Boarding House Blues

1948

Musical

4
IMDb Rating 5.9/10 10 153 153

Plot summary

In order to save their home, tenants of a boarding house put on a show.

Director

Josh Binney Photo
Josh Binney

Top cast

Harold Cromer Photo
Harold Cromer as Moofty
Johnny Lee Photo
Johnny Lee as Stanley
Moms Mabley Photo
Moms Mabley as Moms
Emory Richardson Photo
Emory Richardson as Simon
720p.BLU 1080p.BLU
799.29 MB
968*720
English 2.0
NR
23.976 fps
1 hr 27 min
Seeds 2
1.45 GB
1440*1072
English 2.0
NR
23.976 fps
1 hr 27 min
Seeds 5

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by tavm 7 / 10

Dusty Fletcher, Moms Mabley, and others provide some good entertainment in Boarding House Blues

Last year, when I was reviewing movies for Black History Month in chronological order, one of them was Killer Diller-a revue surrounded by the thinest of plots-starring Dusty Fletcher and Jackie "Moms" Mabley. Well, it's that time again and once again, those two are in this one as well. Ms. Mabley plays the head of the title place with Fletcher as one of the boarders. The latter has some amusing scenes with an ape named Steggy (actually John Riano in an animal suit) especially when he does some falls. The two stars also have some funny stuff with a live rabbit they're trying to cook. Other than a few other boarders doing some shtick, not much happens before a succession of comic and musical acts are presented as an "audition" for an upcoming show. Among them: Stump & Stumpy-James Cross & Eddie Hartman-a comic tap dancing act with one of them doing some serious mugging, "Crip" Heard-a one-armed and one-legged tap dancer, The Berry Brothers-Warren & Nyas-doing their tap routines while singing, Lewis & White-doing some one-liners before their own dancing, Una Mae Carlisle-a singer who plays the piano singing a couple of pretty good songs like "Throw It Out of Your Mind" and "It Ain't Like That", Anistine Allen-who sings "Let It Roll" while doing some moves, Lucky Millinder-the bandleader, and one of his singers-Bull Moose Jackson whose rendition of "I Love You, Yes I Do" sounds like something that could have come out of various doo-wop groups later on in the '50s. Moms Mabley herself comes on with her amusing take on life before doing a song-and-dance bit. This was quite an entertaining film of obscure and rarely-seen-on-film acts that I'm glad was recorded for posterity. So on that note, Boarding House Blues is well worth a look. P.S. Marie Cooke plays a character that also supposedly sings but she doesn't perform for some reason. Bandleader Millinder was raised in my birthtown of Chicago, Ill. And Nyas Berry was a native of New Orleans, La., which is only a two-hour drive from where I currently live.
Reviewed by ptb-8 6 / 10

It's a Killer Diller.

This time capsule review of Negro stage performers of the 30s and 40s... this is a small film of major talent and a perfect chance to see the almost unseen (to us whiteys) of black vaudeville stars only ever before heard about. One performer Woody Allen must have certainly known about is 'Crip" Heard, the one legged tap dancer... See Stardust Memories for where that info went. He is called "Crip' because he is a cripple..he has one arm and one leg but that doesn't stop him dancing himself into a frenzy...... and don't blame me for that anecdote..... It is in his intro in the film! The lindyhop dancers later in the film are enough to get the most exhausted viewer off the couch and leaping about in their own boarding house. Killer Diller, the 1947 remake with other talent incl Nat King Cole is equally thrilling.
Reviewed by dbborroughs 6 / 10

Lets put on a show is a wonderful record of Black Vaudeville, but not a particularly good movie

This movie is less a film than a collection of routines from the black vaudeville circuit. The results are decidedly mixed as a movie but as a record of the routines and acts it contains its a historical document (then again many historical documents are not very entertaining) The plot has Jackie "Moms" Mabley running a boarding house for various performers. When times get tight they put on a show to help Moms out. Its threadbare and simply the excuse to hang the various routines and songs on. The bits are certainly better than the whole and while I did enjoy said bits, I was left feeling rather empty at the end. Definitely worth a look or two if you love vaudeville, or the history of comedy. Actually its worth a look see if you want some laughs and aren't particularly picky about annoying things like plot. As they say its worth a bag of popcorn.
Read more IMDb reviews

2 Comments

Be the first to leave a comment