Week Twenty-Six: ­Stormy Weather (1943)

Director: Andrew L. Stone

Producer: William LeBaron

Writers: Frederick J. Jackson and Ted Koehler

Cinematography: Leon Shamroy

Choreography: Nick Castle

Starring: Lena Horne (Selina Rogers), Bill Robinson (Bill Williamson), Dooley Wilson (Gabe), Emmett Wallace (Chick Bailey), Cab Calloway and his Cotton Club Orchestra (themselves), Katherine Dunham and Her Troupe (themselves), Fats Waller (himself), Ada Brown (herself), Fayard and Harold Nicholas (themselves), Mae E. Johnson (herself), Flournoy Miller and Aubrey Lyles (themselves), Ernest Whitman (Jim Europe)

Before You Watch the Movie
(First make sure you have read the introduction to this series)

Hollywood was a place that Americans could look to as a representation of the American dream, where with a little luck, you could make it to the big time and stardom. After all, weren’t movie stars just regular people before they were discovered? Hollywood PR loved this angle and fan magazines are loaded with stories (some of them even true) about how Lana Turner was discovered at a lunch counter or the way that Lauren Bacall, then an anonymous model, was spotted in a magazine by Howard Hawks wife. Yes, they’d have you believe, America was the land of opportunity and Hollywood its shining jewel. As long as you were white, of course.

Hollywood had a place for non-white performers of course, especially exotic Latin beauties like Dolores del Río who rose to the level of stardom, though they were still underrepresented. Asian actors had a much more difficult time and were never given a chance to be more than a bit player or like Anna Mae Wong, were typecast into oblivion. Outside of the acting ranks, opportunities were just as difficult. Cinematographers James Wong Howe and Gabriel Figueroa were some of the best in their field, but premier behind the camera careers such as producer and director were still usually reserved for white men. There are some notable exceptions like Dorothy Arzner and Ida Lupino, but even their work as directors was sparse.

Dolores del Río, seen here in Flying Down to Rio (1933) was one of the few non-white stars in Hollywood.

In the thirties and forties there was no chance that African-Americans would ever rise to the level of star or become leading performers in films. Part of this was racism in the studio system, but even that stemmed from the general racism in America during this time, particularly in the South, where the depiction of African-Americans was a controversial topic. For example, in Memphis the film Brewster’s Millions (1945) was banned because the main character was too friendly to his servant and a scene where Lena Horne sings in the bathtub was cut from Cabin in the Sky because it was considered morally indecent to show a black woman taking a bath. Films prominently featuring black actors that didn’t satisfy racist southern audiences ran the risk of being banned or boycotted, which would do a serious dent in the potential earning power for the studio. Hollywood took the same stance before America entered World War II: negative depictions of Nazis were discouraged, as Hollywood didn’t want to lose the lucrative German moviegoing market. Even censors limited the kind of roles blacks could take, as miscegenation was banned under the Production Code.

There was much more to the problems that blacks faced in Hollywood, however, as even when they did get into movies they played horribly stereotyped characters. Black characters were most often depicted as subservient, ignorant, lazy, superstitious, and childlike at best and in cartoonishly offensive caricatures at worst. Perhaps most destructive were films like The Littlest Rebel (1935), Gone with the Wind (1939) or Song of the South (1946) that glorified the “good old days,” and gave a false and nostalgic view of the Antebellum south and reconstructionist era and the happy slave stereotype of blacks who were content with their lives as slaves and were better off subservient because they couldn’t function on their own. (Perhaps not coincidentally both films were big financial success).

Black artists had little opportunities to get anywhere in Hollywood besides stereotyped bit roles or a featured musical number, (which could be easily edited out of the film for showing in southern theaters) but outside the major studios, there were still opportunities albeit on a much smaller scale. These low budget films, known as “race films” were usually made in New York, were made specifically for smaller releases aimed at black movie theaters. These films, while obviously of low production values, are still important documents of talent both in front of the camera and behind it. The latter being significant because when Hollywood did make all-black films, the directors, producers, etc. were still white.

However, Hollywood also wasn’t blind to the fact that blacks in America had money and went to the movies as well, so occasionally a “separate but (almost) equal” approach was taken. In place of all-white movies with little or no blacks, movies with an all-black cast were made, usually for a lesser budget than an equivalent white film. In order to showcase the copious amounts of African-American musical talent, these films were usually musicals, a concept that dated back as far as 1929’s Hallelujah. These films, while the meagerest that Hollywood could do, are still wonderful pieces comprised of incredible talents that would otherwise be lost to history.  

As much as these are a celebration of supremely talented artists, they are also glimpses of what could have been. It is painfully obvious that if not for endemic racism, many of the performers in Stormy Weather would have been big-time stars. Nowhere is this more evident than with the film’s leading lady, Lena Horne. Already an accomplished nightclub singer, Horne clearly had immense talent as well as the “it” quality of a star.

Beautiful, magnetic, and talented, Lena Horne could have been a star in a more enlightened time.

Horne isn’t the only performer in Stormy Weather who would have achieved much higher cinematic heights in a more enlightened time. Cab Calloway’s charisma and high energy performing style standout while the Nicholas Brothers’ performance of “Jumpin’ Jive” is a pantheon movie dance number.

After You Watch the Movie (Spoilers Below)

The story in Stormy Weather is as meager as can be and serves only as an opportunity to get from one musical production to the next as well as the occasional Dooley Wilson bit. That’s alright because the song and dance numbers are the film’s high points by far.

Best known for performing the classic "As Time Goes By" in Casablanca, Dooley Wilson was also an excellent comedic actor.

Though he is the “star” of the picture (and the story takes cues from his life) at this point in his career, the sixty-five year old Bill “Bojangles” Robinson wasn’t nearly the dynamic talent he had been in his younger days when he was one of the best, most influential and important innovators of American dance. Still, that doesn’t mean that he couldn’t still hoof it and carry a tune, as evident in his dance on the riverboat, "There's No Two Ways About Love," and "My My, Ain't That Somethin'"

Even at 65, Bill Robinson still had it.

Stride pianist Fats Waller provides another highlight with a couple of numbers, one shared with singer Ada Brown (“That Ain’t Right”) and one solo “Ain’t Misbehavin.’” Waller and Brown’s performances are notable because they are rare occasions of blues being performed in a classic Hollywood movie. The lines between blues, jazz, Dixieland, and other styles often blended together and were often borrowed by white composers, but there is an authentic blues quality to Waller and Brown’s performances of these songs that is uncommon in the musical world where swing and big band were usually dominant.

Like Lena Horne, Mae E. Johnson was a popular nightclub performer though she didn’t get even the opportunities or fame of Horne, though based on her version of “I Lose My Sugar in Salt Lake City” it isn’t clear why. However, we can be thankful that this lone performance is preserved for audiences to enjoy.

After Horne’s performance of the title song, Katherine Dunham and her dancers perform the “Stormy Weather Ballet.” Though far from a household name, Dunham was one of the most important dancers and choreographers of the twentieth century. Her work laid the foundation (and built substantially on top of it) for modern African-American dance. Dunham blended traditional elements of Caribbean and African dance into “high” dance (like ballet and modern dance) and jazz style dancing as well. The “Stormy Weather Ballet” is a rare example of the kind of dancing that black performers rarely got to perform on a big stage, where they were mostly limited to dancing in popular styles. In a way, the dance itself represents this: Dunham, caught in the rain fantasizes the ballet dance just like for many black artists, acceptance as important artists was just as much of a fantasy.

The "Diga Diga Doo" number also features tropical and African influences, though in a much more stereotyped way. This "jungle" style of aesthetic goes all the way back to stage star Josephine Baker.

One of the standout performers of Stormy Weather who should have been a bigger star was Cab Calloway. Calloway (and his Orchestra) were one of the top big bands in America and he and his band were prominently featured during the early thirties at the famous Cotton Club in Harlem, New York City. Calloway, decked out in full Harlem style, has magnetism and energy to his performances that other “Hollywood” band leaders couldn’t hope to rival.

Along with both parts of “Stormy Weather,” the film’s most incredible performance belongs to the Nicholas Brother’s insane, acrobatic dance to Calloway’s “Jumpin’ Jive.” Harold and Fayard Nichols’s dance style was a style known as “flash dancing” (unrelated to the 1983 musical). The Four Step Brothers and the Berry Brothers were also prominent performers of this style. "Jumpin' Jive" would rank as one of the great musical numbers even if it ended after Calloway and his band's magnificent intro but once you add in the dance, you get one of the very best song and dance combinations in movie history.

Also, though it is just in the background as a musician, saxophonist Coleman Hawkins appears in Stormy Weather. Hawkins was one of the most important tenor sax players and his version of “Body and Soul” was very influential to the bebop movement of the forties and fifties.

Despite being such a great collection of underappreciated black talent, Stormy Weather is still not without its racism. In particular, the “Cakewalk” sequence in which female dancers wear hats with racist sambo/pickaninny/mammy-style caricatures.

Even an all-black musical like Stormy Weather isn't completely free of racial caricatures. 

Also notable is the fact that no indication of the plight of blacks in America is ever given. To whites viewing the film, there is no real indication of racism faced by African-Americans every day. Stormy Weather is an escapist fantasy but the sad truth is that no escape was in sight. Hollywood wasn’t ready for that kind of film yet, so we must be content for now with the beauty and excitement of these talented performers. A time was coming, however, when the movies would begin to take their first clumsy steps towards racial equality and the recognition of the depth of racism in both America and Hollywood.

Some of the numbers on YouTube
"Stormy Weather"
"Jumpin' Jive"
"Ain't Misbehavin'"
"That Ain't Right"
"Geechie Joe"

See Also

The Blood of Jesus (1941) dir. Spencer Williams

The most well regarded “race movie,” the film was directed, produced, written by, and starred Spencer Williams, one of the great underappreciated talents who never received the mainstream opportunities he deserved.

Cabin in the Sky (1943) dir. Vincente Minnelli

The other all-black musical released in 1943, this version also stars Horne along with powerhouse singer Ethel Waters, jazz legends Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington, and actors Eddie Anderson and Rex Ingram.

Carmen Jones (1954) dir. Otto Preminger

An adaption of the famous opera, starring Dorothy Dandridge and Harry Belafonte. Dandridge was the fifties equivalent of Horne, a supremely talented performer who didn’t become the star she should have been.

St. Louis Blues (1958) dir. Allen Reisner

Musical biopic loosely based on delta blues artist W.C. Handy that stars Nat King Cole, Eartha Kitt, Cab Calloway, Ella Fitzgerald, and Ruby Dee. Like Stormy Weather, the story is thin but the music great.

Let me know what you think either here or on Twitter @bottlesofsmoke