Duke Ellington in a jazz musical short with a tragic plotline.Duke Ellington in a jazz musical short with a tragic plotline.Duke Ellington in a jazz musical short with a tragic plotline.
- Awards
- 1 win
Photos
Duke Ellington Orchestra
- Cotton Club Orchestra
- (as The Cotton Club Orchestra)
Barney Bigard
- Band Member - Clarinet Player
- (uncredited)
Wellman Braud
- Band Member - Bass Player
- (uncredited)
Hall Johnson
- Choir Leader
- (uncredited)
Arthur Whetsol
- Trumpet Player
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaAn advertising poster for this film is pictured on one stamp of a set of five 42¢ USA commemorative postage stamps honoring Vintage Black Cinema, issued 16 July 2008. Other films honored in this set are The Sport of the Gods (1921), Princesse Tam-Tam (1935), Caldonia (1945), and Hallelujah (1929).
- Quotes
Fredi - Duke's Girlfriend: Duke, I've got some wonderful news! I've just landed a job in a nightclub. And I'm going to dance and you're going to play. Isn't that wonderful?
- ConnectionsFeatured in Black Shadows on the Silver Screen (1975)
Featured review
Refused To Conform
Duke Ellington made his screen debut in this short subject which sad to say catered to black stereotyping and wasn't even that coherent a story line.
Which makes the appearance of those piano movers all the worse for it because it was not necessary. The film opens with Ellington and his trumpeter, Arthur Whetsol, going over some material. Two piano movers come in and they're most determined to do their repossessing thing. Fredi Washington happens on the scene and offers them a bottle of some of Prohibition's finest homemade gin. Then they leave and say they'll tell the boss nobody's home.
Interesting is that Ellington refused to stereotype even thought the piano movers, Edgar Connor and Alec Lovejoy, certainly did. Says something about the man back in the day.
The action shifts to the Cotton Club where Washington, probably feeling the ill effects of the bootleg hooch she just passed to the piano players collapses and dies during a number. Her death scene gives both Ellington and his orchestra and the Hall Johnson choir a chance to perform.
The piano movers were an obvious ripoff of radio's Amos and Andy. And in his next film project, Ellington and the Orchestra would appear in the Amos and Andy movie Check and Doublecheck.
I'd listen to the music for this one and mute it when everything else is going on.
Which makes the appearance of those piano movers all the worse for it because it was not necessary. The film opens with Ellington and his trumpeter, Arthur Whetsol, going over some material. Two piano movers come in and they're most determined to do their repossessing thing. Fredi Washington happens on the scene and offers them a bottle of some of Prohibition's finest homemade gin. Then they leave and say they'll tell the boss nobody's home.
Interesting is that Ellington refused to stereotype even thought the piano movers, Edgar Connor and Alec Lovejoy, certainly did. Says something about the man back in the day.
The action shifts to the Cotton Club where Washington, probably feeling the ill effects of the bootleg hooch she just passed to the piano players collapses and dies during a number. Her death scene gives both Ellington and his orchestra and the Hall Johnson choir a chance to perform.
The piano movers were an obvious ripoff of radio's Amos and Andy. And in his next film project, Ellington and the Orchestra would appear in the Amos and Andy movie Check and Doublecheck.
I'd listen to the music for this one and mute it when everything else is going on.
helpful•26
- bkoganbing
- Nov 23, 2008
Details
- Runtime19 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.20 : 1
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