Big Timers

Continuing my reviews of people of color in films in chronological order for Black History Month, we're now at 1945 when the All-American News company made this musical short for the segregated audiences of the time. There is something of a plot in which Betty Washburn (Francine Everett) finds out her fiancé Tom Powers (Duke Williams) is coming to the hotel to meet his parents and ask her to marry him. Trouble is, Betty didn't tell him she's poor as opposed to rich since he's loaded. So her domestic mother Cora (Lou Swarz) takes some clothes of her employer Mabel Page (Gertrude Saunders)-who's out of town-and passes herself as her. Then Ms. Page arrives...One cast member I haven't mentioned yet is Stepin Fetchit who's top-billed here and plays Porter. His usual slow-witted antics aren't very funny here but the director involves him in some visual slapstick that livens some of the proceedings. He's also one of the acts when he rambles some lines while music by The All-American Girl Band plays and a short person bothers him. Again, not funny. More entertaining-besides the band I mentioned-are Ms. Washburn's and Ms. Saunders' warbling, a tap dancer who jumps on the piano, and an animal-costumed dancer named Tarzana. So on that note, Big Timers is worth a look.

This is a dreadful film by any standard. This isn't surprising considering it stars Stepin Fetchit and is made by the tiniest of studios, American. Plus, in the 1930s and 40s, black Americans were often given third-rate black-produced films--films that had negligible budgets and were shown in segregated theaters. In other words, black people got (for the most part) lousy films while the white audiences had the first-rate films! While I wouldn't consider him the star of the film, Stepin Fetchit gets top billing--mostly because he'd already had a long career playing horribly stereotypically stupid caricatures of black men. Frankly, seeing this is often embarrassing and makes your skin crawl. And, in even though I balk at the craze for political correctness today, this is one case where I can agree--Fetchit's routine was demeaning.

The plot of the film involves a young lady wanting to impress her fiancé and his family by pretending to be rich instead of the daughter of a cleaning lady. When her mother finds out, she agrees to keep her secret and use one of her customer's fancy apartments when she is out of town. Now THAT'S teaching our youth a good lesson! This plot, however, really isn't all that important. This is because in the middle of the film it all turns into a musical variety show in the middle of this apartment! Yes, an entire band, singers and tap dancers all perform here--making for a very strange and surreal experience. Not only is does this make little sense, but the performers just aren't very good--and there WERE many talented black performers--just not in this lousy short film. Dumb, dull and daffy--this one represents the three Ds of bad film making!!

Big Timers (1945)

** (out of 4)

Here's another example of a race movie that sadly didn't have much financing and the end result is obviously cheap. The film has a basic plot dealing with a woman who met a rich guy when she was singing. The guy wants to marry her but he doesn't realize that she's actually poor.

At just thirty-six minutes there's certainly nothing ground-breaking here. If you're a fan of these race movies then you'll want to check it out but most people will probably be hitting the stop button long before the short running time is over. As you'd expect, the low- budget means that the entire film has a rather cheap look to it and it was obviously filmed in a rush but this doesn't hurt it too badly.

What really kills the film is the fact that there's just not too much going on. Stepin Fetchit gets top-billing but he actually doesn't have too much to do. In fact, I'd argue that this is probably the least entertaining that I've seen him in any movie. The supporting players mostly consist of people who were making their first and only film appearance.

The majority of the running time is devoted to these new folks who do several dance and musical numbers. The film really does play out more like a variety show and not an actual film. What the point of the silly plot line is anyone's guess but some might be curious in watching these since there's simply no other place to see some of these unknown acts.

This movie is a short one but it tries to fill in as much as it can and fast. Francine Everett is the only reason to see this movie, she's one of the most beautiful woman in movies ever and her beauty could rival any white actress. Francine plays a poor girl who's dating a wealthy, high society lieutenant and he think's she's high class because of her lovely trained voice. He sends a letter to her to let her know he's coming to meet her family. She's afraid for him to visit to find out she comes from a poor family and not marry her. Her mother who is a chambermaid helps her daughter by sneaking a hotel room and pretending she's a rich lady so her daughter won't be embrassed, their caught but everything works out in their favor. Francine always delivers the good even if others in the cast don't. Many said Francine was Hollywood material. She was offered a contract from Fox but her husband at the time actor Rex Ingram discouraged the idea. She refused many offers from Hollywood to play stereotypical type roles but she did appear in a few Hollywood productions but had she not turned down the contract from Fox there's no telling what she could have become. Francine didn't hit it big in Hollywood but she became a movie star to black America through black cinema. She got to do more in these types of movies than Lena Horne and Dorothy Dandridge ever did in Hollywood but because she didn't had cross over success she's overlooked. Lou Swarz is quite funny, she's like an Alice Brady. Duke Williams is the ideal movie matinée idol for girls, he's very handsome and not bad as an actor. Stepin Fetchit performance is one many blacks would look down on but look at him as a comedienne because that's what he is. The girl band in the movie has a great sound, remember this is the era of girl bands.

Look beyond the obvious flaws and there is a lot of love in this movie. With the era's limited opportunities for black actors, the women do the best they can with the material and manage to avoid stereotypical accents and behaviors