| Cabin in the Sky | |
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| Directed by | Vincente Minnelli Busby Berkeley ("Shine" sequence) (uncredited) |
| Produced by | Arthur Freed Albert Lewis |
| Written by | Marc Connelly (uncredited) Lynn Root (play) Joseph Schrank |
| Starring | Ethel Waters, Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson, |
| Music by | Harold Arlen Vernon Duke |
| Distributed by | MGM |
| Release date(s) | April 9, 1943 |
| Running time | 98 min |
| Language | English |
| Budget | US$662,141 |
| IMDb profile | |
Cabin in the Sky is an American Broadway musical which opened in 1940. A motion picture based on the musical was produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and released in 1943. The film version of Cabin in the Sky starred Ethel Waters as Petunia and Eddie "Rochester" Anderson of Jack Benny fame as Little Joe. Lena Horne co-starred as the temptress Georgia Brown in her first and only leading role in an MGM musical. Other cast members included Louis Armstrong as one of Lucifer Junior's minions, Rex Ingram as Lucifer Junior, and Duke Ellington and his Orchestra, who have a showcase musical number.
Overview and history
Cabin in the Sky tells a version of the Faust legend in which Little Joe, a man killed over gambling debts, is given six months to redeem his soul and become worthy of entering Heaven -- otherwise his soul will be condemned to Hell. Produced by Arthur Freed and directed by Vincente Minnelli in one of his first Hollywood productions, Cabin in the Sky was a groundbreaking production for its time due to the decision to use an all-African-American cast. In the 1940s, movie theaters in many cities, particularly in the southern United States, refused to show films with prominent black performers, so MGM took a considerable financial risk by approving the film. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song for "Happiness is a Thing Called Joe." Cabin in the Sky is remembered for its intelligent and witty script, which treated its characters and their race with a dignity rare in American films of the time, although some depictions are still a bit jarring to 21st century sensibilities. According to liner notes in the CD reissue of the film's soundtrack, Freed and Minnelli sought input from black leaders before production began on the film. One musical number, in which Horne sings a reprise of "Ain't It the Truth" while taking a bubble bath, was cut from the film prior to release, though it later appeared in a 1946 Pete Smith short subject entitled Studio Visit. As Horne later said in the documentary That's Entertainment! III in which the excised performance was also featured, it was felt that to show a black woman singing in a bath went beyond the bounds of moral decency in 1943. A second (non-bubble bath) performance of this song by Louis Armstrong was also cut from the final print, resulting in the famous trumpeter having no solo musical number in the film. After years of unavailability, Warner Home Video and Turner Entertainment released it on DVD on January 10 2006.
Trivia
- A scene involving a tornado reuses footage from The Wizard of Oz.
