MovieChat Forums > Murder by Television (1935) Discussion > Where's Hattie McDaniel's vocal?

Where's Hattie McDaniel's vocal?

posted 14 years ago by mgconlan-1
2 replies | jump to latest

Does anybody out there know if there's a version of "Murder by Television" available on DVD or for downloading that features Hattie McDaniel's song? She sings a number in the full version but the only print I've seen (on a VHS tape from Sinister Cinema and a download from archive.org) doesn't contain her song. Apparently the surviving print is one of those ones released in the South, where they routinely cut out musical numbers featuring African-American performers (many of Lena Horne's 1940's films were similarly butchered). I'd really like to see her number, not only because she's one of the best actors in this movie but before she broke into films she was a colleague of Bessie Smith's in Black vaudeville and she proved in the 1936 "Show Boat" that she had an excellent voice.

[–] richard.fuller1 11 years ago

Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943) is a favorite movie of mine and when I watched it in the seventies, Hattie McDaniel's complete Ice Cold Katie was cut. I'm in Dixie.

Decades later, I bought it on DVD, only the next time I would see it and watched the number for the first time. Interestingly enough, her bit with Eddie Cantor in which they briefly sang Ice Cold Katie as a duet was shown when I watched it in the '70s.

Also, when I first saw it, it was a late movie on a Sunday night, so I don't know who would be offended then if they had shown the complete movie then.

Over the years, I've watched other old movies, such as Variety Girl, and it was apparent Pearl Bailey's number was probably cut if it aired in the south, I guess. I watched it on a cable channel.

[–] Gblakelii 8 years ago

According to the NY Times, June Collyer sang the Oliver Wallace song in this movie.