From IMDb: a low-keyed but charming tale of two con men who prey on the gullibility of small-town denizens and the upright mayor -- and his ingenious young son -- who stands up against them.
With
Oscar-winner Hattie McDaniel in an uncredited part.
A bit about
Hattie McDaniel from Wikipedia:
(June 10, 1895 – October 26, 1952) an American actress and the first black performer to win an Academy Award. She won the award for Best Supporting Actress for her role of Mammy in Gone with the Wind (1939). Over the course of her career, McDaniel appeared in over 300 films, although she only received screen credits for about 80. McDaniel has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Hollywood: one for her contributions to radio at 6933 Hollywood Boulevard, and one for motion pictures at 1719 Vine Street. In 1975, she was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame, and in 2006 became the first black Oscar winner honored with a US postage stamp.[3]
As the 1940s progressed, the servant roles McDaniel and other African American performers had so frequently played were subjected to increasingly strong criticism by groups such as the NAACP. In response to the NAACP's criticism, McDaniel replied, "I'd rather play a maid and make $700 a week than be one for $7."
Legal case: Victory on "Sugar Hill"
Time Magazine, December 17, 1945:
Their story was as old as it was ugly. In 1938, Negroes, willing and able to pay $15,000 and up for West Adams, Los Angeles, California, Heights property, had begun moving into the old colonial mansions. Many were movie folk—Actresses Louise Beavers, Hattie McDaniel, Ethel Waters, etc. They improved their holdings, kept their well-defined ways, quickly won more than tolerance from most of their white neighbors. But some whites, refusing to be comforted, had drawn up a racial restriction covenant among themselves. For seven years they had tried to sell it to the other whites, but failed. Then they went to court. Superior Judge Thurmond Clarke decided to visit the disputed ground—popularly known as "Sugar Hill." Next morning, Judge Clarke threw the case out of court. His reason: "It is time that members of the Negro race are accorded, without reservations or evasions, the full rights guaranteed them under the 14th Amendment to the Federal Constitution. Judges have been avoiding the real issue too long." Said Hattie McDaniel, of West Adams Heights: "Words cannot express my appreciation." [23]
It was McDaniel, the most famous of the black homeowners, who helped to organize the black West Adams residents that saved their homes. McDaniel had a yearly Hollywood party. Everyone knew that the king of Hollywood, Clark Gable, would be faithfully present at all of McDaniel's Movieland parties.
McDaniel died at age 57, in the hospital on the grounds of the Motion Picture House in Woodland Hills, on October 26, 1952. It was her wish to be buried in the Hollywood Cemetery on Santa Monica Boulevard in Hollywood, along with her fellow movie stars, Douglas Fairbanks, Rudolph Valentino, and others. The owner, Jules 'Jack' Roth, refused to allow her to be interred there, because they did not take blacks. She was interred instead in Angelus Rosedale Cemetery. In 1999, Tyler Cassity, the new owner of the Hollywood Cemetery, who had renamed it Hollywood Forever Cemetery; wanted to right the wrong and have Miss McDaniel interred in the cemetery. Her family did not want to disturb her remains after the passage of so much time, and declined the offer. Hollywood Forever Cemetery then did the next best thing and built a large cenotaph memorial on the lawn overlooking the lake in honor of McDaniel. It is one of the most popular sites for visitors.
The "Oscar" that Hattie won was placed in the keeping of Howard University in Washington, D.C. The statue went missing during racial unrest on the Washington, D.C., campus in the late 1960s.
Topic: ABCs at the Movies: The Doubles Round! (Read 2567597 times)