Film Review: BLACK GIRL (1972)

"Why the Hell isn't THIS on DVD yet?" - Number 76






BLACK GIRL (1972 Cinerama) Starring Brock Peters, Leslie Uggams, Claudia McNeil, Ruby Dee, Rhetta Greene, Louise Stubbs, Peggy Pettit, Gloria Edwards, Kent Martin.  Directed by Ossie Davis.

Pettit, Greene and Edwards are sisters (Pettit the youngest) living under mother Stubbs' roof.  The cramped arrangement also includes grandmother McNeil, her boyfriend Martin and the children of Pettit's two older sisters, both unwed mothers.  Their rental house is about to become more crowded, as Greene is pregnant again.  School janitor Stubbs is disappointed in her own daughters but puts her former foster child Uggams ("my only one to go to college") on a pedestal.

Greene and Edwards have long harbored a deep resentment towards Uggams and both team up to manipulate and bully half-sister Pettit, who dreams of a dancing career and has secretly dropped out of high school to start on it at "The Groovy Bar and Grill".  This puts Stubbs is in danger of finishing 0 for 3 on the college dream for her biological children.  Meanwhile already raw feelings are about to get rawer, as Stubbs' outwardly successful ex Peters arrives bearing gifts and Uggams plans a Mother's Day homecoming as well.

Few remember it today, but in between his cerebral actioneers COTTON COMES TO HARLEM and GORDON'S WAR, Ossie Davis helmed this female-dominated sleeper, the only film adaptation to date by talented playwright J. E. Franklin.  As Franklin's titular GIRL, Pettit isn't presented as a prodigy with an extraordinary gift, just a teenager with a dream who shows enough aptitude and desire to deserve an opportunity to pursue it.

But vulnerable Pettit finds derision and discouragement at almost every turn.  Stubbs dotes on Uggams and subconsciously takes her grudge against Pettit's father out on her youngest daughter.  Greene and the especially bitter Edwards tear down everyone around them, especially Pettit, feeling that any success from her would accentuate their respective shortcomings.  Favored ex Peters is equally unsupportive of Stubbs' only child that isn't "his", offering inflammatory asides about the "only possible outcome" of a dancing career (nudie bars).  While Pettit seems closest to Uggams, she's almost as jealous as her half-sisters of the foster child's effortless dominance of Stubbs' affections.

As was the case with his action entries, Davis got excellent performances from his cast, which included three holdovers from the original 1971 stage production (Greene, Edwards, Stubbs).  While there are some very familiar names in BLACK GIRL, it's the less famous actors who really get a chance to shine; Tony Award winner Uggams has less screentime than the three sisters and both Peters and Dee basically have glorified cameos.  In fact, Dee has no lines in a nevertheless crucial role as Uggams' birth mother who is suffering from mental illness.

Franklin's study on the difficulty of breaking a vicious cycle and the handing down of dysfunction from generation to generation was not a financial success in the early Seventies.  Action films dominated the box office (SHAFT, SUPERFLY); those seeking African-American family drama overlooked the contemporary BLACK GIRL the first time around in favor of films set in an earlier era (a la SOUNDER and THE LEARNING TREE).  Seen today, it might betray its stage origins and vintage on occasion, but Davis' understated approach meshes well with Franklin's frank dialogue and realistic resolution.  Those who find Tyler Perry's approach to similar themes too melodramatic may find a lot to like here.

So....why isn't this on DVD yet?

No earthly idea why here, if anything I think it was ahead of its time--save for the soundtrack and especially Peters' threads.   Franklin (whose other plays include THE PRODIGAL SISTER and CHRISTCHILD) expressed frustration with the Hollywood version of her best-known play, and has yet to write for the big screen again.  Since it was never released on VHS either, it may be a dispute over music rights, a common holdup.

Why it should be on DVD:

A wonderful opportunity to see a filmed version of Franklin's best-known work, and some truly unsung (at least in cinema circles) talents in front of the camera as well.  Pettit has been a stage stalwart for four decades, but BLACK GIRL remains her only film. With the difficult task of keeping the most vicious character from caricature, Edwards is at her very best.  She only appeared in 8 films (including WHICH WAY IS UP? and SISTER, SISTER) before her untimely death in 1988.  Stubbs (THE LANDLORD) also had a distinguished theatre career but appeared in only three other feature films, and Greene's sole big screen appearance after BLACK GIRL was a small part in LEADBELLY.

Film Review: ST. LOUIS BLUES (1958)

"Why the Hell isn't This on DVD Yet?" -- Number 17

ST. LOUIS BLUES (1958 Paramount) Starring Nat “King” Cole, Eartha Kitt, Mahalia Jackson, Cab Calloway, Pearl Bailey, Ruby Dee, Juano Hernandez, Billy Preston and Ella Fitzgerald. Directed by Allen Reisner.

In what would be his only lead in a feature, legendary crooner Nat “King” Cole plays legendary songwriter W.C. "Will" Handy.  When we first meet Handy, he's in his childhood (played by then 11-year old Billy Preston in these scenes) and he is being admonished by his stern minister father (Juano Hernandez) for being late to church and for buying a cornet. Reverend Handy drills it into Will’s head that “there are only two kinds of music, the devil’s and the Lord’s!” and destroys the instrument. But Will’s love for the blues doesn’t go away easily, and after the adult Handy returns from his studies he confesses to his fiancée Elizabeth (Ruby Dee) that he’s also been performing in minstrel shows. Will’s songwriting talent brings him to the attention of sexy nightclub singer Gogo Germaine (Eartha Kitt), and soon Handy is writing songs and performing with Gogo in a local club, The Big Rooster. Handy’s night life is a complete secret to his father—until church choir member Mahalia Jackson spots him there while cleaning up one night.

ST. LOUIS BLUES boasts perhaps the largest cast of music legends ever assembled for one dramatic film, and we aren’t talking cameo roles here (as in, say, THE BLUES BROTHERS). While Cole is a bit wooden at times, this fits the film’s presentation of Handy as a reserved man who grew up under a dominating and strict father. Pearl Bailey sings a few lines of the title song (sadly, she doesn't finish it) and has a plum role as Handy’s verbose and understanding Aunt Hagar. Cab Calloway surprisingly doesn't have a song, but he is solid as always dramatically as the shady owner of the Rooster.

However, the real standout here is Eartha Kitt, in probably her best screen performance with the best-written role in this uneven script. Kitt’s Gogo Germaine is an assertive diva who dresses provocatively, but avoids all the bad girl stereotypes we expect. She doesn’t try to steal Cole away from "good girl" Dee, as she’s interested in him professionally, not sexually. She also rebuffs Calloway’s advances: firmly focused on her career yet using only her musical talent to get ahead. Refreshingly, for all her ambition she doesn’t step on people to reach the top, always giving Handy full credit for his songwritng.  Kitt was never sexier, and while she had a tendency to overact in some of her later roles, she hits just the right note here from start to finish. She’s also given the script's most memorable lines when confronting Reverend Handy on his prejudice in a wonderfully delivered speech.

It’s a good thing Kitt and Bailey are here to spice things up, because the overall tone is too restrained for a film about "the Father of the Blues"--the "one pure art form to originate in America". The late Allen Reisner was almost exclusively a director of episodic television. ST. LOUIS BLUES was his second and last film (his other feature, ALL MINE TO GIVE, was also too melodramatic at times). He directs the musical sequences very well but the pacing lags here—he was perfect for hour-long television dramas.

Also, typical of film bios of the time, (melo-) dramatic license is taken, and the embellishments haven't aged well.  For example: while it is true that Handy suffered his first onset of blindness as a young man (he was 30; he later regained his sight, then lost it for good after a subway fall in his old age), his ailment comes across as hokey and contrived as presented here. It is even implied that the blindness is retribution for his "sinful" nightclub exploits, and that he is healed by the gospel. You also won't find any mention of the real W. C. Handy's fight against racial prejudice--the Paramount suits of 1958 probably weren't ready for this to be an element in the script. Instead the film Handy struggles against the prejudices of his father as a substitute, a longtime staple of music bios (i.e. THE BUDDY HOLLY STORY).

So----why isn’t this on DVD?

It is a low-budget black and white film from 1958 and the sum is not quite the equal of its parts. Strictly average direction and the overly melodramatic elements of the screenplay have not aged well. This tendency towards melodramatic license afflicted other screen biographies of the period, too, such as MAN OF A THOUSAND FACES and THE SEVEN LITTLE FOYS.

Why it should be on DVD:

ST. LOUIS BLUES isn’t that well known, but it should be. This is a once in a lifetime cast. You have Cole, Kitt, Bailey, Ella Fitzgerald (an anachronistic but still welcome cameo) and Mahalia Jackson, all with at least one song (multiple songs for Kitt and Cole) and performances by other legendary jazz musicians such as Teddy Buckner, clarinetist Barney Bigard, and as mentioned earlier, young Billy Preston on the organ.

Future Catwoman Eartha Kitt's best screen performance IMO; this a must see film for sure if you're a fan of hers.  Orson Welles once called her "the most exciting woman in the world"; seeing this film, I understand why.

Eartha Kitt and Ruby Dee are both still with us in their eighties, and a commentary would be fascinating to hear. How great it would be to have a DVD release with not only that, but perhaps a more fact-based featurette on W. C. Handy's life and a "making of" featurette too. Me, greedy? Nah......

Incredibly, ST. LOUIS BLUES was never even released on VHS! A DVD release is long overdue; especially with the film’s 50th Anniversary less than a year away.