Reet, Petite, and Gone

Continuing to review African-Americans in film in chronological order for Black History Month, we're once again in 1947 when Louis Jordan has another movie that's filled with his songs with a wisp of a plot for about an hour. In this one, he's Louis Jarvis who has to deal with both getting money for his Broadway show and contesting a will left by his dying father (himself in flashbacks, J. Louis Johnson as an old man). Besides Jordan, many other entertaining numbers are provided by Bea Griffith, Pat Rainey, and especially heavyset June Richmond who, like me, is a native of Chicago. And there are plenty of pretty female dancers, especially one on the piano in one number, who will make your blood boil! So with all that said, I highly recommend Reet, Petite, and Gone. P.S. Another player, a Rudy Toombs, comes from Monroe in my home state of Louisiana.