Stormy Weather--Son of SDMB Musicals Group

Cafe Society
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This musical made an interesting contrast to Chicago which I watched immediately prior. Short on plot but high on hot black musical stars of the period. Bill “Bojangles” Robinson relives his show business career. We also see his lifelong passion for a beautiful singer, played by Lena Horne. (Hmm, looking at the liner notes, there never was a Selina Rogers in Bill Robinson’s life).

Speaking of Lena Horne, her first film was Panama Hattie, in which she did a Latin number and the fans wanted to know who the Latin American Songstress was, while blacks accused the studio of trying to pass her off as white. And in otherwise white movies, her scenes were positioned to be cut out when shown in the South. [And now we live in an era, where millions of people watched as a dot which for the very first time was not pink get sworn in against the backdrop of the Capital building. (phrasing owes something to Garrison Keillor).]

I have to admit, as a WASP-y mid-westerner not born till after the Civil Rights Era, I don’t understand these kinds of racial politics. And being a woman born into the Era that I was born into, Robinson’s belief that his true love would be happy to quit singing and stay home and raise babies now that he could support her is cutely quaint–and a nice twist on the all too common movie musical trope wherein Show Biz Guy marries Show Biz Gal and the relationship self-destructs when he’s not as successful as she is. Especially since no drugs, alcohol or other women show up in this relationship.

I can’t imagine someone today setting out to showcase the hottest black talent of today in the way that was done in this movie. Now, in fairness, some of that is because of changes in entertainment–one can imagine other ways of showcasing the talent of today, it just wouldn’t be a movie intended for movie theaters. And of course, the hottest talent of today would probably feature rappers and hip hop stars and people using foul language, and just generally not be something that would interest me.

Ok, this is a little disjointed, but hopefully it gives people something to discuss if anyone has seen it. It’s not one of the great musicals of all time, and I don’t think it would work onstage, but it’s harmless fun featuring a bunch of black stars whose names ring distant bells, even if I can’t tie them all to their faces.

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Thanks for writing an OP, Eureka!

I watched this back before Christmas, so my memory is a trifle on the stale side, but I do have a couple of comments, working from the soundtrack listing:

The Nicholas Brothers, who do that tap number with them jumping down stairs, etc., are freakin’ phenomenal. The way they can pull themselves up out of splits – yikes, amazing.

Another of the artists you apparently didn’t recognize was Fats Waller, who was the eye-rolling pianist in the speakeasy where Bill was working as a waiter. His best-known song is “Ain’t Misbehavin’,” and its wonderful to have a film record of him performing it.

You’ve probably heard of Cab Calloway, who is best known for “Minnie the Moocher,” which he doesn’t do in this film. He’s the guy in that wild zoot suit.

Katherine Dunham was one of the most important black choreographers of the 20th century (some would say the most important. Unusual for a woman of her race at the time, she has a college degree in anthropology, during which she studied African-American dance in Haiti and elsewhere. (Though she started work on a doctorate, she didn’t complete it.) She and her troupe did the modern dance accompaniment to “Stormy Weather.”

All major stars, and all damned close to unemployable in Hollywood of the '40s. The Nicholas Brothers appear in a few mainstream films (and it’s worth sitting through the fairly dreadful Down Argentine Way to see them), and Bill Robinson, of course, costarred with Shirley Temple several times, but Hollywood never did figure out what to do with Lena Horne, as Eureka mentions in the OP.

The movie itself is pretty bad as a coherent story (let alone a plausible one – Bill Robinson with Lena Horne? I don’t think so), delightful though it is as an excuse to string together a bunch of great song and dance performances. Those, of course, make it well worth watching.

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Yeah, I’ve heard of Fats Waller, but I’m not sure I figured out which performer he was–OK, I have to admit, I didn’t try all that hard, real life Stormy Weather has kept me off the computer more than on these past couple of days. (No loss of power or internet, just loss of time to other activities). I think I’ve seen Down Argentine Way, but doubt I’ve seen more than clips of Bill Robinson with Shirley Temple–my old time movie watching is um, not so much limited as capricious.

I did know Cab Calloway from both the liner notes and from onscreen stuff–and probably would have recognized him as the Hi-de-hi-de-hi guy.