MovieChat Forums > Riding High (1950) Discussion > portrayal of 'Whitey'

portrayal of 'Whitey'

posted 16 years ago by introibo2000
4 replies | jump to latest

I was pleasantly surprised the way the Clarence Muse character was portrayed here. Yes, he was the exercise boy/groom for the horse, a subservient role to Bing Crosby as owner, but he was not portrayed negatively as many blacks were portrayed in such movies. He was an equal partner in the training of the horse - and sang equally well with Bing Crosby! No eye-rolling, silly cavorting as many of these movies show blacks (as in the Marx Brothers' "Day at the Races." Bravo Frank Capra.

[–] misspaddylee 16 years ago

Clarence Muse played the same role in 1934's "Broadway Bill". I agree that you get a sense of an equal partnership between Dan and Whitey. Mr. Muse was also a talented writer and director as well as actor and musician. His last screen appearance involved another horse in 1979's "The Black Stallion".

"It's as red as The Daily Worker and just as sore."

[–] lmchildress 14 years ago

He played the same character in both movies, but the performances were subtly different, imo. In Riding High, he is not as subservient as in Broadway Bill. I think this had to do with the time the second movie was made, as opposed to the first, the 30s, and with the presence of Bing Crosby, who was anything but a racist, having come up in the music world with the likes of Louis Armstrong. He seems to have treated all black men and women with the respect due to them as human beings. Warren Williams, as Dan, struck Muse, as Whitey, several times in BB; I don't recall Crosby striking him at all. And in the scene where the vet comes to look at BB, in the earlier movie, the doctor calls Whitey "boy" when he wants him to come to his car to get some things for treatment. In the later movie, he calls him by his name, Whitey, which is in itself an obvious racial joke. I wonder if Crosby influenced that change, or was it Capra himself, more sensitive to such egregious slights sixteen years on.

[–] murkbrown 14 years ago

If you read Capra's autobiography, "The Name Above the Title", he addresses the performance of Clarence Muse as it regards racial stereotypes. He quotes one reviewer's harsh criticism of the role of Muse, and then in his defense he quotes a Black newspaper article which actually praises the importance of and respect shown to the character of Whitey.
I also noticed that early on in the film Crosby's fiance, whom we are not supposed to like, arrives at his house and is greeted by Whitey. She disdainfully asks, "What IS your name anyway?" Muse replies, "Clarence White". This was obviously inserted for the purpose of explaining the nickname Whitey.

[–] misspaddylee 14 years ago

Warren Williams, as Dan, struck Muse, as Whitey, several times in BB;...

Warner Baxter is the lead in Broadway Bill, not Warren Williams.

"Fortunately, I keep my feathers numbered for just such an emergency."