Word: lena
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...Lena Horne is probably the only person capable of singing "Stormy Weather" in a movie scene, while a large, crystalline tear courses down her right cheek--and get away with it. She manages to make the schmalz inherent in the scene seem plausible. That the script calls upon her to perform such a feat, and that she does it, present a good summary of quality of both script and performers...
...nothing more than a rack on which to hang as many comic or spectacular scenes as possible. "Stormy Weather" has a few such scenes. In every case the success of the routine lies entirely with excellence of the performer. Thus any credit for the film must go entirely to Lena Horne, Bill Robinson, and Fats. Waller. Almost every other performer who appears on the screen is either uninteresting, poor, or repellent...
Bill Robinson, the celebrated "Bojangles," is, of course, a superb soft shoe dancer. What comes through in this movie is not only his great talent, but his obvious enjoyment in playing his part. This same enjoyment is also found in Lena Horne and Fats Waller, and that is what raises them from the scores of run-of-the-mill actors in the film...
...half-hour of music and informal chatter has become the Voice of America's most popular program. Even behind the Iron Curtain, where Communists are furiously attacking "decadent American music," thousands of recalcitrant Slavs continue to carry a torch for Dinah Shore or Gene Autry, Benny Goodman or Lena Home. Last week the Czech government skirmished with some of these incorrigibles and came off badly scorched...
Among the U.S.'s most beautiful Negro women (listed by John Robert Powers in Ebony magazine): Contralto Marian Anderson ("an impressive personality and most presentable manners"), Mrs. Ralph Bunche ("dignity, attractive personality, character and a wonderful, soft, feminine beauty"), Hollywood's Scorch Singer Lena Home ("the best example I know of 'outer glow' and 'inner glow' delightfully joined...