Bill "Bojangles" Robinson Movies

The 1940s was a monumental decade for the United States. Amid World War II, economic recovery, and the start of the Cold War, American music provided a soundtrack to a generation. The Music Classics line from MPI Home Video attempts to offer the chance to relieve the era with a ten-volume series of restored film footage featuring performances by many of the 40's most revered artists. Syd Charisse, Johnny Long, Fats Waller, and Tommy Dorsey are just a few of the musicians features in this ninth installment of the series. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide

In the mid-1920's, just as jazz was firmly establishing itself as America's dominant popular music form, new advancements in motion picture technology allowed sound to be recorded along with moving pictures, and as a fortunate consequence many of the great artists of the first renaissance of jazz were captured by "talking picture" camera. At The Jazz Band Ball: Early Hot Jazz, Song and Dance is a documentary which compiles rare archival footage of a number of legendary artists, including Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington (leading the Cotton Club Orchestra), Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, The Boswell Sisters, The Dorsey Brothers, and many more. This collection also features the only known filmed performances of pioneering blues vocalist Bessie Smith, and the highly influential cornet man Bix Beiderbecke. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In the Storyville Films series Harlem Roots, the fourth film deals with a more upbeat tempo. The popular "Soundies," which were short music programs featuring popular stars at the peak of their careers, were produced between 1941 and 1947. In Harlem Roots, Vol. 4: Jivin' Time, Nat King Cole performs "Got a Penny, Benny," Dorothy Dandridge sings "Zoot Suit," Mabel Lee does "Chicken Shack Shuffle," the Musical Madcaps offer "Rhythm of the Rhythm Band," and Dallas Bartley is "Cryin' and Singin' the Blues." ~ Alice Day, All Movie Guide

Just Around the Corner is the film in which little Shirley Temple ends the Depression all by herself! The story starts realistically enough, with 10-year-old Penny Hale (Temple) sharing a basement apartment with her widowed father Jeff (Charles Farrell, in his final Fox film). Once a prosperous architect, Jeff has been working as a hotel janitor-engineer ever since the Wall Street Crash. Ordered by pompous hotel concierge Waters (Franklin Pangborn) to keep her place, Penny nonetheless has fun wandering the lobbies of the posh establishment under the watchful and protective eyes of her friends, Kitty the maid (Joan Davis), Gus the chauffeur (Bert Lahr) and Corporal Jones the doorman (Bill Robinson). Having been told by her dad that the only person who can pull the country out of the Depression is Uncle Sam, Penny becomes convinced that goateed billionaire tycoon S. G. Henshaw (Claude Gillingwater Sr.) is Uncle Sam come to life. Charming her way into the heart of the irascible Henshaw, Penny convinces him to help the economy get started again. Not only does Uncle Sam accomplish this by creating thousands of new jobs, but he also manages to give Penny's father Jeff a new start in life, much to the delight of Jeff's sweetheart Lola (Amanda Duff). The film's highlights are Shirley Temple's always-delightul dance duets with Bill "Bojangles" Robinson; less easy to take when seen today is the closing "Buttons and Epaulets" production number, performed by a chorus of servile blacks. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Previously filmed in 1917 and 1932, Kate Douglas Wiggins' bucolic novel Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm is herein refashioned--and completely, totally, utterly rewritten--as a vehicle for 10-year-old Shirley Temple. Unable to land a radio contract for himself and his niece Rebecca Winstead (Temple), fly-by-night vaudevillian Henry Kipper (William Demarest) leaves the girl in the care of her aunt, Miranda Wilkins (Helen Westley), who runs a little farm with the help of hired hands Homer (Slim Summerville) and Aloysius (Bill Robinson). Miranda has an intense dislike for "show folks", but her next-door neighbor Anthony Kent (Randolph Scott), a talent scout for a major radio network, sees great possibilities in the talented Rebecca and secretly arranges an audition. In short order, Rebecca becomes the biggest sensation on the airwaves, whereupon the mercenary Kipper returns out of nowhere and demands that Miranda return the girl to his care. By now, Rebecca and Miranda have grown to love one another dearly, and the girl doesn't want to leave the farm, but she does what she is told--only to foil the conniving Kipper with a convenient last-minute "illness" (a scene that provides a showcase role for Franklin Pangborn) as a nervous standby organist). Future Titanic costar Gloria Stuart appears as Gwen Warren, obligatory love interest for Anthony Kent. Musical highlights include a medley of hit tunes from Shirley Temple's previous films (including, inevitably, "On the Good Ship Lollipop"), and a climactic tap duet spotlighting Temple and the inimitable Bill Robinson, danced to the tune of Raymond Scott's "Toy Trumpet". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Within the framework of a conventional newspaper yarn, One Mile From Heaven raises several controversial issues. Scoop-happy reporter Lucy "Tex" Warren (Claire Trevor) senses a big story in the plight of Flora Jackson (Fredi Washington), a young black woman who claims to be the mother of a white baby. In the course of her investigation, Luch discovers that the child actually belongs to Barbara Harrison (Sally Blane), now remarried to a wealthy young man and anxious to bury her past. A gang of extortionists pounce upon this information to victimize Barbara and Flora, but Lucy uses her newspaper connections to help both women. In the end, it is decided that the public's "right to know" can best be ignored in this case. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Shirley Temple's first costume picture -- and one of her best pictures of any kind -- was 1935's The Little Colonel. The story begins in 1870, when unreconstructed Southerner Colonel Lloyd (Lionel Barrymore) disowns his daughter Elizabeth (Evelyn Venable) when she stubbornly marries damn-Yankee Jack Sherman (John Lodge). Several years pass, during which time the Shermans' daughter, Lloyd (Temple), dubbed "the little colonel," is born. When Jack and Elizabeth suffer a series of financial reverses, they are compelled to move into a small cottage owned by Elizabeth, near her father's estate. As tenacious and opinionated as her grandpa, little Lloyd befriends the crusty old codger and tries to effect a reunion between the colonel and Elizabeth. Her efforts at first meet with failure, but when the ailing Jack is imperiled by all-around villain Swazey (Sidney Blackmer) does the colonel race to the rescue, with the "little colonel" leading the way. The film's brief Technicolor finale, long missing from TV prints, was restored in the mid-'80s. Why Fox felt that Technicolor was needed is a mystery; Shirley Temple's name in and of itself was the principal drawing card of The Little Colonel, while Temple's famous stair-dance duet with Bill "Bojangles" Robinson was worth the admission price in itself. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The old Edward Peble play The Littlest Rebel was gussied up in 1935 as a Shirley Temple vehicle. The curly-topped child star plays Virgie Cary, who lives in Southern-Plantation splendor with her dad Herbert (John Boles) and mom (Karen Morley). The family's idyllic existence is shattered when the Civil War breaks out. A captain in the Confederacy, Herbert Cary marches off to the battlefield, leaving his faithful family retainers -- including philosophical old Uncle Billy (Bill "Bojangles" Robinson) -- to watch over Virgie and Mrs. Cary. No one, however, is prepared for the ravages of war, thus Virgie is forced to endure the destruction of her family home and the death of mom after lingering illness. Desperately trying to make his way home for one last reunion with his wife, Herbert is arrested as a Southern spy. Fortunately, Yankee colonel Morrison (Jack Holt) takes a liking to the tenacious Virgie and tries to escort the girl and her father to safety. As a result, Morrison is arrested for desertion, and both he and Herbert are sentenced to be shot. Making her way to Washington in the company of faithful Uncle Billy, Virgie secures a pardon for both her father and Col. Morrison from an avuncular Abraham Lincoln (Frank McGlynn Sr.) The stereotypical treatment of black characters in The Littlest Rebel is more offensive than usual, with "happy darkies" nervously pondering the prospect of being freed from slavery and shivering in their boots when the Yankees arrive. But Bill Robinson manges to cut through the color line with his astonishing terpsichorean talents, especially in his closing "challenge dance" with Shirley Temple. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Obviously filmed on a tight budget, RKO Radio's Hooray for Love nevertheless has as much sheer entertainment value as any high-priced Busby Berkeley spectacular. Gene Raymond plays Doug, a college boy who aspires to become a Broadway producer. With reluctant songstress Pat (Ann Sothern) as his star, Doug stages a big-time revue, financed by Pat's father, a seedy con artist known as the Commodore (Thurston Hall). When it turns out that The Commoder hasn't a cent to his name, Doug is tossed into jail, but salvation is at hand in the form of a wealthy widow (Georgia Caine) who's set her cap for Pat's reprobate father. Lionel Stander has several choice moments as a temperamental Russian orchestra leader, as does Pert Kelton as a talentless soubrette, but the film's strongest selling card is the presence of the matchless Bill "Bojangles" Robinson and Fats Waller. The musical highlight is Robinson's "I'm Living in a Great Big Way," accompanied by Waller and Jeni Le Gon. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Hoping to repeat the success of its 1929 musical spectacular Rio Rita, RKO Radio reteamed leading lady Bebe Daniels and the comedy team of Bert Wheeler & Robert Woolsey for the equally lavish Dixiana. Set in antebellum Louisiana, the film casts Daniels as the title character, a lovely and charming circus entertainer. Dixiana is loved by Carl Van Horn (Everett Marshall), the son of plantation owner Cornelius Van Horn (Joseph Cawthorn). Though Cornelius approves of his son's choice, his imperious wife (Jobyna Howland) orders Dixiana out of her house, much to the delight of crooked gambler Royal Montague (Ralf Harolde), who has his own wicked designs on our heroine. Fired by her circus, Dixiana is forced to go to work at Montague's gambling establishment, and it is here that the love-struck Carl catches up with her. Hoping to bankrupt Carl and force him to relinquish the deed to the Van Doren plantation, Montague engages the young man in a crooked card game, but Dixiana turns the tables on the villain. Elected queen of the Mardi Gras, Dixiana is kidnapped by the disgruntled Montague, who intends to goad Carl into a duel, knowing full well that the boy's guns have been tampered with. Dixiana is the film debut of Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, who performs a "stair dance" routine during the Technicolor Mardi Gras finale. Incidentally, the film's final color reels were for many years considered lost, with only the black-and-white scenes remaining: thus, many TV prints of Dixiana come to an end long before the plot has been resolved. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide