CABIN IN THE SKY (1943) *** Vincente Minnelli didn't assemble just a little musical talent for this all-black cast morality play. Louis Armstrong on horn in the Hades Ideas Department, Lena Horne as Sweet Georgia Brown (singin' an oh-so-sweet siren song); the bad guys are loaded! Naturally things come to a head when Duke Ellington hits the local go-go, but the best music of all is the semi-orchestrated fury of the gospel church. The only problem is that most of Ethel Waters stuff (i.e. over half the soundtrack) sounds at least partly written by white guys. Ethel's got a lot of soul though, and you genuinely want her to keep the backslidin' Eddie Anderson away from Louis and those laughin' guys down there. They arrange for him to get a lot of cash when they need him bad.
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