Spiritual (I guess) tale of a man named "Little Joe" (Eddie "Rochester" Anderson) who is saved from the Devil by the prayers of his wife. But the Devil's son (Rex Ingram) has 60 days or something to get him back.
Sorry about the confusing synopsis...but I had trouble staying awake through this. I was VERY bored and it's beyond me why this is considered a great musical. For starters, the story is just silly and the script is pretty bad. Also the acting is bad. Ethel Waters OVERacts all over the place; Anderson's idea of acting is bugging out his eyes (I got tired of it after the 20th time); Lena Horne is given nothing to do and most of the other actors either underact or overact. Only Rex Ingram and Kenneth Spencer give out decent performances.
As for the songs--I didn't enjoy one of them. Not one. And what's all this about Waters' being such a great singer? Her voice was OK--that's all...and Anderson's singing was downright painful. Only Horne really put a little life into her numbers. And the "dancing"--it was good in the pool hall sequence, but there's a tap dance bit in Little Joe and Petunia's kitchen that was SO bad and clumsy that I couldn't believe it stayed in the film. And it is VERY racist. Some people can ignore it but I couldn't. Actually, after 70 minutes, I turned it off. I was bored and sick and tired of the overacting and lousy script.
I give this a 4 because of Horne and Minnelli's direction. Aside from that I hated this film.
Sorry about the confusing synopsis...but I had trouble staying awake through this. I was VERY bored and it's beyond me why this is considered a great musical. For starters, the story is just silly and the script is pretty bad. Also the acting is bad. Ethel Waters OVERacts all over the place; Anderson's idea of acting is bugging out his eyes (I got tired of it after the 20th time); Lena Horne is given nothing to do and most of the other actors either underact or overact. Only Rex Ingram and Kenneth Spencer give out decent performances.
As for the songs--I didn't enjoy one of them. Not one. And what's all this about Waters' being such a great singer? Her voice was OK--that's all...and Anderson's singing was downright painful. Only Horne really put a little life into her numbers. And the "dancing"--it was good in the pool hall sequence, but there's a tap dance bit in Little Joe and Petunia's kitchen that was SO bad and clumsy that I couldn't believe it stayed in the film. And it is VERY racist. Some people can ignore it but I couldn't. Actually, after 70 minutes, I turned it off. I was bored and sick and tired of the overacting and lousy script.
I give this a 4 because of Horne and Minnelli's direction. Aside from that I hated this film.