The Horse's Head

The Plot: When we think of deserts, we think arid environments devoid of life, but thanks to Disney’s “True-Life Adventures” series, there’s more than meets the eye in “The Living Desert”. Our story takes place across the many deserts of Arizona (Painted, Sonoran, Chihuahuan, etc.) as we witness the survival tactics of the region’s many animals and insects, from the largest bobcats to the smallest millipedes. Is a lot of this movie staged for the camera? Yes. Is the narration hokey at times? Oh yeah. Is the film an exciting and fascinating glimpse into our own world? …Kinda.

Why It Matters: The NFR gives some historical background and praises the sequence of a rattlesnake fighting a tarantula, but also criticizes the narration’s “weak attempts at humor”. An essay by the film’s cinematographer N. Paul Kentworthy Jr. recounts his experience making the film.

But Does It Really?: As much as I love when a Disney movie makes the NFR, I’m confused as to why “The Living Desert” got the nod. While the “True-Life Adventures” series was popular in its time, I wouldn’t call it an NFR essential. And if you’re going to induct one of the “True-Life Adventures”, why not “White Wilderness”, the only one with any cultural impact (more on that one in “Legacy”)? Once I learned that “The Living Desert” has a UCLA connection via N. Paul Kentworthy Jr., this selection started to make more sense. The NFR loves a UCLA connection; be it films made by its students or preserved by their archives. Heck, I think the mere mention of UCLA bumps up your chances of NFR induction (which bodes well for me, frequent UCLA mentioner and co-director of the short film “Test Room D”). Tangent aside, “The Living Desert” is a pleasant enough documentary, though it’s the most naked proof that you can take any footage and manipulate a narrative through editing and music. I’ll give “The Living Desert” a pass as the forefather to the modern nature documentary, but even that’s a generous compromise. 

Everybody Gets One: As part of his MA thesis requirement at UCLA, N. Paul Kentworthy Jr. filmed a fight between a wasp and a tarantula, editing the footage into a narrative short with the intention of showing it as a “calling card” to potential employers. Kentworthy submitted his film to the team at Disney’s “True-Life Adventures” series, and an enthusiastic screening with Walt led to the film being bought by Disney, and Kentworthy being hired to film a few lighter sequences to make it feature length. Subsequently, because Disney now owned the footage exclusively, Kentworthy’s thesis quickly became a lengthy essay on the technical experience of making the film rather than the film itself.

Seriously, Oscars?: “The Living Desert” won the Oscar for Best Documentary (Feature), with the trophy going to its producer, Walt Disney. Throughout the ceremony, Disney also won the Oscars for Documentary (Short-Subject), Short Subject (Two-Reel), and Short Subject (Cartoon), making him the first person to receive four Oscars at the same ceremony. This remained a singular feat in Oscar history until 71 years later when Sean Baker won four Oscars for producing, directing, writing, and editing “Anora”.

• Six more “True-Life” features were released after “The Living Desert”, and the series concluded with 1960’s “Jungle Cat” about the jaguars of Brazil. If you know any film in this series, it’s 1958’s “White Wilderness”, which staged a scene of Canadian lemmings following each other off a cliff, leading to the urban legend that lemmings participate in mass-suicide. The staged aspect of this story didn’t come to light until the 1980s, and Disney has always attested that freelance filmmaker James R. Simon staged the lemming scenes without the approval or input of Disney. That’s their story and they’re sticking to it.

The Plot: Shy teenager Carrie White (Sissy Spacek) is frequently abused by both her high school classmates and her domineering, religious mother Margaret (Piper Laurie). When Carrie has her first period in the locker room, she is ridiculed by the other girls, and starts to experience what turns out to be telekinetic powers. Classmate Sue Snell (Amy Irving) regrets picking on Carrie and makes her boyfriend Tommy Ross (William Katt) take Carrie to the prom as an apology. Meanwhile fellow classmate Chris Hargensen (Nancy Allen), furious about being banned from the prom as punishment for teasing Carrie, plots with her boyfriend Billy Nolan (John Travolta) to get revenge on Carrie at the dance. Little do they know that Carrie is now in control of her newfound powers, and hell hath no fury like a prom date scorned.

Why It Matters: The NFR attributes the film’s success to Brian De Palma “mix[ing] up a stylish cauldron of horrific scenes” with Spacek’s “unforgettable performance”. Spacek is also quoted from a Library of Congress interview calling De Palma “a wonder to work with”.

But Does It Really?: When I started this blog in 2017, “Carrie” was one of the movies that made me say, “Wait, that isn’t on the NFR?” When it finally made the cut five years later, needless to say I had no objections. “Carrie” is a horror classic that has endured thanks to its eternal themes of isolation and social longing, its emphasis on character over frights, and for being really, really scary. De Palma’s inventive directing keeps things interesting to watch, as does the dedicated performances from the entire cast, whose grounded work balances out the supernatural elements. From its iconic prom sequence to its introduction of Stephen King, “Carrie” is a force to be reckoned with, and a no-brainer on this list of significant American films.

Shout Outs: A “Psycho” reference in a De Palma movie? Now I’ve seen everything.

Everybody Gets One: Originally at Columbia as a physics major, Brian De Palma was inspired to become a filmmaker after seeing “Citizen Kane” and “Vertigo”. After directing a few smaller films in New York (including some with a young Robert De Niro), De Palma moved to L.A. and made such films as the cult classic “Phantom of the Paradise” and “Obsession”, his full-blown love letter to Hitchcock. As of this writing, “Carrie” is somehow De Palma’s only movie on the NFR.

Wow, That’s Dated: “Carrie” displays its ‘70s-ness not through any pop culture or dated references, but rather through a partially synth score and some incredible hair styles (looking at you, William Katt’s perm).

Seriously, Oscars?: Despite the Academy’s long-standing aversion to horror movies, “Carrie” received two Oscar nominations for its main actresses. Both Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie lost in their categories to the women of “Network”: Spacek losing Lead Actress to Faye Dunaway, and Laurie losing Supporting Actress to Beatrice Straight (but that’s another story).

• In a recurring ‘70s trend, no one playing a high schooler in “Carrie” was an actual teenager during production. Sissy Spacek was 27, and the rest of the cast ranged from 22 (John Travolta) to 31 (Edie McClurg). Adding to this confusion is 29-year-old Betty Buckley as Coach Collins. For the most part it’s not too distracting, though as Norma, P.J. Soles is utilizing a precursor to the “Ponytail Stratagem” known as the “Baseball Cap Commutation”.
• After 1961’s “The Hustler”, Piper Laure’s film offers dried up and she headed back to New York, working exclusively in theater and TV. Although Laurie didn’t like the script for “Carrie”, she was charmed by Brian De Palma and agreed to play Margaret assuming the movie was a black comedy. Her performance is definitely out there, but surprisingly never full-on camp, which given the material is a tough needle to thread.

• For the record, the statuette in the prayer closet is of Saint Sebastian, not Jesus. Saint Sebastian was shot with multiple arrows in a persecution of Christians, and then later became the patron saint of archery, which is a little rude. It’s like making Jesus the patron saint of nails.
• So far Carrie’s telekinetic powers include moving objects, blowing up light bulbs, and summoning Bernard Herrmann soundalike cues. Side Note: Herrmann had scored De Palma’s previous films “Sisters” and “Obsession” and was slated to score this movie before his untimely death in December 1975. Composer/songwriter Pino Donaggio took over scoring duties, the first of seven collaborations with De Palma.
• Fun Fact: Brian De Palma held auditions for “Carrie” in a joint session with George Lucas for “Star Wars”, and it’s fun to think that all these actors were this close to being in one of the biggest blockbusters ever. Of the “Carrie” cast, I could see William Katt as Luke Skywalker in an alternate universe far, far away. On a related note, there is no truth to the rumor that Sissy Spacek and Carrie Fisher were originally cast in each other’s roles.
• Nancy Allen does a good job keeping Chris a petty teenager without going into full-on “Mean Girls” mode. She’s also quite charming, which explains how she became Mrs. Brian De Palma a few years later. Playing her boyfriend is rising star John Travolta in full-on Vinnie Barbarino mode. Also, I won’t go into detail about what Chris is doing to Billy in their first scene together, but is she a ventriloquist? 

• Because this film’s most iconic moments are at the beginning and end, I always forget about the lengthy middle section of everyone preparing for the prom. It’s a lot of dialogue scenes, most of which don’t feature Carrie at all! Once Carrie is back in the picture, however, we do get a very satisfying scene of her using her powers to stand up to Margaret.
• “I can see your dirty pillows” is an iconic line, but doesn’t it seem a bit out of character for Margaret?
• Ah, ‘70s proms: live music, feathery hair, and all the ruffled tuxes you can feast your eyes on. We get some sweet moments throughout as we experience Carrie’s joy at her supposed acceptance into the popular groups. The film’s last pleasant sequence is Carrie and Tommy on the dance floor, filmed with the actors on a platform rotating in one direction with the camera revolving around them in the other direction. I get what De Palma was going for, but we need to stop the movie because I think I’m gonna –

• And then Carrie is named Prom Queen in a rigged election, and your heart breaks as she obliviously takes her place on stage directly under a bucket of pig’s blood prepared by Chris. I spent most of the scene yelling at Carrie to move a few feet to her right. Well, the whole scene is in slow-motion, so it was more like “Moooooooooove Caaaaaaaarrrriiiieeeee”.
• You know it’s coming, and you know it’s not going to be pretty, but Carrie’s revenge on the prom is gloriously unrestrained bedlam. It’s scary and gruesome (and with a higher body count than the novel) but because you have spent so much time with Carrie, there’s a sorrow underneath all this chaos. Side note: I love this scene’s use of split screen. Even the conventional rules of moviemaking go out the window in the fracas. 

• The final showdown between Carrie and Margaret is also wonderfully intense, with Margaret getting a great reveal as Carrie heads to the bathroom. Also is it me or does Margaret’s hair get puffier with each scene?

• Everyone’s favorite bit of “Carrie” trivia: one shot in the final scene was filmed with Amy Irving walking backwards, with the footage being reversed to give her walk a dreamlike quality. It’s all well and good until you notice the cars driving backwards in the distance.

• “The Fury” was one of many films in the wake of “Carrie” that involved children or teenagers with telepathic powers. Among them: “The Initiation of Sarah”, “Firestarter”, “Scanners”, and “Zapped!”, the latter being the only time a Scott Baio movie will ever be mentioned in connection with the NFR.

• In the late 1990s, a horror film called “The Curse” was hastily re-written to work as a legacy sequel to “Carrie”, the result being the disastrous “The Rage: Carrie 2”. Only Amy Irving reprised her role from the original, and while she has since regretted her appearance, she admits the production paid her “a shitload of money”.

• In addition to the sequel, there have been two subsequent film adaptations of the novel, both of which skew closer overall to the book, but then take some wild swings at the end that didn’t sit well with audiences or critics. Fingers crossed that the recently announced limited series adaptation by Mike Flanagan fares better. Speaking of unsuccessful adaptations…

• A stage musical of “Carrie” opened on Broadway in 1988 and had a litany of artistic misfires and production woes, closing in three days and losing its entire $8 million investment. A re-written, scaled-down Off-Broadway revival in 2012 fixed some of the problems (emphasis on some) but remains in the shadow of the original’s legendary flop.

This is easily the most oversimplified post I’ve ever written: a seven-hour distillation of World War II distilled even further into a blog post. Every sentence of this post could be its own write-up, but we’ve got to keep things moving, and I encourage you to treat this post as the proverbial tip of the iceberg regarding World War II.

The Plot: “Why We Fight” is a seven-part film series created by Frank Capra for the US Department of War to educate the American military on how World War II came to be and what exactly we’re fighting for. Each film in the series focuses on a different aspect of the war, with episodes devoted to Hitler’s rise in Germany, the Nazi invasion of Poland and France, and the brave fighting from our allies in Britain, Russia, and China. After seven hours of wartime propaganda, you may not agree with its heavy-handedness, but you will understand why we fought.

Why It Matters: The NFR write-up is mostly a rehash of the films’ contents and Capra’s limited resources while making them, highlighting the editing of newsreel footage. An essay by Dr. Thomas W. Bohn gives more historical context and praises the series as “the finest documentary films of World War II”.

But Does It Really?: I’ve watched many NFR films over the years dealing with WWII, but “Why We Fight” is the only one that attempts an extended overview of the entire war. While no single film could possibly succeed at this, “Why We Fight” is the closest we’ll ever get. It’s long and at times unsettling, but the series is an indispensable account of the war while it was in progress, with a bounty of newsreel and documentary footage showing what it was like (albeit the manipulated, American mythologized version). “Why We Fight” is NFR-worthy for its preservation of the sights, sounds, and ideals of the war, but I would hold off on watching all seven of these unless you’re really into WWII (or the NFR).

Wow, That’s Dated: We’ll cover the films’ most egregious bits of propaganda as we go, don’t you worry.

Seriously, Oscars?: Two of the “Why We Fight” films received Oscar attention. “Prelude to War” was one of 25 nominees and four eventual winners for Best Documentary Feature in 1942, the first year that category was presented. “The Battle of Russia” was nominated the next year, losing to another war documentary from our allies in Britain: “Desert Victory”.

The Plot: In the fictional South American port of Barranca there’s a small airway company run by the enigmatic Geoff Carter (Cary Grant). Operating out of a local bar/hotel, the airway carries mail through the dangerous Andes Mountains and is one missed delivery away from going out of business. One night, the American Bonnie Lee (Jean Arthur) arrives in Barranca when the banana boat she’s traveling on docks there for the night. Infatuated by Carter and his business, Bonnie opts to miss her boat and stay in Barranca. Things get complicated when Carter hires new pilot Bat MacPherson (Richard Barthelmess), who may be keeping a few secrets about his past from his wife Judy (Rita Hayworth). There’s plenty of intrigue and flying sequences to go around in this drama from Howard Hawks.

Why It Matters: The NFR calls the film the “’quintessential’ Howard Hawks male melodrama”, praising the “sparkling dialogue” and the “dazzling air sequences”.

But Does It Really?: This is a minor minor classic. We’ve got plenty of Howard Hawks and Cary Grant on the list, and this one is barely relevant enough to consider NFR-worthy (Of Hawks’ 10 films on the Registry, this was the tenth to make the list). “Only Angels” is routinely hailed as one of Hawks’ best movies, and maybe I’m just partial to his screwball comedies, but this didn’t do anything for me. The performances are all great, as are the flying scenes, but overall I was thrown by the movie’s lowkey toxic masculinity and somewhat static presentation. In terms of the great movies of 1939, “Only Angels Have Wings” is second or third tier on that list and makes the NFR mainly for its reputation and the pedigree of its creatives.

Title Track: Howard Hawks’ original treatment was called “Plane from Barranca”, and the film went by the working title “Plane No. 4” during production. I’m glad they spiced up the title, because “Plane No. 4” is an unquestionably bland name for a movie. But hey, at least they didn’t just call it “Plane”. Who’d be dumb enough to do that?

Seriously, Oscars?: A hit upon release, “Only Angels Have Wings” received an Oscar nomination for its Visual Effects (that category’s first year), losing to the disaster film “The Rains Came”.

• Bonnie, upon meeting two English-speaking pilots in South America: “It sure sounds good to hear something that doesn’t sound like Pig-Latin.” Yikes.
• This is one of at least five NFR films to feature character actor Sig Ruman, Hollywood’s go-to for German and German-adjacent characters. Here Ruman plays “Dutchy”, the airways owner who looks a lot like a live-action Geppetto.
• Fun bit of trivia: One of the pilots in the film is played by Allyn Joslyn, who a few years later would play Mortimer Brewster in the Broadway production of “Arsenic and Old Lace”, a role played in the film version by…Cary Grant.
• It takes a while for Cary Grant to show up, but when he does he has a nice movie star entrance, wearing a ridiculously large straw planter hat. Cary is good as always in this, but I worry the character is too stoic for his own good. This is why I never liked Robert Mitchum: I can’t read him!
• Playing grounded pilot “Kid” Dabb is Thomas Mitchell, your MVP of 1939. In addition to “Only Angels Have Wings”, Mitchell’s 1939 filmography included performances in “Gone with the Wind”, “Stagecoach”, and “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington”. And that’s just his 1939 movies that have made the NFR! As much as he deserved his Supporting Oscar for “Stagecoach”, I’m beginning to see how that win was also for his great work throughout the year. One question: Why does everyone keep calling him “Kid”? He’s 47!

• I’m enjoying the model work of the planes in the flight scenes. It’s very low budget by today’s standards, but it works. Unfortunately, the HD print I was watching occasionally reveals the strings holding the model plane up.
• One of the film’s more interesting choices is to have no underscore outside of the very beginning and very end. This must have been Dimitri Tiomkin’s easiest assignment. The lack of score certainly makes the silent moments stand out more, especially the eerie quiet surrounding Joe trying to land his plane in the fog. The one downside of no score: I watched “Only Angels” on an overcast Sunday afternoon and almost fell asleep. 

• This is an actual exchange between Carter and Kid once they learn that Bonnie’s missed boat won’t be making a stop in Santa Maria: 

• At last, a Richard Barthelmess performance on the NFR where he isn’t miscast due to being too old or not Asian (though funnily enough his characters in both this and “Tol’able David” are mail carriers). And yes, that’s a young Rita Hayworth in an early film performance as MacPherson’s wife Judy. She doesn’t have much to do here, but you can see how people would take notice of her after this film. Rita’s casting was at the insistence of Columbia head Harry Cohn, who was in the process of transforming the exotic bit player Rita Cansino into the more glamorous leading lady Rita Hayworth.

• Side note: Although Carter calls Judy by her name several times throughout the film, he never says “Judy, Judy, Judy” a la later Cary Grant impressions. That bit allegedly stemmed from comedian Larry Storch doing his Grant impression at a nightclub when he spotted Judy Garland walking in. Grant never said “Judy, Judy, Judy” in any of his films, though apparently he uttered it in an outtake of one of his later films as a practical joke (possibly “Charade“, but I couldn’t find anything definitive).
• The shot of Carter flying the plane straight down is unintentionally hilarious. It’s obviously a regular shot of Cary Grant with the camera turned sideways.
• This movie has a “Casablanca” vibe to it; a bunch of foreigners with mysterious pasts in an exotic location, waiting in a bar for a plane to show up. If only this movie had a Max Steiner score and a couple of standards to jazz it up a bit. As “Only Angels” moves into its third act, the film starts getting more like “Red Dust”, complete with rainstorm!
• Speaking of “Red Dust”, Cary Grant is a strong contender for the 1939 Clark Gable prize for best reaction to getting shot: No reaction whatsoever. He just stands there as everyone huddles around him to examine the injury. It’s keeping with the character’s stoicism, but come on!  

• [Spoilers] I had no idea what to expect from the film’s ending, but I didn’t have “bird strike with condors” on my Bingo card. I definitely didn’t see that coming. Sadly, neither did MacPherson or Kid.
• Somewhat ironically, this film takes a long time making a landing for its ending. We know Carter is going to take off in that plane and we know Bonnie is going to stay and wait for him, but there’s like 10 minutes of everyone saying goodbye to each other before any of that happens. Just go already!

• Rita Hayworth’s star continued to rise after the success of “Only Angels”, and within a few years was starring in several big musicals while simultaneously becoming a popular pin-up girl with our boys overseas. Hayworth spent the 1940s as a bonafide movie star, including in the NFR films “Gilda” and “The Lady from Shanghai”.

• The film’s repeated line “Calling Barranca, calling Barranca” is referenced in the 1940 Merrie Melodies cartoon, “Ceiling Hero” (its title a spoof on Hawks’ “Ceiling Zero”). Apparently, the phrase pops up in several other Merrie Melodies/Looney Tunes shorts, but I could only confirm “Ceiling Hero”. Maybe “Ceiling Hero” played a lot in TV reruns?

The Plot: Little Joe Jackson (Eddie “Rochester” Anderson) is a chronic gambler who keeps trying to quit at the behest of his devoted wife Petunia (Ethel Waters). When Joe skips church to gamble at a local club, he is shot by gangster Domino Johnson (“Bubbles” John W. Sublett). As Joe lies on his deathbed, he is visited by angel The General (Kenneth Spencer) and devil Lucifer Jr. (Rex Ingram), who fight over custody of Joe’s soul. They agree on a deal to keep Joe alive for six more months, allowing him a chance to repent, but if he slips up, he goes to Hell with Lucifer Jr. Upon returning to his body, Joe vows to be a better husband and spends more time with Petunia, but Lucifer Jr. has a few tricks up his sleeve, including the services of Joe’s old flame Georgia Brown (Lena Horne). Oh, and did I mention it’s a musical with an all-Black cast?

Why It Matters: The NFR calls the film “a glittering cultural record of outstanding African American artistic talent”, though concedes that the film simultaneously “demonstrates the limited film opportunities and acting compromises” of Black entertainers at the time.

But Does It Really?: While the film doesn’t add up to a whole lot, “Cabin in the Sky” has a few things working for it; the sensational on-screen talent, the directorial debut of Vincente Minnelli, and progressive-for-its-time casting. Yes, there are plenty of negative stereotypes to go around, but they’re never at a grotesque extreme, and while the film may be less entertaining than it was 80 years ago because of that, it is still very watchable. If you’re willing to overlook these stereotypes, “Cabin in the Sky” is a fun musical with plenty of big talent on display, and its historical significance helps seal its NFR status.

Shout Out: In a great bit of recycling from MGM, the storm at the end of the movie is the tornado sequence from “The Wizard of Oz”. They’ve got the footage and damn it they’re gonna use it!

Everybody Gets One: No history of great 20^th century entertainers is complete without Ethel Waters. A staple of the Black vaudeville circuit since she was nine years old, Waters spent the 1920s and 1930s as one of the most successful (and highest paid) African American blues singers in the country, with such hits as “Dinah” and “Am I Blue?”. She also originated the song “Stormy Weather” during her tenure at the Cotton Club. In addition to headlining the original Broadway production of “Cabin in the Sky”, Waters starred in 1939’s “The Ethel Waters Show”, making her the first Black performer with their own TV show (albeit a one-time special that aired only in New York). Ethel Waters was living in Los Angeles and had already made a handful of films when MGM started production on “Cabin in the Sky”.

Title Track: Sung by Ethel Waters and Eddie Anderson (in his least gravelly work), the song “Cabin in the Sky” is one of only three that made the transfer from stage to screen (the others are “Taking a Chance on Love” and “Honey in the Honeycomb”).

Seriously Oscars?: “Cabin in the Sky” received a Best Song Oscar nomination for “Happiness Is a Thing Called Joe”. While the song lost to “You’ll Never Know” from the Alice Faye musical “Hello, Frisco, Hello”, composers Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg had already won their “Over the Rainbow” Oscar at that point, so they’re fine.

• Say what you will about the stereotypes in this movie, but it’s refreshing to see Butterfly McQueen play something other than an anxiety-ridden ditz. She doesn’t have much to do in her few scenes, but at least she’s not running around in hysterics.
• “Cabin” is often linked with “Stormy Weather”, Hollywood’s other all-Black movie of 1943, released three months after this film. In terms of overall quality, “Cabin” outpaces “Stormy” thanks to its book musical foundation and inventive direction. Unfortunately, much like “Stormy”, our two Black leads aren’t allowed to be as affectionate as an on-screen White couple. Come on, let them kiss!
• I went into this movie cold, so I definitely wasn’t expecting the Devil to be in this. (Excuse me, the son of the Devil). Proving the old adage that the Devil is more interesting to play than God, Rex Ingram is clearly having a blast; certainly more fun than Kenneth Spencer is as the strait-laced General. Along with Ethel Waters, Ingram is the only other actor reprising their stage role for this film.
• Other than a hymn during the opening church scene, “Cabin” doesn’t really become a musical until after Joe comes back and a relieved Petunia sings “Happiness is a Thing Called Joe”. In terms of what happiness is, where does Joe rank among a puppy and a warm gun?

• Showing up briefly as Lucifer Jr.’s idea men are Mantan Moreland, Willie Best, and the comedy team of Fletcher Rivers and Leon James, aka Moke and Poke. Also popping up in this scene: Louis Armstrong, whose brief appearance here makes more sense once you learn they cut his song from the final film. At least we get to hear him play the trumpet for about five seconds.
• Line that made me laugh out loud: Lucifer Jr. complaining about having to work with the B team of devils because “the A boys are over there in Europe!”
• While this isn’t Lena Horne’s film debut, it’s the performance that made audiences take notice of her. Her Georgia Brown is a sort of precursor to Lola from “Damn Yankees”, the seductive vamp under the influence of the Devil. Perhaps Horne’s most notable scene in this movie is the one they cut: a reprise of “Ain’t It the Truth” (Armstrong’s excised song) performed by Horne while taking a bubble bath! Apparently, the censors felt a Black woman in a bathtub was too risqué for 1943. Fortunately, that footage survives and pops up in “That’s Entertainment! III”.

• “Taking a Chance on Love” has nothing to do with anything, but it’s a sweet number, featuring dancer Bill (brother of Pearl) Bailey showing off some impressive tap dancing. I’m pretty sure Bill just invented the moonwalk!

• So let me get this straight: You cut Lena Horne’s first solo number, and when she finally sings it’s a duet between her and Eddie Anderson where he does most of the singing? What is wrong with you people?

• Once we return to the gambling club (the not-so-subtly named Paradise), the film ditches the plot for a parade of song and dance numbers. Sure we get Duke Ellington and his orchestra, some aggressive jitterbugging, and more numbers for Lena Horne and Ethel Waters, but get on with it already!
• [Spoilers] I was ready to go along with this movie’s somewhat dark ending with Joe and Petunia in the afterlife (and one of the rare deus ex machina’s to actually involve God), but then they tack on an “it was all a dream” ending that’s not in the original play! What a cop out! They didn’t need to lift everything from “Wizard of Oz”.

• While the stage version of “Cabin in the Sky” doesn’t show up that often outside of the odd concert staging, the song “Taking a Chance on Love” has become a standard. The film’s “Happiness is a Thing Called Joe” also gets the occasional cover, including recently by Cher of all people in support of Joe Biden!

• Although Lena Horne worked primarily in film for the next decade or so, she reunited with composers Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg for the Broadway musical “Jamaica”. Among the songs she sang every night was “Ain’t It the Truth”, her deleted song from this movie.

• And as we soon learned, Vincente Minnelli was just getting warmed up with “Cabin in the Sky”, cranking out hit after hit for MGM for the next 15 years. Among his follow-ups are fellow NFR entries “Meet Me in St. Louis”, “An American in Paris”, and “Gigi” for which Minnelli won the Best Director Oscar.