| Cabin in the Sky |
 |
| Directed by |
Vincente Minnelli
Busby Berkeley ("Shine" sequence) (uncredited) |
| Produced by |
Arthur Freed
Albert Lewis |
| Written by |
Marc Connelly (uncredited)
Lynn Root (play)
Joseph Schrank |
| Starring |
Ethel Waters,
Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson,
Lena Horne,
Louis Armstrong,
Rex Ingram,
John W. Bubbles,
Oscar Polk,
Mantan Moreland,
Butterfly McQueen,
Ruby Dandridge,
Kenneth Spencer,
and Duke Ellington
|
| Music by |
Harold Arlen
Vernon Duke |
| Distributed by |
MGM |
| Release date(s) |
April 9, 1943 |
| Running time |
98 min |
| Language |
English |
| Budget |
US$662,141 |
| IMDb profile |
Cabin in the Sky is an American Broadway musical which opened in 1940. A motion picture based on the musical was produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and released in 1943.
The film version of Cabin in the Sky starred Ethel Waters as Petunia and
Eddie "Rochester" Anderson of Jack Benny
fame as Little Joe. Lena Horne co-starred as the temptress Georgia Brown in her first and
only leading role in an MGM musical. Other cast members included Louis Armstrong as one
of Lucifer Junior's minions, Rex Ingram
as Lucifer Junior, and Duke Ellington and his Orchestra, who have a showcase musical
number.
Overview and history
Cabin in the Sky tells a version of the Faust legend in which
Little Joe, a man killed over gambling debts, is given six months to redeem his soul and become worthy of entering
Heaven -- otherwise his soul will be condemned to Hell.
Produced by Arthur Freed and directed by Vincente
Minnelli in one of his first Hollywood productions, Cabin
in the Sky was a groundbreaking production for its time due to the decision to use an all-African-American cast. In the 1940s, movie theaters in many cities, particularly in the southern
United States, refused to show films with prominent black performers, so MGM took a
considerable financial risk by approving the film.
The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original
Song for "Happiness is a Thing Called Joe."
Cabin in the Sky is remembered for its intelligent and witty script, which treated its characters and their race with a
dignity rare in American films of the time, although some depictions are still a bit jarring to 21st century sensibilities.
According to liner notes in the CD reissue of the film's soundtrack, Freed and Minnelli sought input from black leaders before
production began on the film.
One musical number, in which Horne sings a reprise of "Ain't It the Truth" while taking a bubble
bath, was cut from the film prior to release, though it later appeared in a 1946 Pete Smith short subject entitled Studio Visit. As Horne later said in the documentary
That's Entertainment! III in which the excised performance was also
featured, it was felt that to show a black woman singing in a bath went beyond the bounds of moral decency in 1943. A second
(non-bubble bath) performance of this song by Louis Armstrong was also cut from the final print, resulting in the famous
trumpeter having no solo musical number in the film.
After years of unavalibility, Warner Home Video and Turner Entertainment, the current copyright owners of the film, released it on DVD on
January 10, 2006.
Trivia
External links
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