The Black Network

It's the Black Network Broadcasting Co. It's an early negro talkie made for the African-American market. All the performers are black. There are various singers, musicians, and comedians. There are little things that I notice like the thimbles on the fingers of the washboard player which makes a whole lot of sense. I couldn't care less about the plot. The old slow crooning style is boring. I like the scat music style. The best is the two kids. They are adorable and remind me of the Jackson Five. I could watch the performances in the radio station for a whole full length theatrical release.

Nina Mae McKinney, I have to say is the greatest, its ashame she's been forgotten, she was before Lena Horne and Dorothy Dandridge, but because she wouldn't kiss anyone's butt or play maids or stereotype roles she didn't last long in Hollywood, she was a tough woman. She did great in Hallelujah, the best first talkie all black musical. She does wonderful in this short, I went through hell finding and collecting these black short musicals of that 30s and 40s era but their worth it. This short film is great. Nina Mae looks beautiful and sings a great low-down song with scat. I have it and its beautiful, and I watch it over and over again, its great better over and over again, the whole cast Amanda Randolph and the WashBoard Serenaders. You'll love it, Turner Classic Movies may show it, but you have to catch it, because they have no schedule for shorts.

There are some other acts in this variety show short which hangs its hook on the story that this is a broadcast on the Black Network -- a play on the fact that at the time NBC had two radio networks, the Red and the Blue; the latter became ABC.

None of which matters in the least to me, because this feature the great singer Nina Mae McKinney, and even more because it has Harold and Fayard Nicholas. The Nicholas Brothers were probbaly the greatest two-act in tapdancing. They're so good that when you watch THE PIRATE, where they perform with Gene Kelly, they steal the movie from him..... and he doesn't care. Don't waste my time with anything else.... let 'em dance!

Glamorous Harlem fashions coincide with great music and that particular Jazz Age buzz that you don't find anywhere else in this short about a 1930s radio station!

Nina Mae McKinney shines with a great vocal and acting performance, and The Nicolas Brothers astound with their amazing and precocious dancing. In fact, all the performers in this short are extremely talented, and are very under-acknowledged.

If you are want to see this short, buy the DVD of King Vidor's 'Hallelujah' (available from Amazon). 'The Black Network' is included as an extra on the 'Hallelujah' DVD, along with another short that Nina Mae McKinney appeared in, 'Pie Pie Blackbird', which is not quite as good as this one.

This is one of the DVD extras included with "Hallelujah". And, like "Hallelujah", the films feature all-black casts. Considering that these films were made by mainstream Hollywood studios (MGM and Warner Brothers), seeing such films today might surprise audiences. They also serve as nice historical records of this bygone era.

This film is set at a fictional black-run radio station and consists of various musical acts of the day. Some are amazing and great when seen today--such as the Nicholas Brothers (tap dancers on a radio show?!) and Nina Mae McKinney (who also starred in "Hallelujah") and some are not so hot (like the opening number and one that was supposed to be bad--the sponsor's wife!). My favorite was the band's scat version of "Ochi Chornya (Dark Eyes)"--it really hummed and was better than other versions I've heard--speeding it up helped and the band was amazing.

So is this great viewing? Probably not for the average viewer. But for historical reasons or if you like 1930s music, this might be right up your alley.

By the way, you might find reading McKinney's biography on IMDb. It's incredibly sad but interesting as well when you read about how this talented lady was almost totally forgotten when she died a very early death.