Woods, Bea Griffith, David Bethea, Lorenzo Tucker, Dots Johnson. A dying musician's bequest to his bandleader son, played by Louis Jordan, is hijacked by a shyster lawyer. All-black cast in musical featuring Louis Jordan's Tympany Five. Discussion guest: Robert O'Meally, Center for Jazz Studies, Columbia University.
Additional information on three of these films:
THE DUKE IS TOPS (1938)
The film stars Lena Horne, in her film debut, and Apollo Theater legend Ralph Cooper. Cooper plays bandleader Duke Davis who loses his star attraction, singer Ethel Andrews (Horne), to a lucrative nightclub contract. Without her as a headliner, his own career hits the skids and he soon finds himself barely eking out a living on the medicine show circuit. Meanwhile, Horne finds herself missing Duke's advice and judgment. This film actually has a pretty classy production look and some very well-staged musical numbers. Other acts featured in the film include Willie Covan, Marie Bryant, the Basin Street Boys and the Harlemania Orchestra.
Ralph Cooper was a star of many all-black films in the 1930s and '40s, including “Dark Manhattan” and “Gang War.” He was also founder and regular host of the Apollo Theater Amateur Night, a function he served off and on from 1935 right up until his death in 1992.
Also in the cast of “The Duke is Tops” are such mainstays of independent black films of the era as Monte Hawley, Lawrence Criner and Edward Thompson.
After this film, Horne was signed to a long-term contract by MGM and she starred in such major-studio black-cast films as “Cabin in the Sky” and “Stormy Weather,” both 1943.
HI-DE-HO (1947) stars Cab Calloway and Jeni LeGon. Cab plays a curiously less famous version of himself, one who even has to audition for a club owner (in his apartment!) who seems surprised that Calloway is so good. Cab's girlfriend (Jeni LeGon) is jealous of his new female manager (Ida James) and goes to some local gangsters to get them to harass Cab. The girlfriend is named-you guessed it-Minnie and Cab even sings to her, “Minnie's a Hepcat Now,” an impromptu sequel to his 1930s hit, “Minnie the Moocher.” Later in the film he also sings another 1930s hit, “St. James Infirmary.”
The slight plot is over at about the half-hour mark, so stick with it for a solid half-hour more of musical numbers including performances by the Peters Sisters, a singing trio that included Edith Peters, who later forged a career in Italy, including several Italian movies. There's also a tap trio, the Miller Bros. and Lois, who perform a set of intricate tap numbers.
REET, PETITE AND GONE (1947) stars Louis Jordan (in a dual role) and features his combo, Louis Jordan's Tympany Five. Jordan was a popular singer-saxophonist who had many hits on the R&B charts in the l940s and early '50s, including “Let the Good Times Roll,” “Ain't Nobody Here but Us Chickens,” and “Caldonia.” In the film, Jordan plays a bandleader estranged from his musician father (also played by Jordan) who on his deathbed bequeaths his fortune to his son, only to have a scheming lawyer get in the way. The slim plot is just an excuse for a lot of musical numbers which gives viewers a chance to see a dynamic performer who is often cited as a key link between the big band era and rock 'n' roll.
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