Product Details

• Actors: Louis Jordan, Cab Calloway, Nina Mae McKinney, Milton Woods, Frank L. Wilson
• Directors: Bud Pollard
• Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, Dolby, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Echo Bridge Home Entertainment
• DVD Release Date: January 1, 2004
• Run Time: 237 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00062IYYG
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #46,400 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

HI DE HO THE DEVIL'S DAUGHTER/BEWARE/ - DVD Movie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good collection of early Black films, November 18, 2006

By 

Andre M. "brnn64" (Mt. Pleasant, SC United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Race Movies: Hi-De-Ho/The Devil's Daughter/Beware/Reet, Petite, and Gone (DVD)

This is a fine collection of early Black American films from the 1930s and 40s. It begins with Cab Calloway in "Hi De Ho" (1947), a story of Cab fighting gangsters and a sluttish "girlfriend" (Jeni Le Gon as Minnie the Moocher-who he regrettably slaps early on in the film-shades of "Purple Rain") to achieve musical success and love with the right woman. Domestic violence issues aside, it's quite entertaining. "The Devils Daughter" (ca. 1939) features the legendary Nina Mae McKinney in a rather hokey but amusing tale about voodoo in Haiti. "Beware" is one of the best of Jazz comedian Louis Jordan's musical comedies. An interesting tale of his efforts to save a Black college (this was some 40 years before Spike Lee's "School Daze") from a crooked president. Lots of good music and clowning with a good story. LJ strikes again in "Reet Petite and Gone," not one of his better films, but some really entertaining songs and antics from LJ and femme fatale Mabel Lee. See these films and dig what Black Cinema was like prior to Superfly, Sweetback, and Spike Lee.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Musicals from Black Cinema's golden age, August 18, 2007

By 

Annie Van Auken (Planet Earth) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Race Movies: Hi-De-Ho/The Devil's Daughter/Beware/Reet, Petite, and Gone (DVD)

"Race movies," a genre unique to the United States between 1915 and 1947, were quite popular with black Southern audiences and in Northern industrial cities that had large African American communities. After the successful legal desegregation of the film industry in 1948, this type of movie vanished, literally. Today, only a fifth of the original 500 race films still exist.

SYNOPSES:

"Beware" - Ware College alumnus Louis Jordan brings his band to Ohio in an effort to save the financially-troubled institution. Classroom attendance soars once word gets out that Jordan is on campus, but the college CEO (and grandson of the founder) has other plans in the works.

"The Devil's Daughter" - A Harlem-born woman inherits a Jamaican banana plantation. After taking up residence there she is vexed by incessant drums, voodoo spells and a jealous half-sister.

"Hi-De-Ho" - Cab Calloway plays himself in this story of jealousy, intrigue and swing music. Cab hopes manager Nettie will help him become famous. Cab's girlfriend Minnie is jealous of the two, and imagines infidelities she seeks vengeance for. In between all this are some great songs by one of the finest bands ever.

"Reet, Petite, and Gone" - When an old-time bandleader dies, a sleazy lawyer alters his will so that the man's son and girlfriend get nothing. A slight story that's used as backdrop for several musical numbers.

A few other "all-black" musicals may be found on the MUSICALS CLASSICS 50 MOVIE PACK COLLECTION.

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Parenthetical numbers preceding titles are 1 to 10 viewer poll ratings found at a film resource website.

(5.4) Beware (1946) - Louis Jordan/Frank L. Wilson/Emory Richardson/Valerie Black/Milton Woods

(3.4) The Devil's Daughter (1939) - Nina Mae McKinney/Jack Carter/Ida James/Willa Mae Lang

(5.5) Hi-De-Ho (1947) - Cab Calloway/Ida James/Jeni Le Gon/William Campbell

(6.8) Reet, Petite, And Gone (1947) - Louis Jordan/June Richmond/Milton Woods/Bea Griffith/David Bethea/Lorenzo Tucker

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars What has gone before., June 16, 2010

By 

William Pike "Bill" (Phoenix, AZ) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Race Movies: Hi-De-Ho/The Devil's Daughter/Beware/Reet, Petite, and Gone (DVD)

Movies for African-Americans, by African Americans; written, performed, directed by, produced by Aferican Americans. If you don't know where you came from, how do you know where you are going?