Rhythm and Blues Revue

If you're into Rhythm & Blues music from the 40s and 50s, this is your movie. However, let's dispel the myth that any of this was filmed at the Apollo Theater (or even before a live audience). The sequences in the film are a mixture of Snader telescriptions (early music videos made for TV) and material newly-filmed (in the spring and summer of 1954) at the midtown Manhattan sound stage of Studio Films. If MC Willie Bryant interacts in any way with the performers, the sequence was filmed at Studio Films. If he's just seen "watching" from the wings, that was inserted into the Snader clip. Look at the audience; a large percentage of them are white, something you never would have seen at the Apollo Theater in those days. It's just stock footage of an audience spliced in. I realize that this is nit-picking, but the performances stand on their own merit and don't need to be tied to the Apollo Theater.

In continuing to review movies featuring African-Americans in chronological order for Black History Month, we're now at 1955 (or '54 since that's when this was filmed) where Willie Bryant hosts what I'm now commenting on here. It begins when Freddie Robinson interrupts Willie's hosting stints asking for a job. Then they do a mind reading routine involving a woman named Flo (who was married to Freddie in real life). I was partly amused by what this team came up with. Other comedy acts that appeared were Nipsey Russell and Mantan Moreland who were hilarious whether together or apart especially when the two did the "interrupted talk" routine which Moreland used to do with the late Ben Carter. There was also a sketch involving Bryant playing a con man tricking a cashier to give much of his money that was an amusing variation of an Abbott & Costello bit. Among the musical acts were such great Big Band leaders like Lionel Hampton and Count Basie especially when the latter performed the "One O'Clock Jump". There were a couple of entertaining dancers like Little Buck and Bill Bailey who did what would now be referred as the "Moonwalk" dance with him doing a couple of steps backwards. Among the great female singers that abounded: Sarah Vaughn, Martha Davis, Faye Adams, and Ruth Brown. Then there's the male contingent of Herb Jeffries, Amos Milburn, Cab Calloway doing his trademarked "Minnie the Moocher", Big Joe Turner on "Shake, Rattle, and Roll", Nat King Cole, and the Delta Rhythm Boys performing James Weldon Johnson's "Dry Bones". I think I just mentioned everyone so I'll just say that Rhythm and Blues Revue comes highly recommended. P.S. Both Bryant and Moreland are natives of my home state of Louisiana, Willie from New Orleans, Mantan from Monroe. James Weldon Johnson came from Jacksonville, FL, which was where I once lived from '87-'03. And one of the players, Freddie Robinson, I had previously seen in Moon Over Harlem and Killer Diller.

Many of the acts haven't stood the test of time. Most of the rest (Cab Calloway doing a lousy version of his famous Minnie the Moocher; Nat Cole doing an embarrassing Calypso number) doing forgettable songs. At their best, many of these acts were great. This doesn't showcase them well at all

This is not the greatest of films, it's technical aspects are strictly amateur hour. But a lot of black talent gets showcased and some might not have any record for posterity.

Willie Bryant does a great job as the emcee and interacts well with some of the acts. Nice mixture of comedy and musical acts. I enjoyed seeing a young Nipsey Russell teaming with Mantan Moreland. it was a different kind of act than Moreland did with his original partner Ben Carter, but still funny. Nipsey had not developed his skill at poetry yet.

Nice to see favorites like Cab Calloway, Lionel Hampton, Sarah Vaughan.. and Nat King Cole. Legends all.

Rhythm And Blues Revue would never have been Oscar material, but it's a great piece of history.

This is an amazing little film. It features such amazing Black-American performers as Lionel Hampton, Count Basie, Cab Calloway, Nat King Cole and Sarah Vaughn—among many others. In addition, there are some comedy acts by the likes of Nipsy Russell and Mantan Moreland . It's a great historical piece—allowing us today to see so many talented folks, but it also manages to be darned entertaining as well.

These acts perform in front of a live audience and a few of the highlights include:

Bill Bailey doing many of the dances Michael Jackson did decades later. So, moon walking and the like have been around for some time!

Herb Jeffries sing a nice and rather impressive song. This man was a singing cowboy in the late 1930s—Black-America's answer to Gene Autry.

Joe Turner singing the original "Shake, Rattle and Roll". Like so many great tunes of the 1950s, it was later re-recorded by a White performer (Bill Haley) and became a top hit.

The tune "Dem Bones"—it was very, very catchy!

Mantan Moreland did an old routine made famous by him and his old partner. However, in this case, his partner's part was done by newcomer Nipsy Russell.

Cab Calloway brings down the house with "Minnie the Moocher"—a terrific song and one that seems timeless.