Mahalia Jackson Movies
- 2007
Per its title, the compilation release Mahalia Jackson: Rare Live Television Appearances 1947-1962 brings into one collection many nationally-broadcast performances by gospel powerhouse Jackson, during the stated fifteen-year period. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mahalia Jackson
- 2006
The Immortal Mahalia Jackson captures performances by the legendary gospel singer delivering renditions of some of her most well-known songs. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- 1997
- Add Mahalia Jackson Sings the Songs of Christmas to QueueAdd Mahalia Jackson Sings the Songs of Christmas to top of Queue
Mahalia Jackson: Christmas features the legendary gospel singer performing a variety of songs associated with the yuletide spirit. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- 1974
Learn about the lives of two influential black female musicians. Jackson and Cotten each touched the world of music in a special way. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1964
Gore Vidal adapted his biting and bitter political satire from his hit Broadway play. Franklin J. Schaffner directed and Haskell Wexler provided the sharp-edged cinematography. The story concerns the political back-biting and smear politics involved in a presidential election year scramble by potential presidential party nominees. Lee Tracy (in an Oscar-nominated performance and his final screen role) is Art Hockstader, a dying president who refuses to throw his support behind any of his party's presidential hopefuls. Hoping to get the nod as the party's presidential candidate is liberal do-gooder William Russell (Henry Fonda). His wife Alice (Margaret Leighton) wants to get a divorce from Russell but is delaying the divorce proceedings until after the party convention. Opposing Russell for the nomination is Joe Cantwell (Cliff Robertson), a slick and unscrupulous political monster who will use any bit of dirt to get ahead in the party. When he discovers that Russell once suffered from mental problems, he threatens to use it against him. Russell then finds out that Cantwell once had a homosexual relationship. Russell, who abhors smear politics, now has to decide whether to use the information against Cantwell or bury the secret and risk losing the nomination. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Henry Fonda, Cliff Robertson, (more)
This glamorized remake of the 1934 film Imitation of Life bears only a passing resemblance to its source, the best-selling novel by Fannie Hurst. Originally, the heroine was a widowed mother who kept the wolf from the door by setting up a successful pancake business with her black housemaid. In the remake, Lana Turner stars as a would-be actress who is raising her daughter on her own. She chances to meet another single mother at the beach: African-American Juanita Moore. Moore goes to work as Turner's housekeeper, bringing her light-skinned daughter along. As Turner's stage career goes into high gear, Moore is saddled with the responsibility of raising both Turner's daughter and her own. Exposed to the advantages of the white world, Moore's grown-up daughter (Susan Kohner) passes for white, causing her mother a great deal of heartache. Meanwhile, Turner's grown daughter (Sandra Dee), neglected by her mother, seeks comfort in the arms of handsome photographer John Gavin. When Moore dies, her daughter realizes how selfish she's been; simultaneously, Turner awakens to the fact that she hasn't been much of a mother for her own daughter, whose romance has gone down the tubes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lana Turner, John Gavin, (more)
Jazz on a Summer's Day is a priceless record of the 1958 Jazz Festival at Newport, Rhode Island. It just doesn't get better than this. We see Louis Armstrong, Mahalia Jackson, Dinah Washington, Chuck Berry, Thelonious Monk, Gerry Mulligan, George Shearing, Jack Teagarden, Sonny Stitt, Chico Hamilton, Anita O'Day and Big Maybelle, so we'd stay glued to the screen even if the film was poorly made. But it isn't: director Bert Stern not only does a masterful job of filming these imperishable greats at their very best, but he manages to make the whole enterprise fascinatingly fluid and thoroughly cinematic. Even non-jazz buffs will be exhilarated by Jazz on a Summer's Day. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1958
The life of legendary bluesman W.C. Handy is highly dramatized in this tuneful biopic. The story opens as his father, a minister chastises his son for playing "the devil's music." Despite his father's admonitions, Handy is drawn to the blues. He is encouraged by two disparate women, one an earthy singer from New Orleans and the other a good-hearted girl from his hometown whose main concern is Handy's happiness. Stress causes Handy to go blind for a while, but eventually he regains his sight, becomes famous for his music, and wins the respect of his father. The highlight of the film involves the performance of Handy's music by some of the great blues and jazz singers of the 1950s including Cole, Calloway, Jackson, and Fitzgerald. Songs include "Hesitating Blues," "Chantez Les Bas," "Beale Street Blues," (W.C. Handy), "Careless Love" (based on folk music by Handy; lyrics by Spencer Williams, Martha Koenig), "Morning Star," "Way Down South Where the Blues Began," "Mr. Bayle," "Aunt Hagar's Blues" (Handy; lyrics by Tim Brymn), "They that Sow" (hymn), and "Going to See My Sarah" (spiritual). ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nat "King" Cole, Pearl Bailey, (more)
