Black and Tan

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.

Well, although I agree that this movie short is stereotyped and the sound is not very good(1929!), I don't agree with the low rating. To see Duke and his college friend Arthur Whetsol play Black and tan fantasy is delightful. Yes, the original with Bubber Miley on trumpet is better, but it's not on film. This short gives a good impression of the Cotton Club scene at the time this club was run by gangsters and although the entertainers were black, no black people were allowed in. This was not a gangster thing but a common American racist practice. Still, even if this clip is a racist stereotype, it's not nearly as bad as say, the average hip hop clip nowadays, which is something to worry about. Now, this movie is of enormous historical interest and features an early version of the most significant jazz orchestra of the 20th century! So please don't listen to the puritan reviews and check this out. Then try to see maybe "Cotton tail" with Ben Webster on tenor, or basically anything by Ellington. It's great music! And American culture at its best.

Duke Ellington is a struggling musician. Two men come to repossess his piano. His partner saves the day by offering the men a bottle of gin. She has a new dancing gig, but she has heart trouble.

This has the greatness of Duke Ellington playing his music. I'm not impressed with the line dancing. There's a reason why that didn't catch on. It's a step dance or line dancing except less energetic and closer. It may be skillful, but it has no energy. Fredi Washington's dance is a bit loose, but it does show her illness. That whole plot point is a bummer. I love the music. The dancing is less impressive, partly for plot reason. It's a darker story.

Simuland has pretty much said it all concerning this short. It's of no great value beyond the historical interest of seeing a very young Ellington and some members of his band. It's also interesting to note how "modern" some aspects of this are, despite the painfully dated racial stereotyping. Ellington's girl friend, for example, is obviously of the "live in" variety and the dancing costumes are fairly brief - two good indications that this is a "pre-code" film. Had this been filmed after the infamous Production Code went into effect, it would have been much more sanitized.

Anyone interested in actually seeing this will find it on (of all things) a recently issued DVD of the second-string musicals "Second Chorus" and "Mr. Impreium", tucked away behind the Special Features menu, along with another oddball short, "Boogie Woogie Dream" (1944) with a 27-year-old Lena Horne along with boogie-woogie pianists Albert Ammons and Pete Johnson and bandleader Teddy Wilson.

Practically plotless excuse to feature the music of Ellington, accompanied by Harlem dancers. Only for the most died-in-the-wool Ellington fans. Essentially a very primitive early music video of mainly historical interest. Ellington's recordings from that era abound, so that the film's main value lies in its serving as a visual document.

The sound is abysmal, the plot corny, and the dancing nothing to dance about. Many of the images are so murky and dim as to be unintelligible. The entire film consists essentially of 3 tableau set pieces, ornamented with some rough camera tricks, too arty by far. The central plot, the dancer's death, is unconvincing and shrilly melodramatic.

Of note is the derogatory racial stereotyping of the two characters who begin the film by showing up to repossess the Duke's piano. They are ridiculed for their illiteracy and for how easily they are dissuaded from their duties with a bribe of a bottle of hooch.