Fictionalized "This Is Your Life," Bill ‘Bojangles’ Robinson is a sorry minstrel show (there’s even a black- face 'numbo') which has a great line up of black musical performers, but only shows a few of them (Fats Waller, Cab Calloway, the Nicholas Brothers) at something near their best. With a cheap look to it, a thirty-year time frame that’s largely ignored & a short running time (77 minutes), this goes down as one of LaLaLand’s great missed opportunities. Forget the film and try to find the matching CD which is far more enjoyable & adds on a great bonus where Cab improvises a hep salute to Fox’s main music man, Alfred Newman. If only it had been filmed and edited into the film.
1 comment:
Given the constraints Black performers faced during Hollywood's golden era, I found this film to actually be pretty uplifting and a bit better than advertised here. Though the framing device of Bill Robinson looking back in time is rather bland, the production values are decent and the performances were mostly top-notch. Lena Horne had a lovely voice and warm onscreen personality, and the short running time was just right to leave me wanting more. Fats Waller in a club setting was simply delightful, as was Cab Calloway and orchestra. Of course, the Nicholas Brothers' dance sequence was the highlight, and elicited gasps and applause from a theatrical screening recently witnessed.
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