User Reviews

If there's one thing on IMDb that gets tiresome,is people who call films "dated". As if it is some sort of crime that a film was made in the era that it came from.

Yes,Stormy Weather has some racial stereotypes like putting on "black-face",saying things like "I's and "we is",and the "Dixie" number where not only is there black face,the female dancers have black-faces painted on the back of their flower hats.

We wish these things were not there at all but,being set first in the 19 teens,most or all of these things were very much a part of society. 100 years ago things were just very different and African-American's were still very much under the thumb of prejudice.

The factual past cannot be revised to make everyone happy and it shouldn't be because past mistakes are how we learn to grow away from them later.

On with the review: In the opening scene we see Bill Robinson outside his Hollywood home (an in studio facimile) telling tales to the neighborhood kids about how he got to be famous. This scene is great because it shows a successful African-American male standing on his own and being very literate. He's also setting a great example for the kids in the film and any kids who saw the film.

Lena Horne,Cab Calloway and his band,The Nicholas Brothedrs and Bill Robinson all deliver when it comes to the song and dance and Lena as Selina (as if she needed to be a separate character)is electric in her delivery of the title song and other songs as well.

Calloway and band are as fun as fun and funky (Jivin' for that era)as ever. Bill Robinson was always great to watch and never disappoints.

Speaking of storms and lightning. The super-tap dancing Nicholas Brothers are double-electric in their well crafted dance numbers. Especially when they leap over one-another in a descending stair-case style (literally!) that has to be seen to be believed! Dancing and joining in on Cab Calloway's classic,"Jumpin' Jive" (I own a copy of that song) and couples with Robinson & Horne's duet,the movie comes to an exciting climactic finish

Given the era in which this film debuted,it's a wonder it could have been made,released and even seen at all. The talent of the cast is how the movie was able to push it's way beyond the usual racial blockades of the time and how it's still a wonder to behold (nearly) 65 years later.

I'm about to watch the film again and I know like last time,it's going to be as cool as summer rain itself! (END)

This all-black movie was produced in 1943, and it marks the changing of the guard in how blacks were portrayed in Hollywood movies. The movie is a hallmark of black performers: Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, Lena Horne, Fats Waller, Cab Calloway, the Nicholas Brothers, and the lesser remembered Dooley Wilson, Katherine Dunham, Miller and Lyles, and Ada Brown.

The movie is important to me because it shows the watershed of American racism: Bojangles represents the old "Negro" view from Hollywood before World War II. Blacks were shown in genteel poverty, costumed in artful rags with prominently displayed holes in the soles of their shoes. The actors may have been costumed in rags, but they showed no signs of starvation. The black characters shuffled and smiled, danced and sang, and were respectful to their betters. Bill Robinson, in fact, sang and danced with America's favorite child, Shirley Temple, in "The Little Colonel," when he played the family retainer.

In "Stormy Weather," we start out with Bill Robinson's character leaving for home after World War I service in Europe. He works on a steamboat on the river and dances with a band of poor black entertainers, then works as a waiter in a dive featuring Fats Waller's group. (Mr. Waller died a few months after making the movie.) Mr. Robinson's character, Bill Williamson, faces all disasters with a smile and the knowledge of something better coming in the future. Eventually, Williamson gets his chance to make it big, and he does, moving to New York where he produces a musical revue.

It's here that the scene shifts from the southern, rural, genteel poverty of black America to the northern, urban, wealth of black America: Cab Calloway performs in white tie and tails, as do the Nicholas Brothers. Instead of shuffling and smiling, the new urban black is a competent adult who makes money from his talent. Messrs. Robinson, Wilson, Miller and Lyles represent the old school racist view of blacks. Lena Horne, Katherine Dunham, and Messrs. Calloway and Nicholas show us the new Hollywood racist view of blacks in the Forties and later: accomplished performers with polish and wealth. Urbane and well-mannered, these blacks still don't threaten overtly, but their obvious wealth exceeds that of most white Americans of the Forties, and their zoot suits started white riots.

All the performances in the movie are top-notch. For those too young to remember Miller and Lyles, their minstrel routine shows their classic banter of unfinished sentences and completed thoughts in blackface. If you search for Miller and Lyle on YouTube you'll get some hits on this classic bit. Later, there's also a "cakewalk" minstrel dance routine by the chorus. All of the pre- war material is cringe-worthy today, and the performances by Cab Calloway and the Nicholas Brothers stands in contrast to the race-tinged earlier material. By the Forties, the performances of black artist didn't revolve around racial stereotypes, but showed professional, competent performers every bit as good as the whites in the movie.

1943 was a good year for all-black movies. MGM produced "Cabin in the Sky," with Ethel Waters, Lena Horne, Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, Louis Armstrong, Mantan Moreland, and more. Ethel Waters is superb, and her "Taking a Chance on Love" is marvelous.

It's not that this is what I would class as a great film. It's plot seems weak, and more a showcase for performances than a real story. And, it seems a little far-fetched that the character played by Bill Robinson was coupled with the character played by Lena Horne (he was 65 at the time, she was 26; admittedly, he didn't look his age).

Nevertheless, I consider this a must-see for film lovers because it showcases a number of Black performers that many of us only know through legend. Many of us are old enough to remember Lena Horne from her appearances on programs hosted by (for example) Dean Martin and Perry Como. I have to admit that I never cared for Horne; could never put my finger on it, but there was something odd about her physical mannerisms when she sang that distracted me, and I always felt she was almost trying to pass of White...or at least not Black. But I have to admit that here, in this film, she was wonderful; I was impressed. The only memory I had of Bill Robinson before watching this film was his appearances in a couple Shirley Temple films. I don't believe that at his age here we see why he was so famous, but nevertheless, he's a pleasure to watch. I'm old enough to barely remember Cab Calloway...as an old man, so it was interesting to see him here closer to his prime. I certainly had heard of Fats Waller, but had never seen him perform, so this was a treat. I'm fairly familiar with the Nicholas Brothers through other old films. While I don't think they were the best Black dancers around, they were enjoyable to watch and do very nicely here. And, Dooley Wilson is here...nice to see him in a role other than from "Casablanca".

Again, I see this as a "must-see", and the print shown on TCM is pristine.