Musical Monday: Big Timers (1945)

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It’s no secret that the Hollywood Comet loves musicals.
In 2010, I revealed I had seen 400 movie musicals over the course of eight years. Now that number is over 600. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals.

This week’s musical:
Big Timers (1945) – Musical #836

Studio:
All American

Director:
Bud Pollard

Starring:
Stepin Fetchit, Francine Everett, Lou Swarz, Gertrude Saunders, Ed Hunter, Duke Williams, Elveta Hunter, Milton Woods, Walter Earle
Specialty Acts: Rocky Brown, Skylight, Tarzana, The All American Girl Band

Plot:
Betty Washburn (Everett) is engaged to Tom Powers (Williams), whose family is eager to meet Betty and her family. The problem is, Tom is wealthy and Betty’s mother (Swarz) works as a maid in a swanky apartment building. A performer in the building, Mabel Page (Saunders), lets the Washburns use her apartment and puts on a special performance for the Powers family.

Trivia:
• Only film featuring Tarzana

Highlights:
• Francine Everett
• Tarzana dancing

My review:
While several sites qualify BIG TIMERS (1945) as a short, I still decided to review this 36-minute musical story as a full Musical Monday.

BIG TIMERS is a rich boy, poor girl story. Betty Washburn (Everett) is engaged to Tom Powers (Williams), whose family is eager to meet Betty and her family. The problem is, Tom is wealthy and Betty’s mother (Swarz) works as a maid in a swanky apartment building. A performer in the building, Mabel Page (Saunders), lets the Washburns use her apartment and puts on a special performance for the Powers family.

BIG TIMERS is what is known as a “race film,” which is a film that has an all-African American cast and was released between 1915 and 1950. These films were usually produced outside of the Hollywood studio system.

Much of BIG TIMERS is filled with the specialty musical performances that are performed by Francine Everett, Rocky Brown, Skylight, Tarzana and The All American Girl Band.

While the film is light on plot, the musical performances are lots of fun. I loved seeing the All American Girl Band and dancer Tarzana.

But the real highlight is lovely Francine Everett. While she doesn’t get to do as much acting here, she’s still lovely. If you aren’t familiar with her, I recommend DIRTY GERTIE FROM HARLAM U.S.A. (1946), which is a version of W. Somerset Maugham’s RAIN.

BIG TIMERS is brief but filled with great music. My only regret is Everett didn’t have more of a chance to shine.

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