Must See Movie...

What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

After several years of only seeing the last hour of this movie, I finally watched the whole thing on Netflix Streaming. Nat King Cole plays the famous composer W.C. Handy and he's not bad. I especially was touched when his character's blindness caused him to bump into things. And non-musicians Juano Hernandez as his father Reverend Charles Handy and Ruby Dee as girlfriend Elizabeth, respectively, certainly hold their own when sharing scenes with singers Pearl Bailey and Eartha Kitt. Cab Calloway also effectively conveys his role as a hustling businessman though unlike the others, he doesn't do any singing which is too bad. The actual story is probably more colorful than what was presented here but it wasn't bad for what it was. And how enjoyable to see not only Ms. Bailey and Kitt do their thing but also Ella Fitzgerald and Mahalia Jackson, too! And of course, Nat King Cole looks cool every time he's at the piano warbling Handy's tunes. It was also interesting to see Billy Preston as a young boy at the beginning as the child Handy and such musicians like Barney Bigard, Teddy Buckner, George "Red" Callender, Lee Young, and George Washington sitting in the band. Really, all I'll say now is St. Louis Blues is worth seeing for the number of musical icons in one film that are presented here.

Central to the story is the antagonism between W.C Handy and his disapproving father, Reverend Charles Handy. The usual plot turns ensue while W.C. wrestles with his conscience, on the one hand as an obedient and under-empowered son, and on the other as a first-class and inspired musician. The story's a bit of a clunker, and some of the acting a bit two-dimensional. The good Reverend hams it up for us, looking much younger than his apparent signs of extreme age - the limp and gray hair more theatrical than filmic - while Nat King Cole's W.C. Handy suffers from soap opera indigestion. However, Eartha Kitt delivers the films best lines (and attitude) in a beautifully understated performance. It doesn't hurt, either, that she looks like a million dollars while doing it. The movie has the look and feel of having had a decent budget, and the sound in the television screening I saw was flawless, which made the real point of the movie outstanding: the music. To see so much of black America's musical talent of the time, performing in a medium atypical for them, is pure joy. The arrangements and delivery are breathtaking, especially for Eartha Kitt and Nat King Cole, while other numbers from the cast of luminaries are shining examples of their work. It's extraordinary that there is, to date, no DVD available for this film and a shame that more people will not get a chance to see - and hear - this historic gem.

As long as the great old films are not on home video, we have to search far and long for the elusive cable broadcasts. Well I was pleasantly surprised to see this one air yesterday on Turner Classic Movies. A film that completely reversed the procedure so well known at MGM: keeping actors of color out of the plot of a film so as not to offend the patrons (and sponsors)of Southern movie theaters. Paramount Pictures took such a gamble in 1958 with this biopic of turn-of-the-century blues composer W. C. Handy, son of a rather rigid preacher man, whose musical gifts are repeatedly deflated and discouraged by said father (who believes such progressive music is only the work of shiftless sinners). The big surprise in this film is the warm, sensitive, and totally subdued performances of the majority of the film's lead cast: Nat 'King' Cole as the quiet Handy, Ruby Dee as his patient, waiting-in-the wings fiancée', and Eartha Kitt as a sassy and ambitious nightclub singer. Even Kitt's character- which would normally be presented as a two-dimensional 'bad girl' caricature, shows some interesting depth as she quietly champions Handy's blues and jazz compositions to be seen by a larger, more commercial, audience. The Alan Reisner direction often leans towards the melodramatic, and veterans Cab Calloway and Pearl Bailey aren't given much to do, but the film soars very nicely as a complete movie. Two honorable mentions must be made however, in the names of Mahalia Jackson- whose gorgeous voice can be heard several times in the church scenes as a choir mistress, and Ella Fitzgerald (perhaps my favorite solo singer of all time) who is featured in a *true* cameo appearance singing a single torch song in a nightclub which Handy happens by one evening. It makes one yearn for more early chances like this one, and makes me especially happy that these performers are archived- even in this small capacity- on motion picture film.

I found the father-son estrangement contrived along conventional religion vs the devil lines, but moving nonetheless. I had forgotten what a good piano player Nat Cole was. Ertha Kitt is the heart of the film. She acts as she sings -- biting, precise, and all-knowing. I think the great Pearl Bailey is wasted here -- wonderful as the Aunt, but we only hear her singing a snippet of the title song. Cab Calloway was also much more talented than permitted to be here. I saw him as "Sportin' Live" in the post-WW II revival of "Porgy and Bess." We get a too brief taste of the great clarinet player, Barney Bigard, and an anachronistic appearance by Ella Fitzgerald singing "Beale St. Blues." The film provides a good definition of the blues as an authentic American musical and poetic form. This one, almost 50 years old now, has aged well. It makes one regret that more African-American based and performed films were not made when these great stars were available. Thanks again, TCM!