Boarding House Blues is a 1948 American musical race film directed by Josh Binney[1][2][3] which featured the first starring film role by Moms Mabley. It was the penultimate feature film of All-American News, a company that made newsreels for black Americans.[4][5]
| Boarding House Blues | |
|---|---|
 Original film poster | |
| Directed by | Josh Binney |
| Written by | Hal Seeger (writer) |
| Produced by | E.M. Glucksman (producer) |
| Starring | See below |
| Cinematography | Sydney Zucker |
Production company | |
Release date |
|
Running time | 90 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Premise edit
Mom (Moms Mabley) runs a boarding house for struggling entertainers,[6][7] similar to the situation decades earlier when Mabley had lived in a boarding house for black entertainers in Buffalo, New York.[8]
When the boarding house is threatened with closure and all the tenants evicted due to non-payments, everyone gets together to put on a show to raise the money needed to save Mom and their home.[9] The plot functions as a showcase[8] for performance and comedy sketches and in the end enough money is raised to fend off the landlord.[6]
Legacy edit
The film was the first starring role for Mabley and showcased her "vaudeville-circuit comedy and captured her signature stances and expressions."[10] The film was also one of the early iterations of Mabley's "Moms" persona.[11]
In 1994, the National Film Theatre in London featured the film in their "A Separate Cinema" season, which focused on the pioneers of black cinema in the United States.[12] The film was cited as an example of "subversive" low budget black cinema in the 1940s.[12]
In 2022, the American Film Institute showed the film as part of the institute's "NYC's Postwar Film Renaissance" series.[13]
Cast edit
- Moms Mabley as Moms[14]
- Dusty Fletcher as Dusty[15]
- Marcellus Wilson as Jerry
- Marie Cooke as Lila Foster
- Augustus Smith as Norman Norman
- John D. Lee Jr. as Stanley
- Emory Richardson as Simon
- Harold Cromer as Moofty
- Sidney Easton as Boo Boo
- Freddie Robinson as Freddie
- John 'Spider Bruce' Mason as Boarders (with "company")
- John Riano as Steggy (the ape)
- Lucky Millinder as himself (bandleader)[15]
- Una Mae Carlisle as herself (singer)[15]
- Bull Moose Jackson as himself (singer)[15]
- Warren Berry as One of Berry Brothers
- Nyas Berry as One of Berry Brothers
- Anistine Allen as herself (singer)
- Paul Breckenridge as himself (singer)
- James Cross as Stump of Stump and Stumpy
- Eddie Hartman as Stumpy of Stump and Stumpy
- Lee Norman as themselves
- 'Crip' Heard as himself (one-legged dancer)
- Edgar Martin as Joe
Soundtrack edit
- John Mason and Company – "Gimme"
- The Berry Brothers – "You'll Never Know" (Written by Harry Warren, lyrics by Mack Gordon)
- Una Mae Carlisle – "Throw It out of Your Mind" (Written by Louis Armstrong and Billy Kyle)
- Una Mae Carlisle – "It Ain't Like That" (Written by Hot Lips Page)
- Stump and Stumpy[15] – "We've Got Rhythm to Spare"
- Paul Breckenridge with Lucky Millinder band "We Slumber"
- Anistine Allen with Lucky Millinder band – "Let It Roll"
- Bull Moose Jackson with Lucky Millinder band – "Yes I Do"
Notes edit
- ^ African American Films Through 1959: A Comprehensive, Illustrated Filmography by Larry Richards, McFarland, 1998, page 258.
- ^ Astor Pictures: A Filmography and History of the Reissue King, 1933-1965 by Michael R. Pitts, McFarland, 2019, page 45.
- ^ "AFI|Catalog". catalog.afi.com.
- ^ "With All-American News (Sorted by Popularity Ascending)". IMDb.
- ^ pp. 3–4 Moon, Spencer Reel Black Talk: A Sourcebook of 50 American Filmmakers Greenwood Publishing Group, 1997
- ^ a b On the Real Side: A History of African American Comedy by Mel Watkins, Chicago Review Press, 1999.
- ^ "Documentary offers look at early black films". The Jackson Sun. 1990-06-08. p. 37. Retrieved 2023-06-20 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b Icons of African American Comedy by Eddie Tafoya, ABC-CLIO, 2011, page 20.
- ^ "Boarding House Blues" (archived), Black Film Archive.
- ^ Beyond Blaxploitation by Novotny Lawrence, Wayne State University Press, 2016.
- ^ Cracking Up Black Feminist Comedy in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Century United States by Katelyn Hale Wood, University of Iowa Press, 2021, page 33.
- ^ a b "Homage to films noirs: David Robinson selects highlights from an NFT season celebrating the Pioneers of black American cinema" The Times, pp. 37, issue. 64952, 1994.
- ^ "NYC's Postwar Film Renaissance," American Film Institute, accessed July 9, 2022.
- ^ Icons of African American Comedy. Abc-Clio. 2 June 2011. ISBN 9780313380853.
- ^ a b c d e "A few early black films still survive". The News Journal. 1990-06-22. p. 74. Retrieved 2023-06-20.
External links edit
- Boarding House Blues at IMDb
- Boarding House Blues is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive
