Unlimitedia Sick Product of a Sick System

Stometer Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Bluebell Alcock Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

Chantel Contreras It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

jacobs-greenwood This unique, Musical fantasy was the first film directed by Vincente Minnelli. It stars Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson as Joseph 'Little Joe' Jackson, a man with a gambling problem whose wife Petunia, played by Ethel Waters, is so strong in her faith that her prayers enable her husband to receive a second chance. Little Joe's dealing with nefarious characters like Domino Johnson (John William Sublett) gets him shot, which leads to a scene in which the Devil's son Lucifer Jr. (Rex Ingram) is ready to take his soul to Hell before the Lord's General (Kenneth Spencer) intervenes and gives the gambler 6 months to reform. Ingram and Spencer also play characters in Little Joe's "real" life, a fellow gambler and Petunia's Reverend Greene, respectively. Ernest Whitman appears as one of Little Joe's creditors, and a club owner.Petunia represents one of Waters' few on-screen roles; she would go on to earn a Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for her role in Pinky (1949). She sings the film's Academy Award nominated Song - "Happiness Is a Thing Called Joe". On the other, Anderson, whose gravelly voice is as recognizable as Eugene Palette's, had already appeared in more than 50 films at this point in his career which spanned nearly 70 roles, most of which were stereotypical for Black actors of his era. Lena Horne, whose character also sings, plays the femme fatale, Georgia Brown, who Lucifer Jr. uses to tempt Little Joe during his reprieve. Louis Armstrong plays (his trumpet and) a minor role as one of Lucifer Jr.'s idea men, as does Mantan Moreland and shaky voiced Willie Best. Butterfly McQueen plays one of Petunia's friends and Duke Ellington appears (with his band) as himself; Cab Calloway also appears.

vincentlynch-moonoi I had never seen this film, perhaps because years ago I began to watch it on television, and the print was in horrible condition. But, I caught it recently on TCM, and I can honestly say that this film borders on brilliance. Vincente Minelli deserves a great deal of credit here, because he realized the impact of an allegorical film so brilliantly.But, for me, the real gem of the film is the performance of Ethel Waters! What a treasure! Eddie "Rochester" Anderson is fine as Little Joe, but I will always remember him best as Jack Benny's manservant. Don't think that's a racial put down. As the family used to watch the Benny program, Rochester was always the character we looked forward to. We loved him.It's interesting to watch Lena Horne in this film, compared to her performance in other films (such as "Stormy Weather"). Let's face it, in many films she was very light complected, but in this film the opposite seemed to be true. Here she plays the evil seductress in league with the devil, and is quite impressive. It was also a treat to finally see John Bubbles.

bkoganbing Cabin In The Sky marked Vincente Minnelli's feature film debut as a director and he certainly started on a grand scale. Louis B. Mayer was purportedly reluctant to do black cast feature film with an A Budget, but Minnelli and Arthur Freed's faith in Minnelli paid off big time.Cabin In The Sky, musical fantasy, with score by John LaTouche and Vernon Duke ran for 156 performances in the 1940-1941 Broadway season. The only two members of the cast who made it to the screen version was lead Ethel Waters and Rex Ingram as Lucifer, Jr. Unless of course you count the Hall Johnson Choir. It would have never been made if MGM could not get Ethel Waters to repeat her role as the wise and faithful Petunia Johnson praying ever so that her husband Little Joe Johnson gets saved from his evil ways of drinking and gambling and carousing with that no good Georgia Brown on whom no gal made has got a shade. Come to think of it, that song should have been interpolated in the score, MGM should have paid any price for it.MGM got their work out of Ethel though. She appeared in Cairo with Jeanette MacDonald and Robert Young and the contrasting styles of MacDonald and Waters is something to see in that film.On Broadway Little Joe's part was played by someone who would make a big splash in Hollywood this same year of 1943. Because Dooley Wilson was playing piano at Rick's place in Casablanca, I guess he missed repeating his role. Stepping in for Wilson was America's most well known butler, Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson who did the impossible, get rich working for Jack Benny.Sweet Georgia Brown was played by Lena Horne, the devil had no better temptress ever on screen, not even Gwen Verdon in Damn Yankees. She does a mean version of Honey In The Honeycomb.The plot's a simple one. Petunia brings her husband Little Joe to church for the hundred and umpteenth time to get himself saved, but he slips away for a crap game and gets himself shot in the process. He's about to enter the devil's domain, but Petunia's prayers get him a six month stay of his sentence to see if he can mend his ways. After that both heavenly and hellish forces work overtime to have claim to his soul. LaTouche and Duke gave Ethel Waters two of her best known numbers to sing, the title song and Taking A Chance On Love. Cabin In The Sky has a unique distinction of being one of the few Broadway musicals that came to the screen. Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg wrote some new material including a song for Eddie Anderson Life's Full of Consequences and another song uniquely identified with Ethel Waters, Happiness Is Just A Thing Called Joe.Louis Armstrong is in Cabin In The Sky as Lucifer's Trumpeter and while we get a couple of licks from Satchmo, I do so wish that someone at MGM would have given him a number for himself. He doesn't standout as he usually does because of that.Still Cabin In The Sky is a delightful film, a real treat with some of the best talent in the human race in it.

theowinthrop Let's call it a deserved "10" but with a sense of trouble for one's conscience.In 1943 it was nearly impossible to consider any film with a predominantly African-American cast as serious by most Americans of Caucasian or non-African-American backgrounds. Typical fare from Hollywood was a series of stereotypes, usually for comic purposes. However there had been a few films that (even with the stereotypes) suggested more was there. King Vidor's HALLELUJAH in 1929 dealt with African-American revivalism. Two Broadway hits, O'Neill's THE EMPEROR JONES (with star Paul Robeson recreating the role of Brutus Jones) and THE GREEN PASTURES had been done with mostly African-American casts (Dudley Digges did play a critically important role in THE EMPEROR JONES, but he was an exception). The 1929 and 1936 versions of SHOW BOAT did deal with the "Jim Crow" south, and the issue of racially mixed marriages. The film of Fanny Hurst's novel IMITATION OF LIFE (1933) dealt with a young woman trying to pass for white and breaking her mother's heart as a result. GONE WITH THE WIND passed on the myths of how happy the slaves were in the South, but Hattie McDaniel's performance of "Mammy" was vivid and strong, and won the first Oscar for an African-American performer. Finally, in 1942, John Huston's film, IN THIS OUR LIFE, dared to suggest that a young African-American man could try to study law to enter the legal profession.When Vincent Minelli was assigned to do the MGM musical version of CABIN IN THE SKY, most insiders thought that it would be a flop. Minelli had never directed a film before, and was an unknown quantity in Hollywood's talent market. Actually he was a good choice - he was a veteran of Broadway musical productions, and was just the right person to work on a film based on a Broadway musical. It was his first film, and proved to be a great success.It think it is due in part to his determination to show what he could bring out of the musical, and also the equal determination of the cast, led by Ethel Waters (who played the lead "Petunia" on Broadway), Eddie Anderson ("Joe"), Lena Horne (as temptress "Georgia Brown"), John Bubbles ("Domino Johnson"), Kenneth Spencer ("The General/ Rev. Greene"), and Rex Ingram ("Lucifer Jr."). Other familiar faces crop up like Willie Best, Mantan Morland, Oscar Polk, Butterfly McQueen, Louis Armstrong (oddly wasted in a mostly comic speaking role), and Duke Ellington and his orchestra. It's hard to imagine this but this film effort had the cream of Hollywood's available African-American performers in it. And they wanted to show what they could do.The story is about the devotion of Petunia to her husband Little Joe, who is weak and constantly gambling. But he hopes to win a fortune to give Petunia the things she always wanted. Unfortunately he is also infatuated with Georgia, a sexy singer at the gambling house/night club he heads for. One night (while supposedly seeking forgiveness for his sins at church) Joe is lured to the nightclub into a dice game, and is shot by Domino. He is treated at home and the film goes from this point to it's conclusion with a battle between God's messenger, "the General" (always wearing white uniforms), and "Lucifer Jr." and his minions. Due to a technicality Joe is not to die, but is given six months more to show his wife's devotion is strong enough to put him permanently on the good and narrow path. Lucifer Jr. and his associates (including Morland, Armstrong, and Best) are determined to show Joe cannot change.The cast shows what they could do. Waters in particular has two songs that became standards: "Happiness is a Guy named Joe", by Harold Arlin and Y.I.P. Harburg, and "Taking a Chance On Love" by Vernon Duke from the original score. But Horne is allowed to sing as well (though one number was cut here but transposed elsewhere). Bubbles does his great dance and song act in the latter part of the film, in the number "Shine". Even Anderson (best recalled for being Jack Benny's foil as "Rochester") demonstrates singing in a duet with Horne, and dance in a number with Waters.I suppose my favorite though is Ingram. He's now the forgotten man in African-American film history, because he never had the degree of public attention that Paul Robeson received. But he appeared in the lead as "De Lawd" in the movie version of THE GREEN PASTURES, as "Lucifer Jr." here, as the genie in the Alexander Korda epic THE THIEF OF BAGHDAD (1941), and graced other films as well (as the gentle valet to Ronald Colman in THE TALK OF THE TOWN, where he starts crying at his boss's insistence at shaving off his distinguished goatee). Ingram, I feel, could play any kind of part. Given the paucity of good lead parts in his day, that he got three of them shows Hollywood and British producers thought well of him. Here he does not sing (I suspect he did not have the voice) but he is enjoying his wickedness throughout. He also has one of the best lines in the film - complaining of the lack of good ideas (in getting Joe's soul): he says that it's because the best idea men in Hell are currently in Europe (this being the fourth year of World War II). The film is actually quite entertaining to this day - although the stereotypes of crap shooting African-Americans is unsettling. But think of this point: this is the first film I know of from Hollywood where a black professional is shown who is not a minister! When Eddie Anderson is treated for his gunshot wound, the physician is black, and is not a stereotype.