CABIN IN THE SKY (1943)

It was difficult to sell all-black films during Hollywood’s golden age. Many theaters in the South and even the North refused to show them. When Arthur Freed set out to produce this musical fable based on the 1940 Broadway production, it was only the fourth all-black film distributed by a major studio. He filled the cast with well-known names like Ethel Waters, Eddie “Rochester” Anderson, Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington. That allowed him to give Vincente Minnelli his first big-screen directing job and cast MGM rising star Lena Horne in a major role. Anderson plays a gambler resurrected from the dead so God and the Devil can battle to win his soul. As his wife, Waters does the Lord’s work, trying to reform him, while the Devil sends Horne to steal him away. With great songs like “Happiness Is a Thing Called Joe” and “Taking a Chance on Love,” the film delighted audiences and turned a profit for the studio.

d. Vincente Minnelli, 99m, 35mm

Print courtesy the BFI National Archive with a special thanks to Warner Brothers.