SpunkySelfTwitter It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

Maidexpl Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

ActuallyGlimmer The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Deanna There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

palmiro Once upon a time the colored folks were all smiles and jolly. Well, not really but what the hell, even if a caricature it was a reflection of a part, if only a part, of their reality. (Most objectionable to me was the religiosity bordering on crude superstition--but there too you gotta go with the fantasy side of this thing.) We laughed a lot and really got a kick out of the songs and singing (especially the great renditions given by Ethel Waters-- who even did a jitterbug number), as well as the over-the- top acting by "Rochester" and Rex Ingram.Offensive to Black folks today? Sure, if they are totally invested in "presentism" (condemning people of the past with the standards of behavior we hold today). What would they want? To see more Black characters with a Ph.D. in hand? The manner of speech and social conditions in the movie depicted the life of the bulk of the Black masses at the time. What's missing, of course, is the presence of Whites and signs of the oppressive power exercised by Whites over them--not a single White person to be seen anywhere. This is, after all, a comedic fantasy--a Black fantasy that perhaps expressed a not-so-repressed vision of paradise for Blacks, in which they would be free of White folks and be able to sort out their lives by themselves and for themselves.

Doug Deuchler "Cabin in the Sky" is always a delight to watch. The loving performances are still so fresh. And as Minnelli's debut "project" it's fascinating to notice how he cut corners yet achieved a respectable though low budget MGM musical. (Minnelli even recycled the twister footage from "Wizard of Oz," complete with corn cribs and Kansas prairie in the background, during the film's climactic nightclub episode.) By 1943, most MGM musicals were in Technicolor, not black and white. It's obvious the film script and lyrics were upgraded and rewritten from their Broadway roots so there were less stereotypic images and songs (the original lyrics to the title song include the "darkie dream" of "eating fried chicken every day.") The "cabin" is not a hovel but rather charming in that typical MGM glossy way. Yet much does remain that is somewhat problematic. The number "Shine," sung by "Domino Johnson" in the nightclub, for instance, is a derogatory "coon song" of 1910. (A "shine" was a racist term for an African American.) Yes, Ethel Waters and the other women who are not good-looking babes are laundresses but they're not portrayed as the typical movie mammies or Aunt Jemimah types. They wear '40s length dresses and kerchiefs, not mammy bandanas. The pretty women are all vamps and tramps, hanging out in Jim Henry's nightclub, jitterbugging their asses off. The males are shown as gamblers, cheats, and philanderers. Only the angels speak standard English. Illiterate "Little Joe" cannot even sign his name for the telegram delivery guy.Yet as a variation on the FAUST legend, this well-developed story is fascinating. I first used the film in a Mass Media class about 40 years ago when I was a beginning teacher to illustrate "screen racism" to my classes at an African American Chicago high school. The power of the performances was so captivating, once the word got out I had other kids coming by my room during my lunch to watch the musical, too. Where else, in the late '60s, could anyone see a film that featured so many all-time great black performers like Duke Ellington, Butterfly McQueen, Mantan Moreland, Willie Best, and all the others. At that time, during the beginnings of the Afrocentric cultural awareness movement, older images of blacks like the "Amos 'N' Andy" TV program and some of the all-black musicals, were banned from television. Thank God for film! The movie may illustrate some of the problems connected with portraying racial themes in old Hollywood of the studio period, but to this day each time I watch it I appreciate the performances more and notice new details that captivate and inspire me. Watch for Ernestine Wade (who played Kingfish's wife Saffire on TV's early '50s "Amos 'N' Andy") in the opening church service scene sitting in the front row wearing a Tyrolean style hat. Dorothy Dandridge's challenging mother Ruby is a couple rows behind her with a silly hat and some little boys sleeping under her arm.

Neil Doyle Vincente Minnelli's first film for MGM was CABIN IN THE SKY, from the Broadway musical--a film that no other studio at the time would take a chance on producing. A splendid cast does justice to it and it's a rollicking good time to watch ETHEL WATERS, EDDIE 'ROCHESTER' ANDERSON, REX INGRAM, KENNETH SPENCER, Oscar POLK, LENA HORNE and BUTTERFLY McQUEEN have fun with the story and music.Rex Ingram is especially good as the horned Devil wearing black and Kenneth Spencer, using his rich bass baritone voice to good effect, is in excellent shape as The General in white. (Spencer sang 'Old Man River' as Joe in SHOW BOAT on Broadway in '46).Basically, it's the story of temptation coming between Petunia (ETHEL WATERS) and Little Joe (EDDIE ANDERSON) and her crusade to win him away from The Devil and away from the temptress Georgia Brown (LENA HORNE). Lena never looked sexier and plays her sultry role for all it's worth.A few of the musical moments don't come off as well as intended, looking rather awkwardly staged, and Waters has a tendency to overplay her role both in the acting and singing segments. LOUIS ARMSTRONG makes a brief appearance on the trumpet and the DUKE WELLINGTON orchestra gets to get the joint swinging with his big number. The HALL JOHNSON CHOIR does some excellent choral work for some stirring background music.What hurts the film is the pace, a bit too slow in developing its theme and the songs, while fine, are not always given the best possible treatment. I seem to remember seeing this in Sepiatone at one time, but the print on TCM is in B&W.

theowinthrop Let's call it a deserved "10" but with a sense of trouble for one's conscience.In 1943 it was nearly impossible to consider any film with a predominantly African-American cast as serious by most Americans of Caucasian or non-African-American backgrounds. Typical fare from Hollywood was a series of stereotypes, usually for comic purposes. However there had been a few films that (even with the stereotypes) suggested more was there. King Vidor's HALLELUJAH in 1929 dealt with African-American revivalism. Two Broadway hits, O'Neill's THE EMPEROR JONES (with star Paul Robeson recreating the role of Brutus Jones) and THE GREEN PASTURES had been done with mostly African-American casts (Dudley Digges did play a critically important role in THE EMPEROR JONES, but he was an exception). The 1929 and 1936 versions of SHOW BOAT did deal with the "Jim Crow" south, and the issue of racially mixed marriages. The film of Fanny Hurst's novel IMITATION OF LIFE (1933) dealt with a young woman trying to pass for white and breaking her mother's heart as a result. GONE WITH THE WIND passed on the myths of how happy the slaves were in the South, but Hattie McDaniel's performance of "Mammy" was vivid and strong, and won the first Oscar for an African-American performer. Finally, in 1942, John Huston's film, IN THIS OUR LIFE, dared to suggest that a young African-American man could try to study law to enter the legal profession.When Vincent Minelli was assigned to do the MGM musical version of CABIN IN THE SKY, most insiders thought that it would be a flop. Minelli had never directed a film before, and was an unknown quantity in Hollywood's talent market. Actually he was a good choice - he was a veteran of Broadway musical productions, and was just the right person to work on a film based on a Broadway musical. It was his first film, and proved to be a great success.It think it is due in part to his determination to show what he could bring out of the musical, and also the equal determination of the cast, led by Ethel Waters (who played the lead "Petunia" on Broadway), Eddie Anderson ("Joe"), Lena Horne (as temptress "Georgia Brown"), John Bubbles ("Domino Johnson"), Kenneth Spencer ("The General/ Rev. Greene"), and Rex Ingram ("Lucifer Jr."). Other familiar faces crop up like Willie Best, Mantan Morland, Oscar Polk, Butterfly McQueen, Louis Armstrong (oddly wasted in a mostly comic speaking role), and Duke Ellington and his orchestra. It's hard to imagine this but this film effort had the cream of Hollywood's available African-American performers in it. And they wanted to show what they could do.The story is about the devotion of Petunia to her husband Little Joe, who is weak and constantly gambling. But he hopes to win a fortune to give Petunia the things she always wanted. Unfortunately he is also infatuated with Georgia, a sexy singer at the gambling house/night club he heads for. One night (while supposedly seeking forgiveness for his sins at church) Joe is lured to the nightclub into a dice game, and is shot by Domino. He is treated at home and the film goes from this point to it's conclusion with a battle between God's messenger, "the General" (always wearing white uniforms), and "Lucifer Jr." and his minions. Due to a technicality Joe is not to die, but is given six months more to show his wife's devotion is strong enough to put him permanently on the good and narrow path. Lucifer Jr. and his associates (including Morland, Armstrong, and Best) are determined to show Joe cannot change.The cast shows what they could do. Waters in particular has two songs that became standards: "Happiness is a Guy named Joe", by Harold Arlin and Y.I.P. Harburg, and "Taking a Chance On Love" by Vernon Duke from the original score. But Horne is allowed to sing as well (though one number was cut here but transposed elsewhere). Bubbles does his great dance and song act in the latter part of the film, in the number "Shine". Even Anderson (best recalled for being Jack Benny's foil as "Rochester") demonstrates singing in a duet with Horne, and dance in a number with Waters.I suppose my favorite though is Ingram. He's now the forgotten man in African-American film history, because he never had the degree of public attention that Paul Robeson received. But he appeared in the lead as "De Lawd" in the movie version of THE GREEN PASTURES, as "Lucifer Jr." here, as the genie in the Alexander Korda epic THE THIEF OF BAGHDAD (1941), and graced other films as well (as the gentle valet to Ronald Colman in THE TALK OF THE TOWN, where he starts crying at his boss's insistence at shaving off his distinguished goatee). Ingram, I feel, could play any kind of part. Given the paucity of good lead parts in his day, that he got three of them shows Hollywood and British producers thought well of him. Here he does not sing (I suspect he did not have the voice) but he is enjoying his wickedness throughout. He also has one of the best lines in the film - complaining of the lack of good ideas (in getting Joe's soul): he says that it's because the best idea men in Hell are currently in Europe (this being the fourth year of World War II). The film is actually quite entertaining to this day - although the stereotypes of crap shooting African-Americans is unsettling. But think of this point: this is the first film I know of from Hollywood where a black professional is shown who is not a minister! When Eddie Anderson is treated for his gunshot wound, the physician is black, and is not a stereotype.