Hi De Ho/The Duke is Tops

Starring:Cab Calloway and His Cotton Club Orchestra, Cab Calloway, Ralph Cooper, Lena Horne, Laurence Criner, Monte Hawley, Willie Covan, Neva Peoples, Vernon McCalla, Edward Thompson, Johnny Taylor (II), Ray Martin (II), Guernsey Morrow, Charles Hawkins, Basin Street Boys, Rubberneck Holmes, Cats and the Fiddle, Marie Bryant, Swing Band Harlemania Orchestra, Everett Brown
Director: Roy Mack, William L. Nolte
Studio: Whirlwind Media
Product Type: DVD

Harlem Double Feature: Hi De Ho (1947) / Duke Is Tops (1938)

Average customer rating:

Harlem Double Feature: Hi De Ho (1947) / Duke Is Tops (1938)
Starring: Harlem Double Feature
Manufacturer: Alpha Home Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Harlem Double Feature: Girl in Room 20 (1942) / God's Step Children (1938)
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Harlem Double Feature: Go Down Death! (1944) / Sunday Sinners (1940)
Harlem Double Feature: Paradise in Harlem (1940) / Burlesque in Harlem (1949)
Harlem Double Feature: Junction 88 (1947) / The Black King (1932)

ASIN: B000JU8HBU
Release Date: 2006-12-26

Product Description

The great Cab Calloway becomes involved with gangsters in this all black cast classic / A young man will do anything to see his beautiful and talented sweetheart succeed on Broadway.

Average customer rating:

Good only for the music and historical purposes
Interesting slice of 1930's black cinema...

Hi De Ho/The Duke is Tops
Starring: Cab Calloway and His Cotton Club Orchestra , Cab Calloway , Ralph Cooper , Lena Horne , and Laurence Criner
Director: Roy Mack , and William L. Nolte
Manufacturer: Whirlwind Media
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Music Video & Concerts | Genres | DVD | Video

DVDs Under $14.99 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

( H ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

Stormy Weather
Cabin in the Sky
Carmen Jones
Treasures of Black Cinema, Vol. 1
Hollywood Rhythm Vol. 01 - The Best of Jazz & Blues

ASIN: B00004Z4WP
Release Date: 2000-11-14

Customer Reviews:

Good only for the music and historical purposes.......2005-04-11

Both of these are considered "classic Black films" of the 1930s and 40s, popular in Black theaters and often shown on BET in the early days before it became "Booty Entertainment Television."

But I digress. "Hi De Ho" is a vehicle for Cab Calloway. Some really great music and comedy, including the legendary Dusty Fletcher in his classic "Open the Door Richard" routine that was as popular among Blacks as "Who's On First" was to whites. Cab also does an excellent "St. James Infirmary" and the scenes of him jamming with his band in his apartment are fun to watch. But the scenes were Cab slaps around Jeni Le Gon (Andy 's girlfriend on the Amos and Andy Show) and barks orders at her are major turn-offs to the modern viewer.

"The Duke Is Tops" has even less to recommend it. Ralph Cooper (best remembered as the MC at the Apollo Theater) plays Duke, the love interest of a young Lena Horne. Mighty humdrum stuff, except for the pioneering rap and doo-wop group the Cats and the Fiddle cavorting and clowing on their jazz/r&b classic "Killing Jive" (listen carefully to the lyrics, it's a coded tune about marijuana smoking). This one scene is usually considered by those who have seen it to be the highlight of the picture.

But music aside, these films are mainly for historic interest as a look at pre-Superfly and Spike Lee African-American cinema.

Interesting slice of 1930's black cinema..........2001-06-04

Both of the movies on this DVD appear to be classic black cinema. That is, films made for black audiences of the '30s.

The fist film, "Hi De Ho", Cab Calloway plays himself in a very poor vehicle about the rise to fame of a bandleader. Grade Z acting is the order of the day in this one, but the real reason to watch is Cab's music. There's also a great tap dance routine in the finale. Although he plays "himself", Cab gets involved in a gunfight and even smacks his girl around! Certainly an odd proceeding for the bandleader.

"The Duke is Tops" is much better, and better produced. Lena Horne makes her film debut in this story about a show producer who feels he is standing in Lena's way. He loves Lena so much he steps aside so she can have her shot at stardom while he fades into obscurity, eventually working with a travelling medicine show. This film is the more enjoyable of the two.

Included with the two movies is a color cartoon from the forgotten Van Beuren Studios, featuring "Mr. Bang", a perpetually angry and argumentative character, and a foreign woman named Katrinka with superhuman strength. Van Beuren Studios went belly up in 1936, having failed to create any lasting characters of note. A strange, but somewhat useful inclusion on this disc for the film student.

There's also a newsreel with footage of Hitler, the Hindenburg disaster, and Joe Louis preparing for a fight.

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