''Stormy Weather'' is a 1943 American

musical film Musical film is a film genre in which songs by the Character (arts), characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, but in some cases, they serv ...

produced and released by

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc., formerly 20th Century Fox, is an American film studio, film production and Film distributor, distribution company owned by the Walt Disney Studios (division), Walt Disney Studios, the film studios division of the ...

, adapted by Frederick J. Jackson,

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 ...

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

William LeBaron William LeBaron (February 16, 1883February 9, 1958) was an American film producer, lyricist, librettist, playwright, and screenwriter. LeBaron authored several plays for Broadway; including the books and lyrics for several musicals in addit ...

and starring

Lena Horne Lena Mary Calhoun Horne (June 30, 1917 – May 9, 2010) was an American singer, actress, dancer and civil rights activist. Horne's career spanned more than seventy years and covered film, television and theatre. Horne joined the chorus of the C ...

Bill "Bojangles" Robinson Bill "Bojangles" Robinson (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 black entertainer in the United States during the first half of the 20 ...

, and

Cab Calloway Cabell "Cab" Calloway III (December 25, 1907 – November 18, 1994) was an American jazz singer and bandleader. He was a regular performer at the Cotton Club in Harlem, where he became a popular vocalist of the Swing music, swing era. His niche ...

. The film is one of two

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood ...

musicals with an

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

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

MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, commonly shortened to MGM or MGM Studios) is an American Film production, film and television production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered ...

'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 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 unique interpretati ...

in arguably the screen's most bravura dance sequence,

Fats Waller Thomas Wright "Fats" Waller (May 21, 1904 – December 15, 1943) was an American jazz pianist, organist, composer, and singer. His innovations in the Harlem stride style laid much of the basis for modern jazz piano. A widely popular star ...

Katherine Dunham Katherine Mary Dunham (June 22, 1909 – May 21, 2006) was an African 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 compan ...

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 ...

. ''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

. The character of Selina was invented for the film; Robinson did not have such a romance in real life.

(the singer/pianist in ''

Casablanca Casablanca (, ) is the largest city in Morocco and the country's economic and business centre. Located on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of the Chaouia (Morocco), Chaouia plain in the central-western part of Morocco, the city has a populatio ...

'' the previous year) co-stars as Bill's perpetually broke but boldly imaginative friend, Gabe, and Emmett "Babe" Wallace appears as Chick Bailey. Other performers in the movie are

and

(both appearing as themselves), the

dancing duo, comedian F. E. Miller, 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.

Plot

"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, 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.

Cast

as Selina Rogers *

Bill Robinson Bill "Bojangles" Robinson (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 black entertainer in the United States during the first half of the 20 ...

as Bill Williamson *

as himself *

as herself *

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

as themselves *

as Gabe Tucker * The Tramp Band as themselves *

as himself * Ada Brown as singer *

as Gabe Tucker

Release and legacy

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 (library and archival science), preservation, each selected for its cultural, historical, and aestheti ...

by the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

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

Soundtrack

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

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 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: * " Walkin' the Dog" – Orchestra * "There's No Two Ways About Love" –

* "Cakewalk"/"

Camptown Races "De Camptown Races" or "Gwine to Run All Night" (nowadays popularly known as "Camptown Races") is a folk song by American Romantic composer Stephen Foster. It was published in February 1850 by F. D. Benteen and was introduced to the American mai ...

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

* " That Ain't Right" – 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" – Lena Horne,

, and others * "Geechy Joe" –

& 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, actor, singer, musician, choreographer, and presenter, whose career in stage, film, and television spanned 76 years. He is widely regarded as the "g ...

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 aggregator, 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 ...

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

Stereotypes

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 The race film or race movie was a genre of film produced in the United States between about 1915 and the early 1950s, consisting of films produced for African American, black audiences, and featuring black casts. Approximately five hundred race ...

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 Unit ...

, for example, features flower headdresses reminiscent of the Little Black Sambo figures used in historical misrepresentations of Black American males.

References

External links

* * *
Review of ''Stormy Weather''
at TVGuide.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Stormy Weather 1943 films 20th Century Fox films American black-and-white films Films directed by Andrew L. Stone Films with screenplays by Frederick J. Jackson 1943 musical films United States National Film Registry films African-American musical films Jazz films African-American films American musical films Jukebox musical films 1940s English-language films 1940s American films English-language musical films