''Stormy Weather'' is a 1943 American musical film produced and released by

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...

, adapted by

Frederick J. Jackson Frederick J. Jackson, also known professionally as Fred Jackson and Frederick Jackson and under the pseudonym Victor Thorne, (September 21, 1886 – May 22, 1953) was an American author, playwright, screenwriter, novelist, and producer fo ...

Ted Koehler Ted L. Koehler (July 14, 1894 – January 17, 1973) was an American lyricist. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1972. Life and career Koehler was born in 1894 in Washington, D.C. He started out as a photo-engraver, but w ...

and H.S. Kraft from the story by Jerry Horwin and Seymour B. Robinson, directed by

Andrew L. Stone Andrew L. Stone (July 16, 1902 – June 9, 1999) was an Americans, American screenwriter, film director and producer. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for the film ''Julie (1956 film), Julie'' in 1957 and re ...

, produced by

William LeBaron William LeBaron (February 16, 1883February 9, 1958) was an American film producer. LeBaron's film credits included ''Cimarron (1931 film), Cimarron'', which won the Academy Award for Best Picture, Academy Award for Outstanding Production at the ...

and starring Lena Horne,

Bill "Bojangles" Robinson Bill Robinson, nicknamed Bojangles (born Luther Robinson; May 25, 1878 – November 25, 1949), was an American tap dancer, actor, and singer, the best known and the most highly paid African-American entertainer in the United States during the f ...

, and Cab Calloway. The film is one of two Hollywood musicals with an

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

cast released in 1943, both starring Lena Horne, the other being

MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...

's '' Cabin in the Sky''. ''Stormy Weather'' is a primary showcase of some of the leading African American performers of the day, during an era when African American actors and singers rarely appeared in lead roles in mainstream Hollywood productions. The supporting cast features the

Nicholas Brothers The Nicholas Brothers were an entertainment act composed of biological brothers, Fayard (1914–2006) and Harold (1921–2000), who excelled in a variety of dance techniques, primarily between the 1930s and 1950s. Best known for their ...

in arguably the screen's most bravura dance sequence, Fats Waller,

Katherine Dunham Katherine Mary Dunham (June 22, 1909 – May 21, 2006) was an American dancer, choreographer, anthropologist, and social activist. Dunham had one of the most successful dance careers of the 20th century, and directed her own dance company for ...

and her dancers, and

Dooley Wilson Arthur "Dooley" Wilson (April 3, 1886 – May 30, 1953) was an American actor, singer and musician who is best remembered for his portrayal of Sam in the 1942 film ''Casablanca (film), Casablanca''. In that romantic drama, he performs its theme ...

Overview

''Stormy Weather'' takes its title from the 1933 song of the same title, which is performed almost an hour into the film. It is loosely based upon the life and times of its star, dancer

Stormy Weather - Robinson, Horne, and Calloway

Robinson as "Mr. Bill" Williamson, a naturally talented dancer, recounts his past to some neighborhood children in a series of flashbacks, which show his return home in 1918 after serving in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, meeting a beautiful singer/dancer named Selina Rogers, who is the sister of one of his war buddies, and his travels to New Orleans to become a performer. Along the way he is reunited with Selina, who persuades her manager, Chick Bailey, to hire him for their show, but the jealous Chick fires Bill for outshining him on stage. Bill stages his own show but runs out of money to pay his dancers up front and they refuse to take the stage. Eventually, they do, due to a stroke of luck. At this point in Bill's story to the children, Cab Calloway drives up to collect "Mr. Bill" to appear in his benefit show, where he is reunited with Selina for good. The character of Selina was invented for the film; Robinson did not have such a romance in real life.

(the singer/pianist in '' Casablanca'' nine years later) co-stars as Bill's perpetually broke but boldly imaginative friend, Gabe, and

Emmett "Babe" Wallace Emmett "Babe" Wallace (1909–2006), was an American singer, stage performer, composer, actor, and poet. His decades long career included many years performing abroad in Europe and Israel. He featured on stage and screen. The New York Public Librar ...

appears as Chick Bailey. Other performers in the movie are Cab Calloway and Fats Waller (both appearing as themselves), the

dancing duo, comedian

F. E. Miller Flournoy Eakin Miller (14 April 1885 – 6 June 1971), sometimes credited as F. E. Miller, was an American entertainer, actor, lyricist, producer and playwright. Between about 1905 and 1932 he formed a popular comic duo, Miller and Lyles, with ...

, singer Ada Brown, and

with her dance troupe. Despite a running time of only 77 minutes, the film features some 20 musical numbers. This was Robinson's final film (he died in 1949); Waller died only a few months after its release. The film's musical highlights include Waller performing his composition " Ain't Misbehavin'", Cab Calloway leading his band in his composition " Jumpin' Jive" accompanied by a

dance sequence, and a lengthy dance sequence built around the title song, featuring the vocals of Lena Horne and the dancing of Katherine Dunham. Horne also performs in several dance numbers with Robinson. It was one of her few non-MGM film appearances, and one of only two films from the 1930s-1940s in which Horne played a substantial role.

Ford Dabney Ford Thompson Dabney (15 March 1883 – 6 June 1958) was an American ragtime pianist, composer, songwriter, and acclaimed director of bands and orchestras for Broadway musical theater, revues, vaudeville, and early recordings. Additionally, for ...

was a consultant on the music for the film. The original release prints of ''Stormy Weather'' were processed in sepiatone. In 2001, ''Stormy Weather'' was selected for the United States

National Film Registry The National Film Registry (NFR) is the United States National Film Preservation Board's (NFPB) collection of films selected for preservation, each selected for its historical, cultural and aesthetic contributions since the NFPB’s inception ...

by the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library ...

as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." It was released on DVD in North America in 2005.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack has been released on CD by 20th Century Fox references 7822-11007, though Sunbeam Records released the soundtrack on vinyl in 1976. The Soundtrack Factory CD includes Lena Horne singing "Good For Nothin' Joe", a song that did not appear in the movie. Other songs include:''Stormy Weather''
from Soundtrack Factory, song list at AllMusic. * " Walkin' the Dog" – Orchestra * "There's No Two Ways About Love" – Lena Horne * "Cakewalk"/"

Camptown Races "Gwine to Run All Night, or De Camptown Races" (popularly known simply as "Camptown Races") is a minstrel song by Stephen Foster (1826–1864). () It was published in February 1850 by F. D. Benteen of Baltimore, Maryland, and Benteen published ...

"/"At a Georgia Camp Meeting" – Orchestra * "Moppin' and Boppin'" – Fats Waller * "

That Ain't Right "That Ain't Right" was the 1942 debut single by The King Cole Trio. "That Ain't Right" hit number one on ''Billboard'' magazine's Harlem Hit Parade chart for one week. Although the song was the King Cole Trio's first successful single, it would b ...

" – Ada Brown and Fats Waller * " Ain't Misbehavin'" – Fats Waller * "Diga Diga Doo" – Lena Horne * "I Lost My Sugar in Salt Lake City" – Mae E. Johnson * " Nobody's Sweetheart" (instrumental) – Orchestra * "

I Can't Give You Anything but Love, Baby "I Can't Give You Anything but Love, Baby" is an American popular song and jazz standard by Jimmy McHugh (music) and Dorothy Fields (lyrics). The song was introduced by Adelaide Hall at Les Ambassadeurs Club in New York in January 1928 in Lew L ...

" – Lena Horne,

Bill Robinson Bill Robinson, nicknamed Bojangles (born Luther Robinson; May 25, 1878 – November 25, 1949), was an American tap dancer, actor, and singer, the best known and the most highly paid African-American entertainer in the United States during the f ...

, and others * "Geechy Joe" – Cab Calloway & his Orchestra * " Stormy Weather" – Lena Horne * "Stormy Weather Ballet" – danced by

and her Dance Troupe * "There's No Two Ways About Love" (Reprise) – Cab Calloway, Bill Robinson, and Lena Horne * "My, My Ain't That Somethin'" – Bill Robinson * " Jumpin' Jive" – Cab Calloway & his Orchestra, danced by the

* "My, My Ain't That Somethin'" (reprise) – Lena Horne, Bill Robinson, Cab Calloway

Critical reception

Shane Vogel suggests that Lena Horne and Katherine Dunham's performances of "Stormy Weather" in the film are, like

Ethel Waters Ethel Waters (October 31, 1896 – September 1, 1977) was an American singer and actress. Waters frequently performed jazz, swing, and pop music on the Broadway stage and in concerts. She began her career in the 1920s singing blues. Her no ...

' performance of the song in ''The Cotton Club Parade of 1933'', African American modernist critiques of American culture.

Fred Astaire Fred Astaire (born Frederick Austerlitz; May 10, 1899 – June 22, 1987) was an American dancer, choreographer, actor, and singer. He is often called the greatest dancer in Hollywood film history. Astaire's career in stage, film, and tele ...

told the

that the " Jumpin' Jive" dance sequence was "the greatest movie musical number he had ever seen". On

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film holds a 95% approval rating from 41 reviews.

Performance

Although ''Stormy Weather'' and other musicals of the 1940s opened new roles for African Americans in Hollywood, breaking through old stereotypes and far surpassing limited roles previously available in

race films Race, RACE or "The Race" may refer to: * Race (biology), an informal taxonomic classification within a species, generally within a sub-species * Race (human categorization), classification of humans into groups based on physical traits, and/or s ...

produced for all-black audiences, it still perpetuates stereotypes. Notably, the musical numbers in the movie contain elements of minstrelsy. The performance of a

cakewalk The cakewalk was a dance developed from the "prize walks" (dance contests with a cake awarded as the prize) held in the mid-19th century, generally at get-togethers on Black slave plantations before and after emancipation in the Southern Uni ...

, for example, features flower headdresses reminiscent of the

Little Black Sambo ''The Story of Little Black Sambo'' is a children's book written and illustrated by Scottish author Helen Bannerman and published by Grant Richards in October 1899. As one in a series of small-format books called The Dumpy Books for Children ...

figures used in historical misrepresentations of Black American males.

References

External links