Deviled Hams

I looked for "Deviled Hams" on YouTube because I saw a documentary from "American Experience" which was about one of the first Chinese nightclubs in America ("Forbidden City USA"). In this show, I saw Dorothy Toy and Paul Wing perform...and I wanted to see more of them.

This is a strange short, as it's set in Hell and Gus Van plays the Devil himself. As his minions watch on, they see three acts...Toy & Wing, the black musical group led by Erskin Hawkins and, finally, Gus Van himself. The best of them, to me, was Toy & Wing as they were INCREDIBLE--with Wing doing splits like one of the Nicholas Brothers.

Overall, this is an excellent little short...albeit quite strange. My only complaints are NOT the film itself but the YouTube copy. Some schmuck plastered a HUGE watermark across the screen (which is odd since they did not make the film) and there are also numbers on the screen as well...making viewing not especially great.

By the way, if you wonder why Toy & Wing didn't go on to greater things in films, apparently because Toy was a Japanese-American, they had to turn down a contract in Hollywood...lest she be interned with the rest of the Japanese-Americans living on the West Coast. In New York, where they relocated, she was safe from this shameful law.

Gus Van stars in this one as the Devil and sings a medley of "Old Rockin' Chair" and "All God's Children Got Rhythm". That at the end. Earlier, he and a panel of devils are entertained by some novelty acts and a good band, all performing to some fairly hot music. The best act is Toy & Wing, a pair of acrobatic Chinese dancers.

At averages good, although some of the parts are a bit bizarre, including Mr. Van, who had been one half of a Broadway comedy pair a decade earlier and who had not aged well. He was a Brooklyn boy who uses a Kentucky Colonel accent and demeanor here.

Although this film was distributed by RKO, it was independently produced. I believe that, given the non-white talent it was intended as a film for urban markets that managed to get some wider exposure. It is certainly competently shot and edited.