KENTUCKY MINSTRELS OF 1935'

Evening Star, Issue 22456, 29 September 1936, Page 12

KENTUCKY MINSTRELS OF 1935 '

PRIVATE SCREENING AT GRAND Entertainment of. a type that has not been provided 'for many, years past has been reviyed in ‘.Kentucky -Minstrels of 1935,’ which was privately screened at the -Grand this morning.. .Lying behind the broad title of the film is a good story, superb acting, and good music and fine casting. The picture is the result of tho British Broadcasting Company’s policy in the broadcast of minstrel shows. So popular were the shows that they became a regular feature of- the, 4 programmes. Now they have been transferred to the screen, and their value has been enhanced in the transformation. The principals on the screen are Harry Scott, Eddie Whaley, Nina Mae M‘Kinney, and Debroy Somers and his band. Debroy Somers and his band are the only players known here, but in England and America the three coloured stars are very popular. Past-masters in the art of entertaining, they have given of their very best in the film, with the result-that all types of theatregoers will find amusement to suit their tastes. The storyconcerns the ups and downs of Mott and Bayley (Scott and Whaley), two nigger minstrels who turn down an offer to go on a tour of the music halls because they' believe that their own type of show will never chauga with the fashions. How they come into their own forms the background for the film. For the older generation the chief appeal will lie in the early sequences depicting the London of pre-war days,while for the present generation the spectacular concluding scenes in which Nina Mae M'Kinney, the band, and the other principals, in addition to a big supporting cast,' take part, may be most favoured. The musical siore is excellent, the band giving full effect to the pleasing negro songs with which the film is studded Nina Mae M'Kinney lives up to the reputation she . has gained in America as being one of the leading coloured cabaret singers and performers. It is Scott and Whaley, however, who provide most of the fun, and even without the trimmings in the form of music and other amusing additions, the film would be well worth while. ‘ Carry Me Back to Green Pastures,’ * I’m in Love with the Band,’ ‘ Louisiana Lou,’ ‘ Oh, Dem Golden Slippers,’ ‘I do Like to be Beside the Seaside.’ and ‘ Doo Dali Day ’ are but a few of the songs provided.