Murder with Music (1941), 5+

The beautiful Nellie Hill has many admirers but when one of them gets killed all the others are suspected. All this in among some great singing and dancing, some great bands and songs. This... 
59min | Comedy, Crime, Drama | no release date
Director: George P. Quigley
Stars: Bob Howard, Milton Williams, Nellie Hill

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0276344/
Watched on AmazonPrime; also on a megapack.

In the Tap! Appendix for Alston and Johnsons [Young], Johnson and Johnson. Two pairs do a specialty: one male/female, the other both male but only 1 dances; no idea which is named what. Neither are very good here, and the director/editor spent a lot of time showing the band, especially when the woman took her solo.

The band (probably Nobel Sissel and his Orchestra) is the best reason to watch this film. They are very good, and you can feel bebop forming. Nobel Sissle (alt. spelling) himself has 18 soundtrack credits, mostly for writing the lyrics of I'm Just Wild About Harry (music by Eubie Blake).

This is typical of the race films I've seen: poor acting/story/sets/lighting etc.

Early in the story (~7 min), a woman says she wants to listen to a broadcast, but what she turns on is a TV set, captured here. Notice the mirror in the top; later we also get a glimpse of the set's screen inside, facing up. The number performed "on" the set is fun: I'm a Cute Little Bangi from Ubangi. I don't know if race films had to worry about censors, but that title is suggestive. This number is the second best reason to watch the film. (I use quotes for "on" because the image looks direct from film, not like it's been broadcast and reflected.)

This has a very low IMDb rating (3.9), but I suspect that's from people disappointed by the murder happening so late in the story, and so readily solved. And/or people who don't like the narrator scenes, the musical scenes, or the story scenes for that matter.

Century Productions, dir. Quigley; 5+