Stormy Weather **** (1943, Lena Horne, Bill Robinson, Cab Calloway and His Cotton Club Orchestra) – Classic Movie Review 11,349

Stormy Weather (1943): ‘HOORAY FOR RHYTHM! HALLELUJAH FOR FUN’.

Director Andrew L Stone’s 1943 black and white film Stormy Weather stars Bill Robinson, Lena Horne, Fats Waller and Cab Calloway and His Cotton Club Orchestra. It is one of Lena Horne’s few non-MGM film appearances, and notable as one of only two films from the 1930s and 1940s in which she plays a substantial role.

Some of the greatest popular African American artistes of the Forties are spotlighted in 20th Century Fox’s tremendously enjoyable musical, loosely inspired by the real-life rise up the showbusiness ladder of phenomenal hoofer Bill ‘Bojangles’ Robinson, who plays himself as ‘Bill Williamson’.

Bill Robinson as Bill Williamson, Lena Horne as Selina Rogers, and Cab Calloway as himself.

The delectable romantic interest is  Lena Horne, who plays the hero’s singer wife, Selina Rogers, a beautiful singer and dancer, who is the sister of one of his war buddies. Horne croons the title song with passion and great style about an hour into the film in a lengthy song and dance sequence featuring Horne’s vocals and the dancing of Katherine Dunham. Other highlights among the film’s 20 great numbers include Waller stealing the show performing his composition ‘Ain’t Misbehavin’, the Nicholas Brothers burning down the house with their dance sequence as Cab Calloway leads his band in his composition ‘Jumpin’ Jive’, and some of the best dance routines Hollywood ever staged. Horne also performs in several dance numbers with Robinson.

A toe-tapping, heart-thumping, cheer-raising, smile-making fantastic time is guaranteed.

Other performers in the movie are Cab Calloway and Fats Waller (both appearing as themselves), the Nicholas Brothers dancing duo, comedian F E Miller, singer Ada Brown, and Katherine Dunham (as herself) with her dance troupe. Dooley Wilson co-stars as Bill’s perpetually broke friend Gabe and Emmett ‘Babe Wallace appears as Chick Bailey. Also in the cast are The Tramp Band (as themselves), Ernest Whitman, and Zutty Singleton.

It is the final film of Fats Waller. Less than five months after the film’s opening in Manhattan on 21 July 1943, Waller died of pneumonia on a train stopped at Union Station in Kansas City, Missouri, on 15 December 1943, aged 39. This is also Robinson’s final film. He died in 1949.

Two numbers were deleted from the release: ‘Good-for-Nothin’ Joe’ sung by Lena Horne and ‘Alfred the Moocher’, a parody by Cab Calloway of his trademark ‘Minnie the Moocher’, bringing the runtime down to 78 minutes, yet it still features 20 numbers.

It is written by Frederick J. Jackson, Ted Koehler and H S Kraft, based on a story by Jerry Horwin and Seymour B Robinson. The character of Selina was invented for the film as Bill Robinson did not have this romance.

In 2001 it was selected for the US National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being culturally, historically or aesthetically significant. Its significance is as a showcase for some of the leading African American performers of the day, during an era when African American actors and singers rarely appeared in lead roles in mainstream Hollywood productions.

It was released on DVD in North America in 2005.

Another Hollywood musical with an African American cast was released in 1943, MGM’s Cabin in the Sky, also with Lena Horne.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,349

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com