
Cabin in the Sky (1943)
Director: Vincente Minnelli, Busby Berkeley (uncredited)
Screenplay: Joseph Schrank based on the musical by Lynn Root
Stars: Ethel Waters, Eddie ‘Rochester’ Anderson, Lena Horne, Butterfly McQueen, Louis Armstrong, Rex Ingram, Kenneth Spencer, and Duke Ellington.
The Pitch: “Let’s make a movie version of ‘Cabin in the Sky!’”
Tagline: “Broadway’s big, fun-jammed music show is on the screen at last–crowded with stars and songs and spectacle in the famed MGM manner!”
The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…
Little Joe [Anderson] dies after being shot during a night of gambling and fast women. Before his soul can be claimed, Little Joe’s wife, Petunia [Waters] prays so hard for Little Joe that angels show up just as the Devil’s soldiers prepare to wisk him away. A decision is made that Little Joe will be returned to the living and have six months to earn his way heaven or be claimed by the devils. The catch is Little Joe will remember none of this.
The devils plot to place every obstacle possible in Little Joe’s path from fast women like Georgia Brown [Horne] to fast cash and no-account friends. Will Joe make it to the Cabin in the Sky?

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