Stormy Weather [DVD] [1943]

Forget the story line. It's unimportant. Try to ignore the black stereotyping. It's there and it's not going to go away. But pay attention to the musical performances. The liner notes say there are more than 20. I didn't count, but the movie has one great performance after another, starting with the two leads, Bill Robinson and Lena Horne. The movie features a roster of famous black entertainers of the time.

World War I is just over and black troops are parading down Broadway. Among them are Bill Williamson (Robinson) and his best friend, Gabe (Dooley Wilson). Bill is a dancer and is determined to break into the big time. In a club he meets a new singer, Selina Rogers (Lena Horne). They strike sparks, but both are ambitious. Over the next 20-some years they will meet, break apart, create star careers for themselves and finally come together during a stage tribute for black soldiers on their way overseas during WWII. All this is told in flashback as Bill reflects on his career.

We're along for the ride, and a great ride it is. Among the performances to treasure is everything Robinson does. He was a great tap dancer with an infectious, happy disposition and a great smile. Lena Horne was 26 when she made this movie, one of her earliest. You can't get much better than Horne singing Stormy Weather, I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Diga Diga Do or There's No Two Ways About Love. What a gorgeous woman. She has charisma, a great voice and she knows exactly how to put across a song.

There's Cab Calloway in padded shoulders and pegged pants doing his zoot routine to Geechy Joe, Ada Brown singing That Ain't Right with some back and forth with Fats Waller on piano, and then Waller doing a funny, coy, eye-batting version of his Ain't Misbehavin'. A singer I couldn't identify does a wonderful job with I Lost My Sugar in Salt Lake City, and a dancer I couldn't find a credit for does an athletic, fast routine to Your Nobody's Sweetheart Now. And there's more. The numbers just keep coming, from individual songs to all-out musical productions, including one powerful dance to Stormy Weather by Katherine Dunham and her troupe. Even the jazz band behind Waller has star musicians like Coleman Hawkins, Benny Carter, Taps Miller and Zutty Singleton.

Put on your seat belt when Fayard and Harold Nicholas leap out of the audience toward the close of the show and do a startlingly athletic dance to Jumpin' Jive. They start out tapping and jumping into and out of the orchestra...then they speed things up. They leap and tap up a series of very tall steps to a high platform, then do leaps over each other, landing two steps at a time down in full splits, eight leaps in all, each time pulling themselves up only by the strength of their legs. It's an incredible routine, and it's full of style.

Fabulous all-black musical dating from 1940 and featuring countless stars of music and dance including Fats Waller,Lena horne,Cab Calloway and Bill Bojangles Robinson
Some awesome music and routines and Bojangles hoofing like a kid at the age of 65 is a sight to behold as is the Nicholas brothers famous routine

The plot of this story might be thin about the fictionalized life of Bill `Mr. Bojangles' Robinson, and his on again/off again romantic relationship with a love interest but I found it to be one of the single most exhilarating films I've ever seen.

This all black film may not be a masterpiece in terms of its cinematic technique, but it captures more than a dozen performances, each of which can itself be termed a masterpiece. Horne rendition of "Stormy Weather" is singularly, powerfully erotic. Robinson is great and has several fantastic numbers (he's obviously getting old, but he still has a ton of energy). Many other great black performers grace the screen, among them Fats Waller Katherine Dunham, Ada Brown, and the Nicholas Brothers, who deliver a dance that equals anything either Astaire or Kelly accomplished. Dooley Wilson does not sing, but he has a very funny supporting role (the film delivers big time in laughs, including a very amusing blackface scene). As many hugely entertaining performances there are in the first three-quarters, the film shifts into high gear when Cab Calloway shows up. I absolutely love this guy, one of the weirdest and most original stylists that ever existed in America. But it's not just his appearance that ups the ante. The film has an amazing sense of pace, and it builds steadily to a musical finale which can only be described as orgasmic. It was thrilling to be able to see the talent actors and all the skills offered through their dancing and singing abilities. All of the dance numbers and costumes really represented the time period. The way the dancers moved were both creative and unique, especially indisputably impressive Nicholas Brothers.

"Stormy Weather" is a testament to black art of the first half of the 20th Century, and the achievements must not be forgotten. Twentieth Century Fox really broke the mold with this movie in response to FDR's urging. It finally gave actors of color the chance to show off their tremendous talent also allowing them to have more of an equal role in society. Although there still were laws restricting the interaction between whites and blacks in films, it certainly brought them out the repetitive demeaning roles of slaves and servants. This may very well be the best place to go if you want to discover them.