This short subject made right at the beginning of the talkie era is the only film featuring the legendary blues singer Bessie Smith. The skimpy plot of this film has Bessie's no good gambling man being caught by Bessie in the arms of Isabel Washington. As this slick crapshooting man leaves Bessie she breaks into her lament, the St. Louis Blues.
After which there's a large production number where the Hall Johnson Choir is used in a large production number which while not done with the kind of values that Busby Berkeley had still was quite good. I'm sure the black cinema people who made this film at RKO didn't have a tenth of what Berkeley spent in 42nd Street.
Thank God this treasure was preserved.
After which there's a large production number where the Hall Johnson Choir is used in a large production number which while not done with the kind of values that Busby Berkeley had still was quite good. I'm sure the black cinema people who made this film at RKO didn't have a tenth of what Berkeley spent in 42nd Street.
Thank God this treasure was preserved.