By 1937, Lena Horne was a rising star with a new husband and even newer baby who lived in Pittsburgh when she wasn't on the road. Horne's agent was responsible for getting her a part in The Duke Is Tops, which would be filmed in Hollywood. (Some published reports have been misled by the "Duke" in the title and assumed Duke Ellington was featured in the film but he's actually not in it and apparently was not involved at any point in the production.) Horne's co-star was Ralph Cooper, a one-time Apollo Theatre MC who started the Apollo's famous amateur nights before appearing in a few films such as 1937's Dark Manhattan. Director William Nolte had a long career in B Westerns, mostly as a writer or assistant director. (Oddly enough, his last credit was as assistant director on Ed Wood's Bride of the Monster, 1956, which will surprise many people to learn that Wood ever had an assistant!)
Shooting on The Duke Is Tops was scheduled for ten days but a problem soon appeared. The producers announced that they had run out of money to pay the cast. Horne's husband wanted her to leave but she refused, partly from a show business ethic that performers never abandon a show but also because there were so few film roles for blacks even in low-budget films. In fact, none of the other actors dropped out either and the film still finished on time. When it premiered in Pittsburgh at an NAACP benefit Horne didn't attend, supposedly because her still-irate husband wouldn't allow her.
Producer: Harry M. Popkin, Leo C. Popkin
Director: William L. Nolte
Screenplay: Phil Dunham
Art Design: Vin Taylor
Cinematography: Robert C. Cline, J. Henry Kruse
Film Editing: Alice Greenwood
Original Music: Harvey Brooks, Ben Ellison
Cast: Ralph Cooper (Duke Davis), Lena Horne (Ethel), Lawrence Criner (Doc Dorando), Monte Hawley (Marshall), Vernon McCalla (Mason)), Edward Thompson (Ferdie Fenton).
BW-73m.
by Lang Thompson
