Fans of the Fats Waller musical tribute "Ain't Misbehavin'" will adore this all-black film set in a Harlem nightclub., featuring some of the best black entertainers of the 1940's. It's all about putting on a black musical revue, with a bit of a jewel heist caper thrown in for good measure. Everyone from Moms (Jackie) Mabley, Butterfly McQueen (being very much like Gracie Allen) to Nat King Cole and wonderful imitators of the Ink Spots get to perform. Mobley is funny in a sequence where, like the Keystone Cops ballet in "High Button Shoes", thinks the audience is laughing at her while a variety of cops appear behind her, coming out of a magic booth involved in humorous hijinks. The musical highlight is a performance of "Tain't Nobody's Business If I Do" and the unforgettable voice of Nat King Cole, here not singly billed, but appearing as part of the King Cole trio. The film's print is rather poor but the sound quality is satisfactory, making this a great record of what black audiences and the many other fans of that style of entertainment were enjoying "way uptown" in the golden age of Harlem entertainment.
Review of Killer Diller
Killer Diller
(1948)
Inch-high on plot, The Jolly Green Giant on Talent!
15 September 2012
Warning: Spoilers