1h 10min | Comedy, Musical | 7 April 1947
Director: Arthur H. Leonard
Stars: Tim Moore, Elwood Smith, Duke Williams, Gene Krupa
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0135169/
Watched online, poor copy, both visual and audio.
Race film. "Introducing Deek Watson and the Brown Dots", who get 2 songs among the 6 in the Soundtracks.
Tim Moore is deliberately unconvincing impersonating a woman. Yet 2 men fall "in love" with "her".
Confusion reigns with a rent party plus a meeting of producers trying to get funds for their show happening simultaneously in apartments one above the other. More confusion from one of the potential backers delaying her arrival, so the producers bring TM from the rent party to fill in for that backer, to help convince the other potential backer to sign on.
I didn't really catch what the show was supposed to be. I thought all the songs in Soundtracks were performed at the rent party, until I try to understand the visual of Gene Krupa looking through a hole in the wall into the rent party, which was upstairs. Where is he when he's outside the room looking in? The hallway? Why is there an open hole in the wall? Is the rent party in a shed? His stint is brief, starts around 48 min; not worth watching the film for this.
One interesting effect: to change scenes, we frequently get the image tilting for a moment before the cut. Did they tilt the camera, or the negative, or... was this a re-release addition?
The producers are dressed well, but the apartment house looks dilapidated. None of the musical performances grabbed me.
My prior rating was 6, but today I'd say 5ish. So I'll settle for a 6-.
Herald Pictures, dir. Leonard; 6-
