Cab Calloway’s Masterful ‘Hi De Ho,’ Now Out on Blu-Ray, Transcends the Confines of the ‘Race Film’

You want pyrotechnics? You got ’em: Three tap-dancers working with consummate skill, astonishing athleticism and streamlined elegance.

Via Wikimedia Commons
A lobby card for Cab Calloway's 'Hi De Ho.' Via Wikimedia Commons

It was with a disconsolate heart that I learned that the United States Film Registry has not yet included Josh Binney’s “Hi De Ho” (1947). Have any of its attendant scholars taken a gander at the picture, now made available as a Blu-Ray by Kino Lorber? It is, admittedly, a patchwork affair. Binney’s point-and-shoot direction will curl the toes of the most charitable auteurist. The plot is cursory, the acting stilted and the production values meager. “Hi De Ho” is no lost masterpiece.

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