Product: Stormy Weather [VHS] (1980)
Rating: 5.0
Lots of history in this movie!
There is so much good stuff in this movie! In addition to enjoying the stunning performances, you can see actual live footage of Jim Europe's 369th "Hell Fighters" Infantry Band in their triumphal march in New York after World War I interspersed with the movie's footage. Jim Europe, one of the founding fathers of jazz, was killed in 1919, so they had to use an actor to portray him in Stormy Weather. Much of the music featured at the beginning of the movie was material performed by Jim Europe. Another fun detail is that the middle sequence of the movie, in which Gabe (the bootblack) arrives as an angel to save the show from the balkiness of the chorus girls, is based on an incident that actually happened to Eubie Blake. And notice how the sequence with Cab Calloway starts out: Cab invites Bill "Bojangles" Robinson to participate in a benefit for the soldiers. When Cab and Bojangles first met in real life, Bo was trying to get Cab to participate in a benefit performance. Cab didn't want to do it, and they got into a fight. Cab finally did go along with it, and he and Bo became friends after that. The scene where Bojangles punches Chick Bailey is right in character, too. Bojangles loved to fight. Fats Waller's parting line, "One never knows, do one," was unscripted. It was one of his favorite lines, and he ended his recordings with it frequently, squeezing it in at the last second. Now, this isn't exactly a movie review, but these are details that have added enormously to my enjoyment of this movie.