Fayard Nicholas Movies

Hosted by Obba Babatunde, this documentary from Passport Productions studies the life and career of African American entertainer Dorothy Dandridge. Dorothy Dandridge: An American Beauty features interviews with such Dandridge admirers as Brock Peters, Lawrence Fishburne, and Academy Award winner Halle Berry who received an Emmy and a Golden Globe for her portrayal of the ill-fated actress and singer in the film Introducing Dorothy Dandridge. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide

Songwriter Harold Arlen is the subject of this documentary. Arlen wrote several songs for famous artists, but remained in the shadows as singers such as Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett received the acclaim. Arlen's most popular song "Somewhere Over the Rainbow", the noted song from the Wizard of Oz, is added to the title. Filmed performances by Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Lena Horne, Mel Torme, and many others are included as they sing songs penned by Arlen and take part in several interviews that make up the bulk of this film, but his life is also well documented. ~ Ed Atkinson, All Movie Guide

Justice runs red in the deep South in this powerful drama. Steve Mundine (Lee Majors) is a young lawyer who, shortly after marrying his sweetheart Nella (Barbara Hershey), takes a position with a law firm in a small Southern town, run by his uncle Oman Hedgepath (Lee J. Cobb). L.B. Jones (Roscoe Lee Browne) is a well-to-do African-American funeral director who comes to Hedgepath's firm in search of legal representation. Jones wishes to divorce his wife Emma (Lola Falana), but his grounds make the case a hot potato -- Jones has learned Emma has been having an affair with Willie Joe Worth (Anthony Zerbe), a white police officer who is the father of Emma's unborn child. Worth does not want his affair dragged into a court of law, so he and his fellow officer Stanley Bumpas (Arch Johnson) violently take matters into their own hands. The last feature film from legendary Hollywood director William Wyler, The Liberation of L.B. Jones was based on a novel by Jesse Hill Ford. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

On the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of commercial radio, 20th Century-Fox cooked up the pageantlike entertainment The Great American Broadcast. Opening with clips of such airwaves favorites as Dick Powell and Fred Allen (courtesy of earlier Fox films like Thanks a Million), the picture gets under way in 1918, as ambitious army buddies Bix Martin (John Payne) and Chuck Hadley (Jack Oakie) try and fail to establish themselves in the business world. At long last, our heroes enter the new field of radio broadcasting, where after several technical and tactical mishaps they achieve success. But Bix and Chuck are strictly small-timers, and soon they're left behind by the big-city stations. The partners break up, while Bix's songstress wife Vicki Adams (Alice Faye) seeks out a loan to get her husband back on his financial feet. When she approaches her wealthy ex-boyfriend Bruce Chadwick (Cesar Romero), Bix burns up and walks out on her. But old pal Chuck comes to the rescue, staging a reunion between Bix and Vicki during the first-ever coast to coast network broadcast. Rather shaky as history, The Great American Broadcast works best on a nostalgia level, offering guest appearances by such specialty performers as The Ink Spots, The Nicholas Brothers, and The Wiere Brothers (of Road to Rio fame). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

To quell the rumors that musical stars Alice Faye and Betty Grable detested each other (actually they were fast friends, if not close buddies), 20th Century-Fox cast both ladies in their 1940 "inventory" musical Tin Pan Alley. Set in the years just prior to and during WW1, the film casts Faye and Grable as Katie and Lily Blaine, a singing-sister act playing the vaudeville circuits of the land. Ambitious songwriter Skeets Harrigan (John Payne) senses star potential in Katie Blaine, and his efforts to promote her-and his tunes-at all costs result in a great deal of ill-will before the inevitable happy ending. Counterpointing the likeably ruthless Skeets is his ebullient partner Harry Calhoun (Jack Oakie), who spends most of the picture trying to find suitable lyrics for a novelty ditty he's written, a quest that proves unsuccessful until a stuttering soldier inspires him to write "K-K-Katie". With the exception of the Mack Gordon-Harry Warren song "You Say the Sweetest Things Baby", all the tunes heard in Tin Pan Alley were popular during the period depicted in the film, including "Moonlight Bay", "Honeysuckle Rose", and "Goodbye Broadway, Hello France". The film's best ensemble piece is "The Shiek of Araby", with corpulent "potentate" Billy Gilbert matching the lissome Alice Faye and Betty Grable step for step. Incidentally, this number was one of several to be severely trimmed before final release: removed entirely was a delightful sequence involving the Tin Lizzie-inspired song "Get Out and Get Under", though this scene later appeared on a cable-TV compendium of excised 20th Century-Fox musical highlights. The winner of a 1940 Oscar for Alfred Newman's score, Tin Pan Alley was remade in 1950 as I'll Get By. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide