wrbtu
Joined Sep 2000
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wrbtu's rating
I'm a big fan of Robert Johnson's music, & have all of his recordings on CD & digitally. Although this is a good documentary for 1992, it misses the mark in two important areas:
1) where is Robert Junior Lockwood in all of this? He was Robert Johnson's "stepson" (only about 4 years younger than Johnson), & an accomplished Blues singer/guitar player, who is reportedly the only person known to have learned to play from Robert Johnson himself, as well as being a person who played with him on occasion. A major omission for any bio of Robert Johnson. 2) I'm also a fan of John Hammond Jr.'s music, & have a dozen or so of my favorite songs of his. But for this bio, I much rather would have heard complete songs (rather than snippets) of Robert Johnson's own performances, than hear what was presented (JHJ playing & singing his versions of Johnson's music). JHJ did a good job on most of the songs, but for what purpose?
This film is a bio of Robert Johnson, & his music should have been presented on the soundtrack to a much greater degree, perhaps along with photos of the areas Johnson frequented, as they appeared then (if available) & now.
1) where is Robert Junior Lockwood in all of this? He was Robert Johnson's "stepson" (only about 4 years younger than Johnson), & an accomplished Blues singer/guitar player, who is reportedly the only person known to have learned to play from Robert Johnson himself, as well as being a person who played with him on occasion. A major omission for any bio of Robert Johnson. 2) I'm also a fan of John Hammond Jr.'s music, & have a dozen or so of my favorite songs of his. But for this bio, I much rather would have heard complete songs (rather than snippets) of Robert Johnson's own performances, than hear what was presented (JHJ playing & singing his versions of Johnson's music). JHJ did a good job on most of the songs, but for what purpose?
This film is a bio of Robert Johnson, & his music should have been presented on the soundtrack to a much greater degree, perhaps along with photos of the areas Johnson frequented, as they appeared then (if available) & now.
I collect Pre-Code films & have 150+ of them. "Girl Without a Room" is not one of my favorites. It is talky, very silly, & much too "busy". The "comedy" is rarely amusing. I agree with other reviewers here about the poor quality of the "singing". On the positive side, this was Mrs. Hopalong Cassidy's (Grace Bradley, AKA Mrs. Boyd) best film performance. And then there's the dance sequence, described below.
The film is noteworthy for it's nightclub female dancer sequence, which lasts only about 5-10 seconds, & that's a shame. The dancer is the uncredited Joyzelle Joyner, & she dances without clothes! It's impossible to tell this from the film video, because she's shown for such a short period of time, & from the waist up, & more so, because of the outstanding body paint that was applied to her in a snake motif (shoulders to ankles).
I have seen three still photos of Joyzelle in character, in her painted "outfit", which show: 1) her full-body make-up being applied backstage by Makeup Artist David S. Garber, with "supervision" from a female assistant (actually, more of a "chaperone"); this photo is dated November 29 1933 (the date the photo was received by a photo service in New York City, not the date the photo was taken). 2) Joyzelle on the film set of "Girl Without a Room" at Paramount Studios in Hollywood, with the backdrop being the back wall of the nightclub scene set in the film. 3) a colorized photo of #2 above, with the backdrop edited out; this photo best shows the magnificence of the body paint; it appears on the front cover of "PIC" Magazine, May 2 1939.
Joyzelle's body make-up is possibly the most outstanding example of its kind in Hollywood history.
The film is noteworthy for it's nightclub female dancer sequence, which lasts only about 5-10 seconds, & that's a shame. The dancer is the uncredited Joyzelle Joyner, & she dances without clothes! It's impossible to tell this from the film video, because she's shown for such a short period of time, & from the waist up, & more so, because of the outstanding body paint that was applied to her in a snake motif (shoulders to ankles).
I have seen three still photos of Joyzelle in character, in her painted "outfit", which show: 1) her full-body make-up being applied backstage by Makeup Artist David S. Garber, with "supervision" from a female assistant (actually, more of a "chaperone"); this photo is dated November 29 1933 (the date the photo was received by a photo service in New York City, not the date the photo was taken). 2) Joyzelle on the film set of "Girl Without a Room" at Paramount Studios in Hollywood, with the backdrop being the back wall of the nightclub scene set in the film. 3) a colorized photo of #2 above, with the backdrop edited out; this photo best shows the magnificence of the body paint; it appears on the front cover of "PIC" Magazine, May 2 1939.
Joyzelle's body make-up is possibly the most outstanding example of its kind in Hollywood history.
