Predictable WB silly musical story but there is a wonderful impromptu number at the piano with two gangsters and the two male leads that comes out of nowhere,It is delightful and very much a surprise and the best thing in the movie. It wareminiscent of the two gangsters from Guys and Dolls.
It is fun to see Louis Armstrong younger and doing some numbers. Of course, these are the black cast numbers totally isolated from the rest of the movie so the southern distributers could cut all these scenes out of the film when it was distributed. Otherwise, all the black maids and butlers were standing motionless in the background of any other dialog scenes.
One disturbing thought...when stars have stuntmen like Dick Powell had for the horserides...you only saw the stuntman from a distance and when he got close, he would hide his face to the side. Louis Armstrong had a stunt person riding the scooter for him but even in a close up ride, they didn't try to hide his face in this one closeup sequence. I would hate to think that they thought the the audience wouldn't notice because "they all look alike". Weirdly disturbing.
It is fun to see Louis Armstrong younger and doing some numbers. Of course, these are the black cast numbers totally isolated from the rest of the movie so the southern distributers could cut all these scenes out of the film when it was distributed. Otherwise, all the black maids and butlers were standing motionless in the background of any other dialog scenes.
One disturbing thought...when stars have stuntmen like Dick Powell had for the horserides...you only saw the stuntman from a distance and when he got close, he would hide his face to the side. Louis Armstrong had a stunt person riding the scooter for him but even in a close up ride, they didn't try to hide his face in this one closeup sequence. I would hate to think that they thought the the audience wouldn't notice because "they all look alike". Weirdly disturbing.