Mantan Messes Up | |
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Directed by | Sam Newfield |
Produced by | Lucky Star Production Company |
Starring | Mantan Moreland |
Release date |
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Mantan Messes Up is a 1946 film produced in the United States. It stars Mantan Moreland. The film was directed by Sam Newfield. [1] The film was produced by Lucky Star Production Company. It was advertised as having an "All Colored Cast". [2] The Museum of the Moving Image has a still from the film. [3]
Appearances in the film by Lena Horne and Nina Mae McKinney may have been clipped from am earlier film released by Toddy Pictures. [4]
Lena Mary Calhoun Horne was an American singer, actress, dancer, and civil rights activist. Horne's career spanned more than seventy years, appearing in film, television, and theatre. Horne joined the chorus of the Cotton Club at the age of sixteen and became a nightclub performer before moving on to Hollywood and Broadway.
Cabin in the Sky is a 1943 American musical film based on the 1940 Broadway musical of the same name. The first feature film directed by Vincente Minnelli, Cabin in the Sky features an all-black cast and stars Ethel Waters, Eddie "Rochester" Anderson and Lena Horne. Waters and Rex Ingram reprise their roles from the Broadway production as Petunia and Lucifer Junior, respectively. The film was Horne's first and only leading role in an MGM musical. Louis Armstrong is also featured in the film as one of Lucifer Junior's minions, and Duke Ellington and his Orchestra have a showcase musical number in the film.
Frankie Darro was an American actor and later in his career a stuntman. He began his career as a child actor in silent films, progressed to lead roles and co-starring roles in adventure, western, dramatic, and comedy films, and later became a character actor and voice-over artist. He is perhaps best known for his role as Lampwick, the unlucky boy who turns into a donkey in Walt Disney's second animated feature, Pinocchio (1940). In early credits, his last name was spelled Darrow.
Nina Mae McKinney was an American actress who worked internationally during the 1930s and in the postwar period in theatre, film and television, after beginning her career on Broadway and in Hollywood. Dubbed "The Black Garbo" in Europe because of her striking beauty, McKinney was both one of the first African-American film stars in the United States and one of the first African-Americans to appear on British television.
Hallelujah is a 1929 American pre-Code Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musical directed by King Vidor, and starring Daniel L. Haynes and Nina Mae McKinney.
The Duke Is Tops is a 1938 American musical film released by Million Dollar Productions and directed by William Nolte. The film was later released in 1944 under the title The Bronze Venus. It features top-billed Lena Horne in her film debut, along with Ralph Cooper. The film was one of the low-budget musical film "race movies" made in the 1930s and 1940s for the African-American market. The casts and production teams of these films were almost all black, and the music reflected current tastes in jazz and rhythm and blues.
Mantan Moreland was an American actor and comedian most popular in the 1930s and 1940s. He starred in numerous films. His daughter Marcella Moreland appeared as a child actress in several films.
That's Black Entertainment is a 1989 documentary film starring African-American performers and featuring clips from black films from 1929–1957, narrated and directed by William Greaves. The clips are from the Black Cinema Collection of the Southwest Film/Video Archives at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. It is 60 minutes long and was distributed by Video Communications of Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Let's Go Collegiate is a 1941 American musical comedy film directed by Jean Yarbrough and starring Frankie Darro, Marcia Mae Jones, Jackie Moran and Keye Luke. It was produced and distributed by Monogram Pictures. It was released under the alternative title Farewell to Fame in the United Kingdom.
Shadows Over Chinatown is a 1946 American mystery film directed by Terry O. Morse and starring Sidney Toler, Victor Sen Yung and Tanis Chandler. It is the second-to-last film starring Toler as Charlie Chan.
Four Shall Die is a 1940 American supernatural crime film directed by William Beaudine. It features Dorothy Dandridge in her first credited film role.
Mr. Washington Goes to Town is a 1942 American comedy film directed by William Beaudine and Jed Buell, and starring F. E. Miller, Mantan Moreland and Maceo Bruce Sheffield. The film was marketed primarily to black audiences and written and filmed in six days.
Monte Hawley was an American actor from Chicago, Illinois.
Million Dollar Productions was a movie studio in the United States active from 1937 until 1940. It was established to produce films with African American casts. It was a partnership between Harry M. Popkin, Leo C. Popkin and Ralph Cooper.
Straight to Heaven is an American film released in 1939. It was produced by Million Dollar Productions. It was advertised as having an all colored cast. Arthur A. Leonard directed. Sack Amusement Enterprises was the distributor.
Neva Mary Peoples was a singer and dancer who appeared in several films in the United States. She performed as a singer, dancer, and chorus girl.
Gang Smashers, also released as Gun Moll, is an American film released in 1938. It features an African American cast. Leo C. Popkin directed the Million Dollar Productions film from a screenplay by Ralph Cooper. The University of South Carolina libraries have an 8-page pressbook for the film. Nina Mae McKinney stars in the film a thriller about the Harlem underworld and racketeering.
Take My Life is an American film released in 1942. It featured a group of young actors known as the Harlem Tuff Kids. In this film they join the U.S. Army. The group also appeared in the 1939 film Reform School. Both were produced by Million Dollar Productions. Oakton Community College has a poster for the film in its collection. The poster includes the taglines Harlem Goes to War! and Thrill to the Brown Bombers in Action.
She's Too Mean for Me is a 1948 American film starring comedian Mantan Moreland. It was one of two Goldmax productions. It is a comedy. In the movie, the character portraying Moreland's on-screen wife is after him in the film. It and Come On, Cowboy! were the last two films Ted Toddy produced. Irving Hartley was the cinematographer.