Cabin In the Sky

MGM, 1943
Starring Ethel Waters, Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, Lena Horne, and Rex Ingram
Directed by Vincent Minnelli
Music by Vernon Duke and Harold Arlen; Lyrics by E.Y Harburg and others

MGM transferred this hit 1940 Broadway musical to the big screen as the first major directorial assignment for Vincent Minnelli and a showcase for many black performers of the time. It also wound up being Lena Horne's only leading role at MGM; Waters and Ingram reprise their roles from the stage version. Does this tale of heaven and hell warring for the soul of a shifty gambler and his kindly wife deserve the pearly gates today, or should it thrown into that whirlwind at the end? Let's head to a small all-African American town in the south to find out...

The Story: Little Joe Jackson (Anderson) is a gambler and a con-man who truly loves his faithful and very religious wife Petunia (Waters). He's shot dead by fellow gambler Domino Johnson (John W. "Bubbles" Sublett) when he's unable to pay his debts. Petunia's fervent prayers are heard by the angel "The General" (Kenneth Spencer) and Lucifer's son Junior (Ingram). The General will restore Joe to his wife, but only if he becomes a good, hardworking husband for six months. He and Lucifer will act as his consciences and guide his actions, but he has to decide how to act on it.

Little Joe does behave for a while, including remembering his wife's birthday. Not one to take losing sitting down, Lucifer brings the gold-digger Georgia Brown (Horne) around to meet him and lets him win the lottery. Petunia hears Joe talking to Georgia about the money and comes to the wrong conclusion. They run off and start a fancy nightclub that attracts some of the biggest names in jazz, including Duke Ellington and His Orchestra (themselves). Petunia's not done with her husband, though...and neither is Domino. It'll take divine intervention to finally show Joe which woman he truly loves.

The Song and Dance: There's some fine performances here you're just not going to see anywhere else. Waters really owns the two major hits from this score, "Happiness Is a Thing Called Joe" (which was written for the movie), and my personal favorite, "Taking a Chance On Love." Horne's sexy Georgia Brown makes you realize how badly MGM wasted her talents elsewhere, and Ingram and Spencer were hilarious as the deities warring over Joe's soul.

Minnelli does well with his first assignment at MGM, especially with the Wizard of Oz-like tornado in the finale. He builds the suspense quite well, with Horne running out into the wind screaming and the men's fight continuing even as the tornado tears their world to ribbons.

Favorite Number: "Chance" is probably the best-known standard from this show, and it gets a pretty good number, too. It kind of comes out of the blue, but is made up for with some incredible tap dancing by Bill Bailey and Waters' vocal dexterity. Horne scores with her version of the silky "Honey In the Honeycomb" and the winking "Ain't It the Truth." Some of the jitterbugging in the Joe Henry's Paradise nightclub is downright incredible. (Really wish they'd kept Horne's reprise of "Ain't It the Truth" in the bubble bath - it's really fun. Apparently, censors at the time had a fit over a black woman being seen in a bubble bath.)

What I Don't Like: Anderson may have been a popular comedian at the time in The Jack Benny Radio Show, but he's out of place here among the dignified Ingram and Spencer and dynamic Horne and Waters. He gets a nifty dance routine in "Taking a Chance," but he can't sing worth a darn. He's so goofy and shiftless, you wonder what either woman sees in him.

Though Minnelli and producer Arthur Freed took pains to talk to black groups and make this as respectful of African-Americans as possible at the time, some aspects of this movie still come off as a little dated nowadays. Joe and some of his buddies can seem like lazy stereotypes to many audiences, and the religious aspect is a bit awkward.

Wish they'd done more with Louis Armstrong (the Trumpeter) and Ellington. Armstrong's only solo was cut, and Ellington has one number at the nightclub and is barely seen. I also kind of wish they'd ended with Petunia and Joe going to the pearly gates; darker, yes, but more in line with the rest of the story. The happy ending seems like a bit of a cop-out.

The Big Finale: This isn't the easiest movie to discuss nowadays, but it is a powerful and relatively positive portrait of African-Americans during World War II. If you love the cast or the music or Minnelli and can handle the stereotypes, this is a really interesting movie that's definitely worth a look.

Home Media: Not the easiest movie to find; the DVD is currently available through the Warner Archives, and it's on several streaming platforms.

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