The 1943 musical "Cabin in the Sky" has a low-budget look. The third Hollywood all-black musical is more a standard MGM musical than a black-music musical. It shares the black angels, black devils, black Heaven, Black Hell folklore of Green Pastures, and the devoted good woman and dangerous Pandora dialectic of Hallelujah. Both those earlier musicals showcased black music (gospel and jazz). Except for a brief but exhilarating riff by Louis Armstrong in the satanic think-tank office, it is an hour into "Cabin in the Sky" before the performers cut loose from standard show-tune vocalizing and get down to "hot" jazz.

The first hour has "Little Joe" Jackson (Eddie"'Rochester" Anderson) straying from his devout and devoted wife Petunia (the legendary Ethel Waters), tempted to stray by a sweet-looking and -sounding Georgia Brown (Lena Horne) and shot by Domino Johnson (John W. Sublett), a gambler who would also have been a pimp, I think, if the Production Code had allowed it.

Little Joe's life is hanging by a thread. Indeed, his soul has left the body over which Petunia is beseeching the Lord to spare. Lucifer, Jr. (Rex Ingram, star of "Green Pastures") and a heavenly general in white parade dress (Kenneth Spencer) are on hand with lieutenants. Joe's salvation or damnation is postponed for six months without his being able to remember the out-of-body experience.

The devils decide that the best way to ensure their victory (claiming Little Joe's soul and annoying the heavenly host) is to enrich him and to send Georgia Brown to deliver the good news.

The plan works well. This time Petunia writes him off—for a time. Coached by the General, however, she goes to claim half the windfall as community property. She goes to the nightclub Little Joe has bought (and hired the Duke Ellington Orchestra to play in) in a dress more gleaming even than the rainments of Georgia Brown and flirts with Domino, just out of prison, present to reclaim Georgia Brown from Little Joe, and more than eager to rile Little Joe.

The big production numbers are in the nightclub. The biggest, which Busby Berkeley reputedly helped choreograph, is Domino's announcing he is back in a big way ("Shine," which I think was a derogatory label of African Americans then...). This is followed by a more staid regularly scheduled performance from Georgia Brown, and then Petunia's song and dance (which incorporates Domino).

Then "all hell breaks loose." As in "The Wizard of Oz," there is a tornado. There is also a brawl, and Little Joe's six months end with him being shot again. The battle between Heaven and Hell is not over, but I won't reveal any more about the plot than I already have (there is a lot more!).

Although Ethel Waters was older and considerably more pious than during the Harlem Renaissance days, "Cabin in the Sky" is the best record of her as a singer and dancer we have. The performances by Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington are less unique, but still to be treasured. And Kenneth Spencer was a formidable tap-dancer. The first hour of the movie has fairly bland singing and acting by Waters and Anderson, and some stereotypical mugging, male shiftlessness (Anderson), vixening (Horne), and fervent faith (Waters). Once everyone gets to the nightclub, the tale ignites. There is a lengthy anticlimax, but the 20-25 minutes of clubbing are worth the wait and the wind-down. So three-stars for the first hour, five stars for a while, and two stars for the conclusion (and then rounding up from 3.5!).

Misc.

This was the first movie directed by Vincente Minnelli, who had directed stage revues with Waters. Although Harold Arlen wrote "Stormy Weather" for Waters, she was not in the movie "Stormy Weather." After "Cabin in the Sky" and "Stormy Weather," there was not another all-black musical until "Carmen Jones," the one Otto Preminger directed with Dorothy Dandridge and Harry Belafonte (both dubbed), followed by Preminger's adaptation of "Porgy and Bess" with Dandridge, Sidney Poitier, Diahann Carroll, (all three dubbed), Pearl Bailey, and Sammy Davis Jr. (and then what? Whichever Diana Ross vehicle you want to classify as a "musical").


Recommended:
Yes

Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older