{"id":43976,"date":"2019-07-04T14:22:52","date_gmt":"2019-07-04T21:22:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=43976"},"modified":"2021-12-24T14:49:48","modified_gmt":"2021-12-24T21:49:48","slug":"st-louis-blues-1958","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=43976","title":{"rendered":"St. Louis Blues (1958)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;There are only two kinds of horns: Gabriel&#8217;s and the devil&#8217;s!&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/St-Louis-Blues-Poster.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/St-Louis-Blues-Poster-202x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"202\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-43978\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/St-Louis-Blues-Poster-202x300.jpg 202w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/St-Louis-Blues-Poster-86x128.jpg 86w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/St-Louis-Blues-Poster.jpg 259w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 202px) 100vw, 202px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nJazz composer W.C. Handy (Nat &#8220;King&#8221; Cole) goes against the wishes of his religious father (Juano Hernandez) in joining forces with a dance hall singer (Eartha Kitt); meanwhile, his loyal girlfriend (Ruby Dee) waits in the wings.\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>African-Americans<\/li>\n<li>Biopics<\/li>\n<li>Father and Child<\/li>\n<li>Juano Hernandez<\/li>\n<li>Morality Police<\/li>\n<li>Musicals<\/li>\n<li>Musicians<\/li>\n<li>Ruby Dee Films<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nThis biopic about  &#8220;Father of the Blues&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/W._C._Handy\">W.C. Handy<\/a> is notable for starring Nat &#8220;King&#8221; Cole in a leading role, as well as featuring many other famous black musicians (including Eartha Kitt and Cab Calloway):<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/St-Louis-Blues-Kitt.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/St-Louis-Blues-Kitt.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"458\" height=\"360\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-65576\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/St-Louis-Blues-Kitt.png 458w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/St-Louis-Blues-Kitt-300x236.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/St-Louis-Blues-Kitt-128x101.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/St-Louis-Blues-Kitt-344x270.png 344w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 458px) 100vw, 458px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8230; and offering up plenty of fine musical numbers. Unfortunately, Cole isn&#8217;t quite up to the task of such a major acting role; he&#8217;s clearly at his most comfortable when singing and playing the piano (a personal favorite is his rendition of &#8220;Morning Star&#8221;). The storyline, while based on facts &#8212; Handy was indeed quite religious, and his father even more so &#8212; is thin and poorly structured, with sudden-onset blindness appearing as an odd and inexplicable narrative crutch. With that said, film fanatics may still be curious to check this one out, simply for its historical value as a film with black actors in all leading roles, and for the musical performances. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Many enjoyable musical numbers<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/St-Louis-Blues-NKC.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/St-Louis-Blues-NKC-1024x757.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"473\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-65573\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/St-Louis-Blues-NKC-1024x757.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/St-Louis-Blues-NKC-300x222.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/St-Louis-Blues-NKC-128x95.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/St-Louis-Blues-NKC-768x567.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/St-Louis-Blues-NKC-1536x1135.png 1536w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/St-Louis-Blues-NKC-365x270.png 365w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/St-Louis-Blues-NKC.png 1723w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/St-Louis-Blues-Mahalia.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/St-Louis-Blues-Mahalia-1024x747.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"467\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-65574\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/St-Louis-Blues-Mahalia-1024x747.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/St-Louis-Blues-Mahalia-300x219.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/St-Louis-Blues-Mahalia-128x93.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/St-Louis-Blues-Mahalia-768x560.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/St-Louis-Blues-Mahalia-1536x1121.png 1536w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/St-Louis-Blues-Mahalia-370x270.png 370w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/St-Louis-Blues-Mahalia.png 1739w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nNo, though it&#8217;s worth a look for its historical relevance and the fine music.  <\/p>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0052234\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1958\/04\/12\/archives\/st-louis-blues-nat-cole-in-biography-of-w-c-handy.html\">NY Times Original Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tcm.com\/tcmdb\/title\/88913\/st-louis-blues#articles-reviews?articleId=121586\">TCM Article<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;There are only two kinds of horns: Gabriel&#8217;s and the devil&#8217;s!&#8221; Synopsis: Jazz composer W.C. Handy (Nat &#8220;King&#8221; Cole) goes against the wishes of his religious father (Juano Hernandez) in joining forces with a dance hall singer (Eartha Kitt); meanwhile, his loyal girlfriend (Ruby Dee) waits in the wings. Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors: African-Americans Biopics Father and Child Juano Hernandez Morality Police Musicals Musicians Ruby Dee Films Review: This biopic about &#8220;Father of the Blues&#8221; W.C. Handy is notable&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=43976\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43976"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43976\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79144,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43976\/revisions\/79144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}