The life of Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, African-American tap-dancing star of stage and screen.
Director: Joseph Sargent
Stars: Gregory Hines, Peter Riegert, Kimberly Elise.
Shea Sullivan ... assistant choreographer
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0252287/
No songs listed in the Soundtracks, and none in the film are familiar (except an approximation of Hooray for Hollywood).
The film covers a lot of years (1916-49; BR lived 1878-1949, so from BR being 38-71), and GH (1946-2003) looks at least his real age (55). They age him well, but he looks too old for the early portion.
My biggest quibble is that, despite an obvious amount of hard work, GH does not embody Robinson's style. Of course, I'm a BR aficionado, having noticed such a small detail as BR's open-palms when he puts hands on hips (GH doesn't quite do it).
IMDb trivia: ""Bojangles" was a left foot lead tap dancer, whereas Gregory Hines was a right foot lead tap dance. Hines had to learn tap with his left foot first, which is highlighted at the end of the movie when there is a side-by-side comparison of the two doing "Bojangles" specialty, the dancing staircase." [clip from Harlem is Heaven ('32) in end credits; GH version appears also in ch5.]
I love that GH tried to recreate BR's style, and the side-by-side staircase footage, where he replicated the '32 footage tap for tap and cut for cut is amazing. But BR has a buoyancy about him that GH's low center of gravity, physicality and demeanor resists. Of course, no other dancer could have done better and done the acting, and was a big enough star to get the film made.
Added the 7 (of 14 made by Robinson) movies mentioned/recreated in the film to IMDb Connections.
Rated 6.8 (267)
MGM TV & more, dir. Sargent; 8
