Customer Reviews

In Old Kentucky (Will Rogers)

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In this film shown in theaters three months after his death, Will Rogers played a horse trainer in Kentucky. The family that employs him is engaged in a feud with the family that owns the neighboring property, a quarrel to be settled by a horse race.

There are TWO stars in this film -- Will Rogers and Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, who plays Rogers' cook and helper in training the thoroughbreds for the track. Robinson shows off his amazing skills in tap dancing in a number of finely staged solo numbers, and there's another congenial scene with Robinson teaching Rogers a few elementary steps. It's worth noting that Robinson was prominently featured in a recent festival, "The World of Tap Dance," at the City University of New York.

These scenes that showcase Robinson's gifts are, though, embedded in a screenplay that plays to the racial stereotypes of the times. Most moviegoers of the 1930s laughed at a scene with Rogers in blackface; I winced and could not wait for it to end. Also discomforting today is the use of "boy" in the dialog (though not with an edge). The film gives us a window on 1930s language and attitudes, and aware viewers can appreciate how Will Rogers' humor and Robinson's dances can stand on their own. Alas, the old stereotypes can't be wished out of the film, and they impair a larger appreciation of "In Old Kentucky."

The comedy in the film is somewhat more physical than Rogers' roles in some of his other films -- there's a lot of motion back and forth, fisticuffs, and oddball characters -- giving the film a somewhat zany mood. The scenes of the horse farm and the track capture an interesting corner of the 1930s.

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