Harlem Is Heaven

Bill Robinson dances -- including his famous dance on triangular steps -- Eubie Blake and Noble Sissle perform. That's most of a good movie there, and for the approximately half of the movie that is pure musical presentation, it's a fine movie. Unfortunately, the other half of the movie is nowhere near as good.

Anise Boyer needs a job. She gets one at the night club run by James Baskett. His money comes from policy, with various sidelines including stock swindles. He explains to Miss Boyer that he is very generous with loyal people, and he defines that as those who never say no to him. Soon enough, she wants to say no, but needs one of two men to do so: either Robinson, or Henri Wessell.

It's a good script for a Pre-Code, but as often happens in movies made with Black performers for the Black movie theaters -- the term was 'Race Films' -- the line readings are poor. Even the performers who would do well for themselves in Hollywood films (Robinson, of course, and Baskett would win an Oscar for SONG OF THE SOUTH) sound like they're reading their lines off the script. It's money and time; no time for rehearsals, no money for retakes. Even so, when Robinson is dancing, I'm forced to agree that Harlem is indeed heaven.

This is a wonderful movie. Another goodie of Black Cinema. Anise Boyer steals the movie. She is strikingly pretty. The prettiest of Black Cinema. What a natural in front of the scene, even though this was her first and only movie. Anise Boyer was a Cotton Club chorine alongside Lena Horne. Many times she was voted more prettier then Horne. She was also called the prettiest chorine of the East. In this movie Anise is petite but powerful. The story is basically like most musicals of the 1930's. A girl comes from the south to the big city Harlem looking for work, she gets to become a star but she has to pay for her stardom and she gets involved in some risky business, through it all she remains sweet and unharmed. She's a girl you won't forget. She has a dry tarty type of voice that's so cute. She's a mixture of Alice White and Jean Harlow. She is just sweet as pie and tough as nails. Anise steals the movie even from Bill Robinson. The best scene of the movie is Anise getting into a cat fight with Greta (Alma Smith- popular dancer in the 1930s) it's one of the best fight scenes in movie history. As little as Anise is she dominates the fight and she goes to town on Greta and when little, tough Jean (Anise) gets down beating up Greta, Jean (Anise) grabs her and say "are you gonna talk, huh?" in the same fashion of Humphrey Bogart and Cagney. What woman have you seen fight and talk like that? Only in Black Cinema could it happen. Though it's called Black Cinema, Blacks got to play versatile roles, play human beings from all walks of life unlike Hollywood where Blacks had to be "black" or the stereotype. The movie is fun and entertaining. You get to see how entertainment was in the greatest era of Black entertainment. You get to see Bill Robinson do his famous dances, act, and fight. You get to see handsome Henri Wessell and talented James Baskett, who isn't talked about much who also won a special Academy Award, why isn't he mention as much as Hattie McDaniels? Eubie Blake band is great as always.