Director:
A. Edward Sutherland Year: 1943
Rating: 5.0
Please don't send the PC police to my door.
I had no idea what this film was going to be about other than it starred
Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour without Bob Hope getting in the middle of
them for a change. It turned out to have more blackface than a party at a
Virginia frat house. Imagine Der Bingle in blackface and an afro wig. Not
a pretty sight. In 1943 of course this didn't raise an eyebrow among the
white movie goers, but it is a different story now and I can't imagine it
gets a lot of play on TV. Now you can look at this film through another lens
if you wish - a historical one because it is in fact based on a real person.
Dan Emmett. Not that the film even comes close to being historically accurate
except for the high level basics - Emmett was the first person to form an
entirely blackface minstrel show in 1843 and he wrote one of the more famous
songs ever - but again not one that is politically correct any more in parts
of the country - but loved in other parts - Dixie.
Emmett was a northerner and his minstrel
group played primarily in the north where it was very popular - as opposed
to the film where it all takes place in New Orleans. Minstrel shows had began
decades before but initially only had a performer or two in black face who
were the butt of jokes or caricature. One of the most famous characters was
named Jim Crow from where that term originated. A typical show consisted
of jokes, skits and songs. After Emmett, all the minstrel shows went blackface
basically hijacking another culture - Frederic Douglass called them the "scum
of the earth". The great song writer Stephen Foster wrote for the Christy
Minstrel Show. For a few decades it was the main form of entertainment in
America. At some point even black performers began performing in blackface
which just seems really strange but that was how they could get work.
In the film the reason for Emmett to go
blackface is rather a glib effort to make it sound innocent - he and his
partner get in a fight and have blackeyes - and to cover it up they put on
blackface - after Lamour suggests that they should look like "darkies" to
cover it up - my love for Lamour dropped a few points on that. The audience
eats it up - knowing they are of course not really black - that they keep
it. A romance is thrown in too with Bing and Lamour and also with Bing and
Marjorie Reynolds and it actually has a nice corny sentiment around it. None
of that is true of course. The film ends with a rousing version of Dixie
with the entire audience joining in. It is a great song. Emmett wrote it
in 1859 and was horrified when the south used it during the Civil War as
their anthem. A couple other of his better known songs - he is in the Songwriters
Hall of Fame - are Turkey in the Straw, Old Dan Tucker and The Blue Tail
Fly better known as Jimmie Crack Corn which I recall singing when I was a
child.
Bing sings those but mainly sings a number
of songs written by Johnny Burke and Jimmy Van Heusen - as well as a lovely
version of Swing Low, Sweet Chariot. Sunday, Monday or Always was a hit for
Crosby. Unfortunately, Lamour who got her start as a singer doesn't get to
sing a note. And the strange thing is that Lamour who was a native of New
Orleans has what sounds like the worst southern accent on the set. The music
and shows sound very old fashioned which of course makes sense but also a
bit dull, a couple of the jokes land but it is hard getting over the blackface
even though you know that is how it was back then.
