1h 45min | Biography, Drama, Music | 7 April 1958 | b/w, ws
Director: Allen Reisner
Stars: Nat 'King' Cole, Eartha Kitt, Cab Calloway, Ella Fitzgerald, Mahalia Jackson, Ruby Dee, Pearl Bailey.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052234/
No official release available. Bootleg, great copy from TCM. Disc just arrived. This print may be cropped; doesn't look WS.
9 songs in the Soundtracks, but it omits Ella Fitzgerald singing Beale Street Blues.
Previously rated 7 on 2014-03-25. I appreciate this much more today, watching it (almost) in sequence.
I've commented before that although race films ceased around '50, we actually see fewer black people in musicals since then. No comic relief, no dance specialties, fewer excisable solos, with the exception of rocksploitation films. I miss those performances.
There are still some predominantly black films, now made in mainstream avenues. And the general absence of black talent makes these more precious.
The performances here are terrific. NC, EK, EF, MJ, PB each sing (not CC). RD is so young that I barely recognize her, but her voice made me realize it was she.
I don't know how faithful the biopic is. Robert Osborne came on after to explain that Yellow Dog Blues wasn't really his breakthrough hit, but they couldn't secure the rights to the real one. He also said that Handy only partially recovered his sight and then lost it again in '43. But I can accept these alterations; the story is worthy even if completely fiction that used one composer's songs.
And the songs feel good. There is some extra pleasure in Handy's work. Very happy to have my own copy of it now.
Paramount, dir. Reisner; 8
