Cabin in the Sky

Une cabane du Ciel

                                         

Vincente Minnelli's controversial first film Cabin in the Sky [1943] combines the Negro spiritual and the comedy juxtaposed somewhere between self-empowerment and minstrelsy. As Glenn Kenny writes in his fine capsule of the new Warner Blu-ray:

"The spectacle of Black excellence is gorgeously enveloping, but one never quite escapes the “but still…” feeling about the whole thing. That said, Minnelli was about as enlightened as white studio directors at MGM got in this era, and as dicey as the musical’s book may be (pardon the pun), the camera treatment of the performers is never less than square and appreciative. This is a fancy way of saying Minnelli demonstrates a form of anti-racism by shooting this cast as beautifully as any other ensemble in his filmography (see for instance the beautiful crane from the dance floor to immaculate Duke Ellington at the piano at in the nightclub scene in the last third). “Bogus but rather entertaining” James Baldwin said of this and Stormy Weather — they had, he stated, the advantage over similarly pitched fare of allowing the Black viewer to “at least […] listen to the music.” "

Cabin in the Sky lends Black audiences a kind of pandered-to vision for aspiration (avoid the devil's temptation; make it to heaven, that great cabin in the sky); other specifically white audiences can “relate” by easing into the mythic and back-patting runtime.

Minnelli begins his career in cinema with this film, after having directed the property to great success on the Broadway stage,— subsequently, recruited to adapt it by the head of MGM's musical division Arthur Freed with the provision that he himself direct. But Minnelli was, to put it mildly, a strange bird. I'd characterize his persona and psychology as "italo" — Italian-American, mostly queer, powdered face, svengali to Judy Garland with whom he later fathered Liza Minnelli. He was an outsider among insiders, and with Cabin in the Sky and presumably good intention, directed a 100% Black ensemble. A romance of poverty, Cabin in the Sky evinces from the get-go Minnelli as an art-director extraordinaire; his stage adaptations bring the stage to you, and not vice-versa.

All said, the film is a worthy fixture in the history of American cinema, with Lena Horne appearing at full-vixen-level command, and Louis Armstrong bringing on the exhibit of an ur-Tracy Morgan, alongside Duke Ellington and a small band. •

===