1h 2min || 9 September 1940
Director: Howard Bretherton
Stars: Frankie Darro, Marjorie Reynolds, Mantan Moreland
Genres: Action | Comedy | Music | Mystery
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0033214/
Watched online Amazon Prime; also have a copy in a megapack.
The Air of the title is where radio waves travel. The only reason to tag this as Music is for the singing in auditions and on air by MR, which is meh.
Frankie Darro (b. 1917) started as a child actor ('24) and worked steadily through the '50s, with 3 more in the '60s, ending with his 153rd credit in '75. He played the jockey of the primary competitor to "our" horse in A Day at the Races ('37). Here he's a "bellboy" at the radio studios, with "porter" Mantan Moreland as his sidekick (sounds like the same job at hotel and railroad to me?). They're both pretty low on the totem pole, and yet MM is just a little lower? His uniform is less fancy.
MM is the only reason to watch this. The copy on Amazon had an introduction by actor Richard Roundtree (Shaft, '71) extolling his virtues. And MM contributes the only comedy here.
I would propose the following continuum of dignity and self-assertion displayed by these successful, very talented, black actors in predominantly white films, High to Low:
Paul Robeson
Bill Robinson
Eddie Rochester Anderson
Mantan Moreland (based solely on this film)
Willie Best
Stepin Fetchit
Remember, this was the era of personalities; character actors (and stars) came to play roles you expected from them. So the most successful carved out a niche to fill, and made it pay off as frequently as possible.
I look forward to seeing MM in a comedy again. He and Darro are both in The Gang's All Here ('41, not the Alice Faye movie, '43, and not a musical). But watch this one again? Rather not.
Monogram, dir. Bretherton; 5+
