Mr. Washington Goes to Town
Cast & Crew
Jed Buell
F. E. Miller
Mantan Moreland
Maceo B. Sheffield
Arthur Ray
Margaret Whitten
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
When prison inmate Schenectady learns that his uncle has died and left him the Hotel Ethiopia, he falls asleep and dreams of the hotel: He goes to work as a bellhop and elevator operator and makes his prison buddy Wallingford his assistant. Next, a maid comments that nothing ever happens at the hotel, and Schenectady notices that the hotel is a strange place. Among the visitors is a man in white tails with a gorilla, a headless man carrying his head, a stiletto thrower and a reappearing invisible man. A magician frightens Schenectady by producing a goldfish bowl around his head, and a "lonesome ranger" enters riding a goat. Brutus Blake, who holds some of the many mortgages on the hotel, wants to get the money to buy the establishment, and contests Schenectady's claim. Later, Brutus tears up the floors and walls searching for hidden gold. After scaring the chambermaid, Brutus is chased by the gorilla and by his wife, who has arrived unexpectedly. He meets the hotel's attractive beautician, Lady Queenie, on whom he uses all his romantic charm. Just as things begin to get wild, Schenectady is awakened by the jailer, and his dream ends. Wallingford suggests that they go to the hotel when they are released from prison, but Schenectady says that he has just been there and wants nothing more to do with it.
Director
Jed Buell
Cast
F. E. Miller
Mantan Moreland
Maceo B. Sheffield
Arthur Ray
Margaret Whitten
Clarence Morehouse
Monte Hawley
Zerita Steptean
Florence O'brien
Vernon Mccalla
John Lester Johnson
Deforrest Covan
Edward Boyd
Clarence Hargrave
Johnnie Taylor
Walter Knox
Geraldine Whitfield
Sam Warren
Cleo Desmond
Charlie Hawkins
Nathan Curry
Slick Garrison
Henry Hastings
Crew
Harvey Brooks
Treg Brown
Jed Buell
William Faris
James K. Friedrich
Jack Greenhalgh
Lex Neal
Fred Prebble
Maceo B. Sheffield
Bert Sternbach
Charles Wayne
Walter Weems
Walter Weems
Hans Weeren
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
[Mr. Washington Goes to Town, which opened in New York City on June 13, 1941, was publicly previewed in Los Angeles on April 11, 1940 and was included in AFI Catalog of Feature Films, 1931-40;F3.2929.] A working title for this film was Mr. Jones Goes to Town. The film was the first picture to be produced by Dixie National Pictures, Inc., a company formed in March 1940 by Jed Buell, who earlier produced Harlem on the Prairie (see entry above). James K. Friedrich, a minister who made the religious film The Great Commandment (see entry above) was Dixie's biggest investor. Modern sources note that Ted Toddy helped form the company. Although contemporary sources indicate that the film was previewed at the Lincoln Theater in Los Angeles in April 1940, it May not have been released until June 1941, when, according to the Variety review, it opened in Harlem. As noted in Time, there are no characters in the film named "Washington." The picture, which the press preview program called the "first all negro feature comedy ever made," was written, produced and directed by white men, and was made in six days at a reported cost of $15,000. According to Film Daily, many of the actors playing the hotel's "guests" were vaudeville performers.
