King for a Day

So glad this tap dance is preserved for all to see. Excellent!

Bill Green (Bill "Bojangles" Robinson) is desperate to audition for "Brown's Black Orchids" but Mr. Brown refuses to even listen to the amateur. Mr. Brown has a weakness for dice and Bill wins against him in craps.

It's a fascinating early talkie short with an all-black cast. The story is rather simple. It's not anything to write home about but it is great to see all-black performances. Honestly, most old musicals are hard to sit through with the old music but this is very watchable. Other than one song, the music generally has a good beat and a bit of sass. The tap dancing is fun and Robinson has good charisma. There is general good performing in this short. Although, one must accept that blackface is a vaudevillian hold-over. The jokes are pretty cheesy but at least, it has an edge. It's a small window into black cinema of that era.

One of the stereotypes back in the day was that black men just loved to shoot dice. Not sure if that was the case but when I watch scenes like that in old films I think to myself this is better than scenes with whites where they were supposed to be menial. Gamblers they be, but they show their real selves in these scenes.

A crap game is what this musical short with Bill Robinson aka Bojangles is what frames it. Robinson's skill and luck with the painted sugar cubes gets him Ernest Whitman's show and then we see the show.

Which brings up something else, this looks very much like a Cotton Club Show minstrel show format and all. A lot of talent, but black people couldn't see it in their own neighborhood. What is worse than that?

Still enjoy Robinson's singing and dancing and all that goes with it.

We're truly missing out on the old talent of the Harlem Renaissance; thank goodness this is so available. It has a charm you won't find today. If you like this film, I implore you to seek out on YouTube "102 y/o sees herself on film for the first time." It will encourage you to look up everything you can get your hands on!

Admittedly to me the story was somewhat disposable and took too long to get going and the Minstrel Man song and routine are a little uninspired and one of the least memorable parts of King for a Day. King for a Day is shot in beautiful black and white however, the music puts you in a good mood due to its infectiousness- particularly Smiles and Old Folks at Home-, and the choreography is witty and elegant. Some of the rehearsal stuff is amusing and the performances are solid enough, but Bill "Bojangles" Robinson and his tap dancing are what make King for a Day. Robinson has a really charming presence which makes him a likable performer and his character easy to root for, even better than when he was partnered with Shirley Temple. And his tap dancing is incredible, always precise yet with a simple elegance and with not a flat or heavy foot move. It's not "athletic" as such nor did it really need to be. Overall, a very nice short film that is worth seeing primarily for Robinson and the tap dancing because while not everything is entirely smooth sailing they work tremendously. 8/10 Bethany Cox