Stormy Weather (film)
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Stormy Weather is the title of an American musical motion picture produced and released by 20th Century Fox in 1943.
The film is one of two major Hollywood musicals produced in 1943 with primarily African-American casts, the other being MGM's Cabin in the Sky, and is considered a time capsule showcasing some of the top African-American performers of the time, during an era when black actors and singers rarely appeared in lead roles in mainstream Hollywood productions, particularly of the musical genre.
Stormy Weather, which takes its title from the 1933 song of the same title (which is performed near the end of the film), is loosely based upon the life and times of its star, dancer Bill "Bojangles" Robinson. Robinson plays "Bill Williamson", a natural born dancer who returns home in 1918 after fighting in World War I and tries to launch a career as a performer, along the way wooing a beautiful singer named Selina Rogers, played by Lena Horne in one of her few non-MGM film appearances (and one of only two films from the 1930s-40s in which Horne played a substantial role). The character of Selina was invented for the film; Robinson did not have such a romance in real life. Co-starring is Dooley Wilson as Bill's perpetually broke friend.
Other notable performers in the movie were Cab Calloway and Fats Waller (both appearing as themselves), the Nicholas Brothers dancing duo, singer Ada Brown, and Katherine Dunham with her troupe of dancers . With a running time of only 77 minutes, the film features some 20 musical numbers. This was Robinson's final film (he died in 1949), and Waller himself died only a few months after its release.
Musical highlights include Waller performing his composition Ain't Misbehavin', Cab Calloway leading his band in a performance of his composition Jumpin' Jive, and a lengthy sequence built around the title song, featuring the vocals of Lena Horne and the dancing of Katherine Dunham. Horne also performs in several dance numbers with Robinson, making this possibly the only film in which she danced as well as sang.
The movie was adapted by Frederick J. Jackson, Ted Koehler and H.S. Kraft from the story by Jerry Horwin and Seymour B. Robinson. It was directed by Andrew L. Stone.
In 2001, Stormy Weather was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". It was released to DVD in North America in 2005. The soundtrack has not been released on CD. However, Sunbeam Records released the soundtrack on vinyl in 1976. This record included Lena Horne singing Good For Nothin' Joe, a song that did not appear in the movie.
