The Duke Is Tops

Million Dollar Productions, 1938
Starring Ralph Cooper, Lena Horne, Laurence Criner, and Monte Hawley
Directed by William L. Nolte
Music and Lyrics by Harvey Brooks and Ben Ellison

We'll be honoring Black History Month for the remaining weekdays of February with musicals featuring all-black or primarily black casts, or musicals about the black experience in America. From the 1920's to the early 50's, many low-budget production companies existed to make B-pictures for black audiences, or the "race market," as they were called then. Lena Horne got her start at the tender age of 20 in one such film. Star Ralph Cooper spent most of his career as the Master of Ceremonies at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, but he also started Million Dollar Productions with two white producers and a fellow actor to make films for black audiences that were better than most of what was available for them at the time. Did they succeed? Let's head to a small nightclub where the show is just about to start and find out...

The Story: Duke Davis (Cooper) is a small-time performer and promoter who's partnered with the lovely and talented singer Ethel Andrews (Horne). Talent scouts from New York City want to hire Ethel and promote her as "The Black Nightingale," but Ethel laughs at the idea of leaving. She loves Duke too much. Duke lies to her and says he only wants money from her contract in order to force her out and improve her career. Duke's own career is nothing without Ethel, and he ends up promoting an all-black medicine show that peddles his friend Doc Doranado's (Criner) all-purpose elixir. Ethel, however, isn't doing too well in New York, either. It's up to Duke to figure out how to combine the three very different shows and send both their careers into the stratosphere.

The Song and Dance: Cooper is quite the charmer; I can believe him as a promoter and a Master of Ceremonies. Criner's a lot of fun as the slick snake oil salesman who has a lot of fun peddling his likely useless wares to suspicious audiences. Horne's not quite as smooth as she would be in her later MGM movies, but she does get to enjoy a leading role here, something she would rarely have later in her career. Along with Horne's singing, there's an impressive tap solo towards the end by Willie Covan, and some rather nice harmonizing by the Cat and the Fiddle.

Favorite Number: Horne lends her silky contralto to two decent ballads, "I Know You Remember" in the beginning and the end, and "Don't Let Our Love Song Turn Into a Blues" as part of her failed nightclub number. Cooper joins the Swing Band Harlemania Orchestra for the big dance routine "Harlem Is Harmony," nicely showing off Cowan's jazzy taps. The Cats and the Fiddle get another great harmonizing number, "Killing Jive" at the medicine show.

What I Don't Like: Yeah, it's obvious this is a low-budget show. The costumes, sets, and chorus dancers are nothing to write home about. Those expecting to see a lot of Horne will be disappointed. Cooper is the star, and it's mainly his show, including some slapstick business involving a burning trailer towards the end of the movie. The story is frankly a mass of cliches as well, especially the Ethel-Duke romance, though the medicine show middle part does give it a little zest that other backstage films lack.

The Big Finale: If you want to check out Cooper and the race movies of the 30's and 40's or see how Lena Horne got her start, this is an interesting little curio with decent performances that makes up for the lack of production values with sheer energy.

Home Media: This is in the public domain, so it's pretty easily found just about anywhere.

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