''Boy! What a Girl!'' is a 1947

race film The race film or race movie was a genre of film produced in the United States between about 1915 and the early 1950s, consisting of films produced for black audiences, and featuring black casts. Approximately five hundred race films were produce ...

directed by Arthur H. Leonard and starring Tim Moore, with guest appearances by the Brown Dots,

Slam Stewart Leroy Eliot "Slam" Stewart (September 21, 1914December 10, 1987) was an American jazz double bass player, whose trademark style was his ability to bow the bass (arco) and simultaneously hum or sing an octave higher. He was a violinist before swi ...

Sid Catlett Sidney "Big Sid" Catlett (January 17, 1910 – March 25, 1951) was an American jazz drummer. Catlett was one of the most versatile drummers of his era, adapting with the changing music scene as bebop emerged. Early life Catlett was born in Eva ...

and

Gene Krupa Eugene Bertram Krupa (January 15, 1909 – October 16, 1973), known as Gene Krupa, was an American jazz drummer, bandleader and composer who performed with energy and showmanship. His drum solo on Benny Goodman's 1937 recording of "Sing, Sing, S ...

Plot

Would-be theatrical producer Jim Walton (Elwood Smith) is planning a new show that will feature bandleader Slam Stewart and the comic female impersonator Bumpsie (Tim Moore). Mr. Cummings, the wealthy father of Jim’s girlfriend Cristola, has agreed to finance half of the show if the famous Parisian impresario Madame Deborah will provide the second half of the funding. When word arrives that Madame Deborah’s arrival from France has been delayed, Bumpsie is brought in to keep Mr. Cummings occupied. Mr. Cummings, however, is unaware that Bumpsie is a man in drag and he falls in love with him. The real Madame Deborah unexpectedly arrives early and passes herself off as Mrs. Martin. Two other would-be suitors, impressed with Madame Deborah’s wealth, begin to pursue Bumpsie. A fundraising party for the show is held, where several musical acts arrive to perform. A pair of thugs attempt to kidnap Bumpsie, believing he is Madame Deborah, but he manages to escape. The real Madame Deborah identifies herself and agrees to finance Jim’s show, enabling him to achieve his professional goals and to marry Cristola.

Cast

* Tim Moore as Bumpsi * Elwood Smith as Jim Walton * Duke Williams as Harry Diggs * Alan Jackson as Mr. Cummings *

Sheila Guyse Sheila Guyse (born Etta Drucille Guyse; July 14, 1925 – December 28, 2013), was an American singer and actress, performing on stage and screen during the 1940s and 1950s. Early life Sheila Guyse was born on July 14, 1925, in Forest, Mississ ...

as Francine * Betti Mays as Cristola * Sybil Lewis (actress) as Mme. Deborah Martin * Warren Patterson as Donaldson the Landlord *

Milton Woods Milton Woods was an actor. He was in several films. In 1946, ''Newsweek'' described him as the "colored Basil Rathbone". In 1951, ''Jet'' reported that he directed of the American Negro Repertory Theater, touring the country in a trailer. Filmog ...

as the Jealous Lover *

Lorenzo Tucker Lorenzo Tucker (June 27, 1907 – August 19, 1986), known as the "Black Valentino," was an American stage and screen actor who played the romantic lead in the early black films of Oscar Micheaux. Acting career Born in Philadelphia, Tucker s ...

as the Jealous Lover's Helper

Production

''Boy! What a Girl!'' was planned to be the first in a series of all-black race films produced by the independent company Herald Pictures. The film’s press kit acknowledged the segregated distribution patterns of the race film by proclaiming ''Boy! What a Girl!'' would be “an all-Negro motion picture can be produced to play in any theater in the country and not merely confined to the some 600 odd playhouses that cater strictly to an all-Negro audience.” “Within Our Gates” by Alan Gevinson, American Film Institute, Google Books
/ref> The film was shot at the

Fox Movietone Studio Sony Music Studios was an American music recording and mastering facility in New York City. The five-story building was a music and broadcasting complex located at 460 W. 54th Street, at 10th Avenue, in the Hell's Kitchen section of Manhattan. I ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. Gene Krupa, the only white member of the cast, was not originally signed to appear in the film; director Arthur H. Leonard invited Krupa to be on camera when the famous drummer stopped by to visit cast member Sid Catlett on the set. ''Boy! What a Girl!'' was the only starring film role for Tim Moore, an

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...

comedy star who later became famous as the Kingfish in the television series ''

Amos 'n Andy ''Amos 'n' Andy'' is an American radio sitcom about black characters, initially set in Chicago and later in the Harlem section of New York City. While the show had a brief life on 1950s television with black actors, the 1928 to 1960 radio sho ...

''. A pre-production news item identified Marva Lewis, the ex-wife of

boxing Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermined ...

champion

Joe Louis Joseph Louis Barrow (May 13, 1914 – April 12, 1981) was an American professional boxer who competed from 1934 to 1951. Nicknamed the Brown Bomber, Louis is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential boxers of all time. He rei ...

, as being a part of the cast, but she is not present in the finished film, as she was forced to withdraw due to illness. She was replaced by the Brown Dots.

Legacy

There has been a revival of interest in the film in recent years due to the prominence of its black cast.

Donald Bogle Donald Bogle is an American film historian and author of six books concerning black history in film and on television. He is an instructor at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and at the University of Pennsylvania. Early years Bogle g ...

wrote that the race films of the late 1940s succeeded as "fundamental celebrations of cultural roots and communal spirits and also as pure, undiluted celebrations of black style. Such movies as ''Broken Strings'', ''Boy! What a Girl!'' (1946), ''Sepia Cinderella'' (1947), ''Bronze Buckeroo'', and scores of others introduced a new rhythm to American cinema. Vocal inflections and intonations set the ears abuzz. The manners, gestures, postures, surprising double takes, swift interplay and communication between the characters is a world unto itself, capturing, despite whatever other distortions or failings, a segment of black American life and culture."

References

External links

*
''Boy! What a Girl!''
at

TCMDB Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie-oriented pay-TV network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcasting campus in the Midtown business district of Atl ...