Black and Tan

Duke Ellington's film debut is quite an interesting introduction to the Duke on screen. The film isn't very long - a couple of reels - and the storyline is incidental to the music numbers, but the music and dance routines are certainly memorable. Although the film features an all-black cast, as others have pointed out, there is some fairly blatant racial stereotyping in the early scenes.

Duke acquits himself pretty well, although he isn't really called upon to do too much acting. Fredi Washington is great on the dance floor, but lousy as an actress. She does look fine though. The music's great and the dance routines are good, although one of them is repeated when viewed through the multi-sighted vision of the sick dancer - a sequence that perhaps goes on too long.

Definitely worth a look for historical value if nothing else.