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The idea of this movie is to trace the way that a tail coat influences and changes the lives of the people in a series of small stories. It features a number of 20th Century Fox stars and almost more or less stars in five short stories based on "Story of A Tailcoat" by Francisco Rojas González. There is a sixth story staring W. C. Fields, Phil Silvers, and Margret Dumont where a temperance lecture turns into a drunken brawl that was cut from the film and is probably the funniest sequence. There are a number of reasons given for deleting this story but it is thought that the subject matter was a little too much for the general family audience. The real controversy and the historic value of the film regards the fifth story. This story stars Ethyl Walters, Paul Robeson, and the Hall Johnson choir. It concerns the coat falling on a black church from and airplane after the pockets have been filled with money in a robbery. The "Poor Simple Colored People happy in their cast off rags" in the church, all in the simple ignorant poor uneducated and hallelujah shouter tradition of the negro singing his way to glory in a better world to come was considered offensive even in 1942 when the film was made. Robeson, a communist, almost withdrew from the picture until the script was changed to have the church members use the money to buy tools and land as a group and set up a collective farm, like in Russia. After the film was released Robeson withdrew from movies and offered to help stage protests against the picture. Although there is reissued DVD this VHS tape is the only publicly available format that contains the W. C. Fields material. This is a very important historical movie although some sequences are not that well cast or acted and are only saved by their age from being trite. If you are interested in the development of motion pictures this is a must. The tapes were made in 1997/8 and should be treated with respect and if you have the capability archived to another media.Read full review
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The vhs version contains WCFields. The biggest stars and best writers were involved in this project. Unfortunately they stole the idea from a Mexican author who took them to court and won but got no money. Ethel Waters and Paul Robeson are in the movie. As we grapple with issues of racism this movie is particularly interesting because the rich white people are presented as unhappy evil doers and the poor sharecroppers as favored by God.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned