Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody

Sony/Tri-Star, 2022

Starring Naomie Ackie, Stanley Tucci, Ashton Sanders, and Tamara Tunie

Directed by Kasi Lemmons

Music and Lyrics by various

First of all...this is my last week of regular reviews. After February 28th, my musical reviews will default to occasional shorter blurbs on my regular Welcome to the Riverside Rest blog. I still love musicals, but with a second job and other things I need to get done, I don't have the time for long reviews anymore. Musical Dreams Movie Reviews will stay up for all to read, but it won't be updated anymore. 

Now that the announcements are out of the way, onto the review. After Houston's untimely death in 2012, ideas for a film biography were tossed around. A TV film debuted on Lifetime in 2015, but while it was well-received, it mostly focused on her relationship with Bobby Brown. The movie they finally came up with in 2020 focused on her entire life, from her first major performance in 1983 to her last hours. How does her difficult life look now? Let's start just as pop superstar Whitney Houston (Ackie) is gearing up for the 1994 American Music Awards...and remembering how she began...and find out...

The Story: In 1983, Houston sings in her church choir and lives with her girlfriend Robyn Crawford (Nafessa Williams). Her mother Cissy (Tunie) groomed her for the choir, but she has bigger plans. She "suddenly" gets laryngitis the day major music producer Clive Davis (Tucci) happens to be in the audience at the nightclub where she sings. Whitney goes on for her, and Davis is so impressed, he gives her a contract to Arista Records.

Whitney's first filmed performance is of "Home" from The Wiz on The Merv Griffith Show later in '83. Her first album debuts in 1985, and it's a sensation. She wants Robyn to be her personal assistant, but her father and manager John (Clarke Peters) encourages her to start dating men. Whitney really takes that to heart and first goes out with Jermaine Jackson (Jaison Hunter), to Robyn's consternation. Though her second album in 1987 is even bigger, it's not enough to dodge criticism that her music isn't "black enough." She quells this by becoming engaged to early rapper Bobby Brown (Sanders) in 1989 after they meet at the 1988 Soul Train Awards. 

Whitney's at her peak of popularity in the early and mid-90's, singing "The Star Spangled Banner" at the Super Bowl and appearing in the smash hit 1993 film The Bodyguard. Her home life isn't going nearly as well. She and Bobby finally marry in 1992, and she has their daughter Bobbi Kristina in March 1993, but Bobby is frequently missing and her father is withholding her assets. 

Two attempts at a comeback, in 1998 and 2009, are massive hits...but the subsequent tours after their releases wear out her body and her vocal chords. They're not the only things wrecking havoc on her body, either. She's begun to deal with the pain of her bad marriage and heart by drinking heavily and taking cocaine. John has mismanaged most of her money, too, forcing her into a 100 million dollar contract with Arista. She's so furious with him, she won't go to his funeral. Divorcing Bobby in 2007 does help, but by 2012, she's spiraling into addiction again...this time with fatal consequences...

The Song and Dance: The heavy story is alleviated somewhat by powerhouse performances. Ackie and Sanders are fabulous as Houston and Brown, showing how they fell for each other when they were both stars, only for Brown's ego and both their addictions to come between them. They really did their homework, too. Most of the concerts and music videos look like the real thing. You can almost believe that's Whitney in the candy-splashed "How Will I Know?" music video. 

The Numbers: We open with Whitney singing "Guide Me O Thou Great Jehovah" as her mother gives her a singing lesson for the church choir. We get a brief glimpse of her mother singing "I'll Be There" at a nightclub...before her parents' fight indicate that she's most definitely not around much. Robyn and Whitney dance together - and fall for each other - to the tune of Chakah Khan's "Hot Butterfly." Whitney gets her big break singing "The Greatest Love of All" in place of her mother. She's an even bigger sensation singing "Home" on The Merv Griffith Show.  

We next get a montage of Whitney choosing songs for her next album. Among those that make the cut are the ballads "Saving All My Love for You" (which we see Houston recording) and "Where Do Broken Hearts Go?" She really loves the bouncy "How Will I Know?" Later on, she's even more into "I Wanna Dance With Somebody" and has a ball singing it in concert. Bobby sings his hit "My Prerogative" at the Soul Train Awards. Whitney's rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner" at the Super Bowl in 1991 is so impassioned, it becomes an instant legend. After starring in The Bodyguard and singing it at the 1994 Concert for a Free South Africa, she's even more associated with "I Will Always Love You." It even plays under her wedding to Bobby. She has a harder time with "I Have Nothing," even refusing to sing it at one point.

Her recording of "Why Does It Hurt So Bad?" turns into a commentary on her tumultuous relationship with the possessive and egotistical Bobby. "It's Not Right, But It's Okay" launches her 1998 comeback. The single isn't released, but the album is a hit. She does a fabulous "I'm Every Woman" and "I'm Your Baby Tonight" in a montage on tour, which finishes with "One Moment In Time." Her surprise rendition of "I Didn't Know My Own Strength" on The Oprah Winfrey Show launched her second comeback in 2009. We end on a positive note with her sensational medley of "I Loves You Porgy," "And I'm Telling You I'm Not Going," and "I Have Nothing" at the 1994 American Music Awards. 

What I Don't Like: First of all, not all of this is historically accurate. For one thing, she recorded "The Greatest Love of All" for her 1985 debut album and never sang it at a club. She also had a career as a model before she started singing that isn't really discussed here. (She was one of the first black models to appear on the cover of Seventeen Magazine in 1981.) But then again, this movie is long and slow enough as it is. Some of the depressing ending could have been trimmed with no one the wiser. It's also dripping with typical biographical film cliches, up to and including that upbeat ending at the American Music Awards. 

The Big Finale: Worth checking out if you're a fan of Houston and have time on your hands. 

Home Media: Easily found in all formats.

DVD

Blu-Ray

Hulu

Animation Celebration Saturday - Frosty Returns

CBS, 1992

Voices of John Goodman, Jonathan Winters, Brian Doyle Murphy, and Elizabeth Moss

Directed by Evert Brown and Bill Melendez

Music and Lyrics by Mark Mothersbaugh and others

This one has some complicated origins. Frosty's Winter Wonderland was among the specials purchased by Warner Brothers when they picked up the rights to the post-1974 Rankin-Bass catalog, which meant that by the 1980's, CBS couldn't run it anymore. They commissioned the director of the Peanuts specials Melendez and Saturday Night Live producer Lorne Michaels to create their own follow-up to Frosty the Snowman in the early 90's. Is it as much fun as the Rankin-Bass productions, or should it be canned? Let's start as our tiny narrator (Jonathan Winters) floats into Beansborough on a snowflake for their annual Winter Carnival and find out...

The Story: The kids of Beansborough are excited about the huge snow storm that just fell in town. Their parents aren't nearly as amused by all the shoveling and defrosting they have to do. Holly DiCarlo (Moss) and her best friend Charles (Michael Patrick Carter) are more interested in working on Holly's magic act for the carnival. The storm's wind blows Holly's magic hat right onto a snowman, turning him into the wisecracking Frosty. 

The kids are delighted with their new frozen friend (when Holly can convince Charles that Frosty's really moving), but Frosty's nervous. Local businessman Mr. Twitchell (Murphy) is heavily pushing his new product Summer Wheeze in a bid to become king of the Winter Carnival. Summer Wheeze instantly removes snow from any surface, including snowmen. It's up to Frosty and the two kids to remind everyone in Beansborough about how fun winter - and snow friends - can truly be.

The Animation: This definitely screams "early 90's Peanuts special." The zig-zaggy thick lines, large head, and sketchy style all look like the work of Bill Melendez. It could fit right in with the later Peanuts specials if the adults sounded like trumpets. It's a lot more like a Peanuts special than a more playful and anime-esque Rankin-Bass special. 

The Song and Dance: The cast and the catchy songs stand out in this attempt at a more "modern" Frosty story. The two kids are hilarious and get some great lines, especially in the opening. Murphy and Andrea Martin also have a few good moments as the villainous executive determined to become carnival king at all costs (including environmental costs) and the kids' fussy teacher Miss Carbunkle. (Also, as with Frosty's Winter Wonderland, I appreciate that there's no reference to any holidays besides the Winter Carnival. This is another one that can be watched at any time during the colder months.) 

The Numbers: We open with an announcer declaring that there's over two feet of snow on the ground and the kids are out of school. "We Love the Snow," say the kids who are delighted to be out of school. Their parents are more frustrated about dealing with shoveling it and complain "We Can Live Without Snow." This becomes "Let There Be Snow" for Frosty and Holly as they sing about the delights of winter weather. The duo reprise it with the townspeople at the carnival. (They're joined here by Charles, who is such a bad singer, even the animated characters wince.) The cast sings the title song over the end credits.

Trivia: This turned up on CBS occasionally during the Christmas season from 1992 through 2023. 

What I Don't Like: What is this a sequel to again? Despite the title, this is really its own stand-alone story, with nothing whatsoever to do with the two Rankin-Bass Frosty specials. Honestly, it feels like Melendez was trying too hard to be early 90's cynical and "hip." Goodman does make a warm Frosty, but his dialogue is less witty and more annoying. The story is a cross between "Rankin-Bass obnoxious and silly villain does weird mean things to kids" and a typical Peanuts special, without the charming weirdness that made both franchises stand out. 

The Big Finale: The catchy music and nice cast makes this worth seeing at least once this winter with elementary school-age kids who will enjoy Holly and Frosty's antics and ignore the so-so animation and plot holes. 

Home Media: That long run on CBS means it's not currently on streaming, but it can be found paired with Frosty the Snowman on many DVDs and Blu-Rays. 

DVD

Blu-Ray

DVD - The Original Christmas Classics 

Lost In Alaska

Universal, 1952

Starring Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Tom Ewell, and Mitzi Green

Directed by Jean Yarbourgh 

Music and Lyrics by Henry Mancini

Let's take a winter trip to Alaska and celebrate the last weeks of the season in this Abbott and Costello Yukon comedy. This was, in fact, Bud and Lou's second winter-themed musical after the comic thriller Hit the Ice. By this point, Bud and Lou had tangled with almost every monster in Universal's roster, gone to war, and had dealt with fairy-tale giants in pastel Cinecolor. This time, they go back in history to San Francisco in the 1890's, when a well-meaning fireman helps a seemingly down-on-his-luck man jumping off a pier...and get into a load of trouble for doing so...

The Story: Genial George Bell (Costello) and his best friend Tom Watson (Abbott) take the man home after they save him from drowning. Turns out the man is "Nugget" Joe McDermott (Ewell), the former sheriff of Skagway, Alaska. He was just turned down by his girl Rosette (Green) and thinks he has nothing to live for. Tom and George are quick to point out that the 2 million in gold he's hauling around is certainly something to live for. After getting a telegram claiming Rosette wants to marry him after all, Joe is so grateful to Tom and George for saving him, he gives them a gold nugget. Turn's out to be some very foolish gold when the duo discover at the bank next day that the local police think they killed Joe instead of helping him. They hit the boat to get him to clear their names, but end up going to Alaska with him instead.

Turns out Rosette isn't really that interested in him, but everyone else in Skagway sure is. Tom, George, and Joe are shot at almost the minute they arrive. Joe left money to his "old timer" friends in his will, and now they're more interested in gold than in their friendship. They're not the only ones. Rosette's boss Jake Stillman (Bruce Cabot) wants her to marry him, so he can kill Joe and get the gold. She warns the trio instead, joining them as they flee into Alaska and Eskimo territory, all the while pursued by Jake and his men and Joe's so-called, gold-crazed "friends."

The Song and Dance: Surprisingly long on plot for one of Bud and Lou's films. There are some very funny moments, especially when they actually do make it to Alaska. I love them having to track across the frozen wastes and get literally frozen. There's also a few good jokes with them dealing with the Eskimo tribe, one of the few Alaskan/Yukon cliches Bing Crosby and Bob Hope missed in the similar Road to Utopia. Mitzi Green has a few good moments of her own, and Ewell's casual acceptance of everyone in town being after him is good for a few chuckles. 

The Numbers: Rosette claims "I'm Just a Country Gal" when we first meet her at the saloon in Skagway. She even imitates another famous barroom song from a warmer western, Marlene Dietrich performing "See What the Boys In the Back Room Will Have" from Destry Rides Again. She claims it's "A Hot Time in the Igloo Tonight" when she dances with the Eskimos. 

Trivia: First movie for Henry Mancini. 

What I Don't Like: First of all, this is far from Mancini's best work. His two numbers are hardly distinguished in any way. Second, yes, northern Native stereotypes abound, including the Natives being called "Eskimo" instead of "Inuit." Third, this isn't Abbot and Costello's best work, either. It's basically an imitation Road to Utopia with more of an accent on comedy and few of the routines they're famous for. Rosette jumps back and forth so much in her interest in Tom, it seems like almost an afterthought when they do end up together in the end. Fourth, what happened to Tom and George being on the lam? Did they ever clear their names in San Francisco?

The Big Finale: Mainly of interest to major fans of Abbott and Costello. 

Home Media: Can be found on solo on streaming and on disc as part of two Abbott and Costello collections.

DVD - The Best of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello: Vol 3

Blu Ray - Abbott and Costello: The Complete Universal Collection

Amazon Prime

Honoring Chinese New Year - Step Up: Year of the Dance (Step Up China)

Yuehua Entertainment/Lionsgate Films, 2019

Starring SuperDino, Meiqui Meng, Bobo, and Kim Sung-joo

Directed by Ron Yuan

Music and Lyrics by various

Let's head to modern-day China to celebrate the Year of the Horse and one of the most internationally popular musical franchises. The original Step Up debuted in 2006. It wasn't popular with critics who found its class war story to be too formulaic, but the incredible dancing made it a hit with teens and young adults who loved the moves and the rebellious characters. It was such a success, it led to four more unrelated Step Up movies that were all hits in their own right and a TV show that lasted for three seasons. 

One of the reasons it continued to do well was its enormous popularity in international markets, especially Asia. Even when the fifth film, Step Up: All In, didn't do well in North America, it still made money elsewhere. China took notice and made a Step Up film exclusively for their country in 2019. It came over here as a streaming exclusive in 2020. Is it as good as the other titles in this franchise, or should it be left on the streets? Let's begin with a young Chinese man (SuperDino) right before a big dance battle and find out...

The Story: Tie Hou (SuperDino) landed in prison after a bar brawl two years before, right as he was about to tell his crush Xiao Fe (Meng) he loved her. He's able to reunite with his old dance group the Iron Crew, but she hasn't forgiven him. Wealthy young He Chaun (Bobo) is trying to audition for a major international dance competition with the Black Tigers, but fellow dancer Dai (Sun-joo) kicks Chaun off the stage and injures him. They both get the trophies, but Dai isn't happy when it turns out the judges were paid off. 

Meanwhile, Tie Hou has tried to get a job working with everyone from strippers to kids, but his tougher style of street dance doesn't work with poles or children's classes. He even dances when he works at a construction site. Chaun sees him and tries to get him to join his new dance crew. Hou refuses at first, until he sees Chaun's elegant dance battle with the Black Tigers that even works the cane in. Fe is impressed and flirts with him. She's out of place at Chaun's birthday party, until she shows up the snobs there with a few great dance moves of her own.

Chaun has started a dance team of his own, Sky Crew. Even with Chaun pushing them hard to practice everywhere, they still lose in their first dance battle with the Black Tigers. They come up with the idea of filming their combination dance and Kung Fu moves. That gets them the dance battle invitation, but it also gets them recognized. Hou loses his best friend Tie She when the gang he fought in the bar tries to get him back. Now they really have a reason to beat the Black Tigers, and then take on the American team the Phantoms.

The Song and Dance: And the dance, along with some decent cinematography that makes the best of this film's low-budget origins, is the lone saving grace here. It really is exceptional. Director Yuan was normally a stunt man and martial artist, so he at least had the right instinct about how to shoot the choreography, both for the fight scenes and the dance scenes. Some of the dance scenes, especially the dance battles, are excitingly choreographed and not badly edited for something this cheap. I also appreciate that there's no hard feelings at the end. None of the dance teams indulge in bad sportsmanship or put down the others. Even the Phantoms, who were built up as the villains, bow for their fellow competitors. 

The Numbers: We open with Tie Hou, Tie She, and Xiao Fe doing their own robot moves at the bar before the gang war breaks out. Tie Hou has his solo number as he interprets the fight through dance. There's a chorus routine at a club when he gets out that includes some pretty sweet breakdancing. Hou tries to explain his feelings to Fe during their robot dance duet to "Honey Honey." They even dance with metal poles that he uses to play drums on trash cans at one point. The Black Tiger's slick number in white suits is going great, until Dai gives Chaun that fatal kick.

Next up is our first montage, as Tie Hou first tries to teach dance to strippers, then fan dancers, then children. None of them are there to learn the street dancing he favors. He even dances briefly at a construction site. Tie Hou starts dancing at an outdoor ring, until the same toughs who attacked him at the bar make nasty prison jokes. Chaun out-dances them even with a cane. Fe gets her big solo at the party when some of the snottier girls call her a "street bum," and she dances to show what a street bum can do. Chaun joins her, to the consternation of Tie Hou. Chaun and Hou have a stiff-kneeded dance off to rap music later that night at the party. 

The Sky Crew start off briefly "dance battling" each other before Chaun reminds them that they have their own unique style. The next montage shows the Sky Crew training everywhere - even over a grill and while bench-pressing a fire extinguisher. They're still arguing during rehearsals, until they realize that they do better when they come together as a team. The next montage shows different dance groups - even a black group and an all-kid team - competing at a club. When the Black Tigers are the winners, the Sky Crew film their moves - dance and Kung-Fu - and post them online. The Phantoms rise to the occasion at the competition with their genuinely excellent hip-hop dance. The Black Tigers are more athletic, often dancing on their knees. The Sky Crew start out with traditional Chinese music before getting into their own rap dance.

What I Don't Like: First of all, the dubbing on the copy of this at Tubi is lousy. Lips don't match, voices often don't sound like they belong to the characters. Second, whether this franchise takes place in Baltimore or Beijing, the cliches are the same. There's a reason the Step Up films (this one included) were never popular with critics. No amount of terrific dancing can cover the fact that the story is the same overcoming the odds parable we've seen hundreds of times. Admittedly, Tie Hou having been in prison and his difficulty finding jobs does give it a slightly more realistic edge, but Tie She's death is played for melodrama, and the class war drama isn't nearly as exciting as the movie wants to think it is. There's also this being a low-budget film. It does show at times, especially in the dull sets.

The Big Finale: If you're a fan of the other Step Up films or of Asian musical cinema, this is worth checking out once for the dance routines alone.

Home Media: Streaming only in North America. Tubi currently has it for free with commercials. 

Tubi

Amazon Prime

YouTube

Valentine's Short Subject Special - The Valentine's Day That Almost Wasn't

Showtime, 1982

Voices of Lisa Buckley, Richard J. Schellbach, Paul Fusco, and Bob Fappiano

Directed by Paul Fusco

Music and Lyrics by Ed Bruder and Jeff Cannata

From 1981 through 1983 Paul Fusco, the creator of ALF, made a series of six holiday specials for cable featuring his unique comic puppets. We've already seen his Easter and Thanksgiving stories over the past year. For Valentine's Day, we get a mystery and action spoof that turns cupids into Bogart-style investigators and gives us a little more action than in the more character-based early specials. In fact, we begin with our first real villain from these specials, Rubella Slime (Buckley) and her brothers, as they create a brew to spread hate in the world and end Valentine's Day as we know it.

The Story: Rubella hates Valentine's Day so much, she and her brothers Bugsy (Fusco) and Weasel (Fappiano) create a hate potion to put into the Cupids' Pot of Love. They first spray it on innocent Cosmo Cupid (Schellbach) when he's giving away puppies at the pound to create a distraction. While Sam Cupid (Fusco) and his boys are dealing with Cosmo, Bugsy and Weasell are able to sneak in and put the potion in the pot. When the cupids shoot their arrows, they turn everyone mean instead of loving. Sam has to find the antidote and stops Rubella, before she and her brothers ruin Valentine's Day for everyone.

The Song and Dance: Well, you can't say this one isn't unique. You don't often see a holiday special, especially for Valentine's Day, framed as a film noir spoof. The city and above the clouds setting gives this one a different vibe from the other specials, and it's a bit more action-packed, as per the mystery thriller vibe. Buckley pretty much steals the show as the hilariously evil Rubella, who wants everyone to hate Valentine's Day because she's never gotten a real Valentine in her life.

The Numbers: "Poison Brew" is Rubella's big song and dance with her brothers early-on. We get their explanation as to why they're doing this, how they plan on doing it, and what it will do to the people on earth.

What I Don't Like: This might be the strangest thing Fusco ever did. Humphrey Bogart-imitating Cupids? Villains who act like a cross between Maleficent and Morticia Addams? A Valentine's Day story framed as a mystery? Yeah, this is pretty weird, and more action than musical. Like Fusco's other work for Showtime, it's also incredibly cheap. Some of the sets are a little bit more interesting than the ones for Easter and Thanksgiving, especially when Cosmo and Sam are in their hot air balloon, using a laser (that is obviously a spotlight) to spread love, but it still looks like something made for cable in the early 80's.

The Big Finale: If you're looking for something different (and maybe a little less romantic) this Valentine's Day, take a trip to the big city with Sam and help him stop Rubella from destroying the holiday forever.

Home Media: Easily found on DVD and streaming, including free on Tubi with commercials.

DVD

Amazon Prime

Tubi

Miles Ahead

Sony Pictures Classics (Columbia), 2015

Starring Don Cheadle, Ewan MacGregor, Emayatzy Corinealdi, and Michael Stuhlbarg

Directed by Don Cheadle

Music by Miles Davis and others

We jump ahead from the 1910's to the 1970's, and from ragtime to a very modern form of jazz. Miles Davis was one of the major jazz greats of the mid-20th century, a tempestuous giant whose experiments in cool jazz and be-bop from the late 50's through the early 80's revolutionized jazz and music in general, pushing the boundaries of what jazz could be and do. He was also said to have been notoriously difficult, his life plagued with drug and alcohol addiction and physical illnesses. His addictions led him to drop out of music entirely between 1975 and 1980. In fact, let's begin in 1979, as he was preparing to make a comeback, and find out just how hard that was for him to start over again...

The Story: Davis (Cheadle) is living alone, painting and dealing with debilitating hip pain, when a young Scottish reporter named Dave Braden (MacGregor) forces his way into his home to get an interview. Instead, he ends up following Davis as he pursues tapes of his most recent compositions stolen by local thugs. As he and Braden pursue the thieves, Davis recalls the creations of his most famous compositions, and his troubled relationship with his first wife, dancer Frances Taylor (Corinealdi). She was his muse and his inspiration in the late 50's and 60's, but their marriage ended with her fleeing for her own safety in 1968. 

The Song and Dance: Cheadle directed and wrote this project along with starring in it, claiming no one else could do it better. Maybe he was right. He's an electric Davis, capturing the musician's early spirit and drive, even as he dove head-first into his own addictions. MacGregor almost matches him as the Rolling Stones reporter who is determined to get a story at all cost, even breaking the law or pushing his way into Davis' house. The music is so fabulous, the soundtrack won Grammy. We get Davis' compositions in all their raw, eclectic glory, from the title song to "So What?" to "Prelude Pt. 2."

The Numbers: In fact, we open with "Prelude No. 2" from the live album Agartha, the last album Davis made before his self-imposed exile. Among those we see him working on are "Duran," "So What," "Frelon Brun," the title song, "Back Seat Betty," "Seven Steps to Heaven," "Gone," "Blue In Green," "Black Satin," "Sanctuary," "Teo, "He Loved Him Madly," "East of Rockford," and "Solea."

What I Don't Like: First of all, this is all fictional. While Davis really did take time off between 1975 and 1980 and really did make a comeback in 1981, Dave Braden was created as someone Davis could argue with and drag around to find the tapes - and the story with the tapes going missing was created to add drama. Second, this is for adult jazz fans only. This is rated R for a reason. There's tons of heavy swearing, fisticuffs, abuse, and drug and alcohol use. Start the kids on Davis' best-known albums first. It's also pretty obviously a low-budget indie movie, with cheap sets and costumes. No one besides MacGregor and Cheadle remotely register, especially Corinealdi in a thankless love interest role. There's also all the jumping around. The editing is confusing, and the movie isn't always clear where we're going or what time period or part of Davis' life we're in.

The Big Finale: If you're an adult fan of Davis or jazz like me, you'll want to check out this exploration of something that might have happened during one of the most difficult periods of his life. 

Home Media: Easily found on all major formats. Can currently be found for free on Pluto TV with commercials.

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Blu-Ray

Pluto TV On Demand

Cult Flops - Scott Joplin

Universal, 1977

Starring Billy Dee Williams, Clifton Davies, Art Carney, and Margaret Avery

Directed by Jeremy Kagan

Music and Lyrics by Scott Joplin and others

This week, we dive into Black History Month with biographies of two popular composers, one who would be unjustly forgotten for sixty years, the other who vanished to avoid the spotlight. We're going to start with the long-forgotten one. "King of Ragtime" Scott Joplin was brought back into the spotlight when his music was featured on the soundtrack to the hit 1973 comedy The Sting, and his "The Entertainer" leaped to the top of the charts. This biography was originally intended to be a TV movie, but Universal was so impressed with the results, they rushed it into theaters. Were they right to do this, or should this have been left on the piano roll? Let's begin with Joplin's (Williams) departure in the late 19th century over "The Entertainer" and find out...

The Story: Joplin's father wanted him to work on the railroads, but he had his heart set on music. He ran away from Texarkana, Texas to become a piano teacher in Missouri. It's here that he befriended Louis Chauvelin (Davies), a fellow pianist who worked in a brothel. They join a piano-cutting contest on a lark. Chauvelin wins, but it's Joplin's playing and original music that impresses music publisher John Stark (Carney). He publishes Joplin's "Maple Leaf Rag" in St. Louis, allowing Joplin to share the profits. 

Joplin's music is wildly popular, and he becomes a wealthy man. He even marries lovely widow Belle (Avery), and they buy a lavish home and plan a family. His hands, however, are starting to disobey him. They'll frequently shake when he wants them to play. It turns out to be more than nerves. Joplin has contracted syphilis. So has Chauvelin, and it kills him. Belle too passes shortly after her marriage to Joplin. He throws himself into his magnum opus, a folk opera on African-American themes, with more accessible American music. He's never able to fully stage it in his lifetime, but his music eventually outlives him.

The Song and Dance: The performances are what makes this worth watching. Williams is excellent as the mercurial musician who was determined to make something he could be proud of, before he couldn't do anything at all. Davies nearly matches him as his equally talented but less ambitious best friend, and Carney also does well as the older man who is determined to prove to the world that "ragtime" is more than music for one race. Some of the costumes aren't bad, either, at least well representing the late 19th-early 20th century setting. 

The Numbers: In fact, we open over the credits with "The Entertainer." We first get "Hangover Blues" at the brothel. There's some pretty wild pianists at the piano cutting contest, including a Civil War vet who plays one-armed. Joplin's "Maple Leaf Rag" is what puts him and Chauvelin over, topping even a wild guy who plays while jumping around. We get "Solace" and the duo writes "Heliotrope Bouquet" together. "Courtship," as Scott dates and weds Belle, is based on "Elite Syncopation." We get "Peacharine Rag" and "Pleasant Moments" as well. "Weeping Willow" from Joplin's opera Treemonisha is performed by a very serious choir...but Joplin is so frustrated with their performance, he ends up singing everything himself for the backers. He switches to "The Entertainer" when they aren't interested, giving him a montage of memories and segments from the movie as his hands fail him.

Trivia: This was originally made for TV, but Universal was so impressed with the results, they released it theatrically. 

Look for another famous early Black composer, Eubie Blake, as one of the judges at the piano cutting contest, and R&B group the Commodores (including Lionel Richie) as The Minstrel Singers. 

Treemonisha finally had first complete performance in 1972. It was so well-received, Joplin got a posthumous Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1976. 

What I Don't Like: I'm afraid this looks and sounds like a TV movie from 1977. Nice costumes aside, the sets are cramped, and there's those stills montages. Normally, most Hollywood musical biopics go on for much too long...but this one is too short to really include all of the facts about Joplin's short but eventful life. He had two wives, one of which did die young, but not from heartbreak after a baby's death. He not only played in brothels early-on and taught piano, guitar, and mandolin, but also sang with boys' groups. He wrote an earlier opera, A Guest of Honor, that was so badly received, it's now lost.  I wish they'd expanded it when they moved it to theaters! As it is, what's here is standard biopic cliches with a very dark ending (something a lot of critics complained about in 1977).

The Big Finale: Worth seeing at least once if you're a fan of Williams, Davies, or Joplin and ragtime. 

Home Media: Available in all formats; DVD is from the made-to-order Universal Vault.

DVD

Blu-Ray

Amazon Prime