Cab, Corman co-features
Hi De Ho (1947)
Hi-De-Ho was predated by a 1934 short film called Cab Calloway's Hi-De-Ho.
Both story and screenplay for this one were credited to Hal Seeger. As a teen, he'd ghost-written the Betty Boop newspaper comic strip, and later wrote films for Moms Mabley (Boarding House Blues) and Dusty Fletcher (Killer Diller). He produced 1960s Saturday morning cartoon show Milton the Monster.
Even as a developing talent, Cab's bandleader character radiates big-time potential -- a hummer straight down the alley. He's enlisted shrewd manager Nettie -- whose know-how elevates him into a regular club gig -- but apprehension about their closeness inspires saltiness in his fine-dinner main-queen Minnie.
Minnie's resentment leads her to employment as a singer. The club owner who's retained her is also something of a crime boss. His joint is just down the street from Cab's frolic pad, and he's eager to assist Minnie since Cab's increasing popularity has cut into his profit margin.
Glide in his stride, outlandish hepster suits, Tommy-gun scat hyperventilations -- pencil-mustachioed Swing-Jazz ringleader Cab simply was stylin' personified. Solid murder.
Numerous Cab songs were featured, including "Zah-Zuh-Zah," "The Hi-De-Ho Man, and "Don't Falter at the Altar" (Seeger had a hand in crafting the lyrics of that last).
Cab's character is eventually confronted by gangsters hefting heaters on orders from Minnie's crime-bigwig employer. And it is the canary who takes a bullet meant for Cab.
As her life-spark ebbs, and upon her request, he croons "Minnie's a Hepcat Now." This dramatic portrayal seems a logical ending point - the singer consoling Minnie in her last moments, assuring her of his solicitude and faithfulness.
But what could have been a powerful conclusion proves only a gateway into further plotting. We see Cab's professional ascension, as depicted through shifting images of streamliners' big wheels clackin' around, marquee lights piercing night blackness, Nettie and Cab's business collusions, and Variety editions.
Hi-De-Ho's concluding half-hour finds in-the-gravy Cab togged to the bricks, really mezz, and at professional acme: Feet a-blur, eyes laughing, hair tousled and flung wildly -- and deploying barrelhouse, motor-mouth staccatoes -- he flourishes a baton erratically, as if he's swatting juiced-up flies, and leads crackerjack Swing cats through madjack gangbusters.
As slush-pumps, licorice sticks, and the hide-slapper beat it out, elegant, bubble-water-guzzling patrons of the Art Deco frolic pad fall out and go native.
A slew of rug cutters then laid iron, and the sumptious (and unanticipated) wedding of Cab and Nettie closes both the early black's entertainment and film.
When gum-beaters ponder matters of heptitude, the wise evoke Mr. Cab. Anyone who doesn't know should shut their yaps and dig the learning experience.
(Some slang above was derived from Cab Calloway's Hepster's Dictionary, published in 1939.)
Hi De Ho trailer
Cab song clips: "Zah-Zuh-Zah" "At Dawn Time" "Minnie's a Hepcat Now"
Rock All Night (1957)
We turn now to consider exploitation films' grimmer aspect.
Crime mini-drama (just 61 minutes in duration) Rock All Night was inspired by a Jane Wyman Show TV episode. Produced by drive-in disposables czar Roger Corman, it was filmed in one week, on just two sets.
At the opening, serenades are bestowed by the impeccable Platters, strangely on the low-rent dive's stage. Their pacific toneology proves but momentary ease.
Singer Julie (Abby Dalton) auditions for the proprietors; beret-topped, goateed manager Sir Bop had arranged her tryout. Dick Miller -- later Walter Paisley in Corman's 1959 Bucket of Blood -- is among slouched patrons.
The bar becomes a hideout for two hoods, on the lam after sticking up a grocery store. The dominant ne'er-do-well of the pair is Russell Johnson -- in future years Gilligan's Island's Professor. Among other gentilities, he shoots a young man in the back.
"We'll each grab one'a these dames, we'll stick a gun in their ribs, and walk outta here like they're our dates!," snarls Johnson-the-hooligan at a later point, finger on the trigger of a gat he'd perhaps contrived from a coconut.
Police move in. Crime doesn't pay.
The Platters reportedly had only a single day open for filming, which acounts for the combo's scant screen time. Also appearing was group the Blockbusters. Their three songs included "Rock'n'Roll Guitar," and were considerably wilder. Given that, they were perhaps more credible as attractions in the seamy tavern than the urbane Platters.
American International Pictures distributed Rock All Night to grindhouses across America, where it was likely paid only cursory attention by smooching sophmores.
Rock All Night: Trailer Compilation clip (13: 27 - Two Platters songs, Three Blockbusters ones)
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