Bill Collins Movie Collection - Cabin In The Sky (VHS)

About

CABIN IN THE SKY opened on Broadway in October, 1940. This was a landmark in the history of American musical theatre. Along with Pal Joey and a handful of others, this musical comedy drama helped to liberate the form from the tradition of singing and dancing linked together with a frail, sentimental story. Little Joe Jackson is infatuated with an alluring hussy, Georgia Brown. In a bar-room brawl, Little Joe is mortally wounded. Thereupon the fantasy begins.

Joe becomes a spiritual battle ground for The General and Lucifer Jr., the latter helped by the earthy temptations of Georgia Brown. Petunia, Joe's wife, devoted and naturally a good woman, fights for him, trying to win the man from death and his soul for The General and Lucifer Jr.

The two most exciting things about the film, apart from being Minnelli's first feature, are the women. Ethel Waters repeats her stage role as Petunia, Lena Horne in her first dramatic role plays Georgia Brown.

Also in it are Louis Armstrong and a large number of black character players.

Duke Ellington's "Going Up," performed by him and his orchestra, is a standout. The Hall Johnson Choir provides choral accompaniment in some sequence. "The Honey in the Coneycomb" sequence still remains one of the most thrilling sequences in the history of the musical, a double triumph for Miss Waters and her imaginative director.

-- Bill Collins

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Archive

Internet Archive, in The VHS Vault

Licence or status

The Internet Archive states none for this item.

Credit

CEL Video

Subtitles

Automatic subtitles

Who can watch

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