Product: Stormy Weather [VHS] (1980)
Rating: 4.0
Stormy Weather - a festival of black music
This film was a showcase for black song-and-dance entertainers from the first half of the 20th century. The plot, such as it was, was thin and simply involved a romance between Lena Horne and Bill `Bojangles' Robinson. Released by 20th Century Fox in 1943, it was in black-and-white. We also had Thomas `Fats' Waller singing and playing his own `Ain't misbehavin'', Cab Calloway with his orchestra doing his frenetic thing with `Geechy Joe' and `Rhythm cocktail', some acrobatic dancing from the Nicholas Brothers, and a full supporting cast of other singers and dancers. Dooley Wilson also appeared but he wasn't given anything to sing or play. The high spot of the film was Lena Horne's singing of the title track by Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler, who also had a hand in the screenplay. An enjoyable 80 min of entertainment.