Lena HorneFilmography

Judy Garland: Judy Duets

Actors: Judy Garland

Synopsis: Judy Garland: Duets collects several television appearances by the singer in which she performs with fellow celebrities. The release includes collaborations with Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, Bobby Darin, and Lena Horne. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide Read More

Harlem Renaissance: The Music & Rhythms That Started a Cultural Revolution

Synopsis: From Kultur comes this documentary that looks at the Harlem Renaissance through the music that defined the era. Harlem Renaissance: The Music & Rhythms That Started a Cultural Revolution includes performances of such songs as Cab Calloway's "Minnie the Moocher," Fats Waller's "This Joint Is Read More

Swing Era: Sarah Vaughan

Actors: Sarah Vaughan

Synopsis: Classic performance footage of some of the great women of jazz from the 1930s and '40s appears on this home-video collection. The Swing Era: Sarah Vaughan features rare film clips of Vaughan lending her superlative voice to five songs, including "The Nearness of You," "You're Not the Kind," and Read More

Harold Arlen: Somewhere Over the Rainbow

Synopsis: Songwriter Harold Arlen is the subject of this documentary. Arlen wrote several songs for famous artists, but remained in the shadows as singers such as Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett received the acclaim. Arlen's most popular song "Somewhere Over the Rainbow", the noted song from the Wizard of Read More

An Evening with Lena Horne

Crew: Musical Performer

Actors: Lena Horne, Donald Harrison Jr., Mike Renzi, Rodney Jones, Ben Brown

Synopsis: See one of the truly great women of American song, Lena Horne, performing live in this concert video taped in 1994. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide Read More

That's Entertainment! III

Actors: June Allyson, Cyd Charisse, Lena Horne, Howard Keel, Debbie Reynolds, Gene Kelly

Synopsis: In 1974, MGM Studios released its first compilation of musical highlights from 45 years of Hollywood extravaganzas. Entitled That's Entertainment!, it was a big box-office hit and inspired a second compilation two years later. Eighteen years went by before MGM tried again. The third installment of Read More

A Different World: A Rock, a River, a Lena

Synopsis: Lena Horne (playing herself, of course) arrives at Hillman to dedicate a scholarship in her grandmother's name. In honor of Ms Hornes' visit, Whitley organizes a musical testimonial to the singer--haughtily refusing to let Mr. Gaines (Lou Myers) cater the affair because he isn't "classy" enough. Read More

Music Classics, Vol. 2

Synopsis: The 1940s was a monumental decade for the United States. Amid World War II, economic recovery, and the start of the Cold War, American music provided a soundtrack to a generation. The Music Classics line from MPI Home Video attempts to offer the chance to relieve the era with a ten-volume series Read More

Music and Comedy Masters Series

Synopsis: Review the history of black show-business. Music, dance and comic routines are featured in this six volume set. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

Sesame Street: Learning About Letters

Actors: Lena Horne

Synopsis: Join Big Bird as he leads Snuffy on a silly trip through the alphabet. Cookie Monster sings about his favorite letter in "C Is for Cookie" and Oscar the Grouch praises the "I" in "Icky Ice Cream Cones." Includes special guest star Lena Horne. ~ Heather M. Fierst, All Movie Guide Read More

The Ladies Sing the Blues

Synopsis: Lady Sings the Blues was the dramatized life story of legendary songstress Billie Holliday. Ladies Sing the Blues is a documentary containing film footage aplenty of the real Holliday. In addition, the film offers rare clips of such blues greats as Dinah Washington, Bessie Smith, Lena Horne, Peggy Lee Read More

Benny Carter: Symphony in Riffs

Synopsis: Narrated by Burt Lancaster, Benny Carter: Symphony in Riffs provides a comprehensive overview of the life and career of jazz saxophonist Benny Carter. Widely known as one of the originators of the big band sound, Carter's influence can still be heard in modern jazz and big band performances. Read More

Harlem Harmonies, Vol. 2

Synopsis: Volume 2 of this 2 video set feature title and film selections from black jazz bands such as Hot Chocolate (Ellington 1941), Calypso Blues (Cole 1951) and Unlucky Woman Blues (Horne 1941). ~ All Movie Guide Read More

Bessie Smith and Friends: 1929-1942

Synopsis: See some of the greatest early blues and jazz singers do their stuff in this series of three short films: "St. Louis Blues (1929) records the only filmed appearance of Bessie Smith. "Bye Bye Blackbird" (1932) stars Nina Mae McKinney and the dancing Nicholas Brothers with Eubie Blake and His Read More

That's Black Entertainment: The Missing Link of American Cinema History

Muppet Moments

Synopsis: Join in the fun with classic moments from "Veterinarian's Hospital" and "Pigs in Space" and all were found while Kermit and Fozzie did their spring cleaning! ~ All Movie Guide Read More

That's Black Entertainment: Race Movies - The Early History of Black Cinema

Synopsis: In the early days of cinema, characters were broadly sketched. Villains sported dark circles under their eyes and ingénues wore wide-eyed looks of innocence. Unfortunately, ethnic stereotypes prevailed just as strongly. Especially biased were the portrayals of people of color. The That's Black Read More

The Cosby Show: Cliff's Birthday

Synopsis: Although Cliff (Bill Cosby) has perenially guessed what he will receive for his birthday, this year Clair (Phylicia Rashad) and the kids conspire to surprise him with something totally unexpected. However, Clair is careful not divulge her plans to son Theo (Malcolm-Jamal Warner), knowing how Read More

Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music on Broadway

The Wiz

Actors: Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Nipsey Russell, Lena Horne, Richard Pryor

Synopsis: Sidney Lumet's The Wiz is the film version of the popular Broadway musical that retells the events of L. Frank Baum's classic novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz through the eyes of a young African-American kindergarten teacher who's "never been below 125th Street." Leaving a large family dinner to Read More

Sanford and Son: The Over-the-Hill Gag

Actors: Redd Foxx, Demond Wilson, Lena Horne, Nathaniel Taylor, Keene Curtis

Synopsis: Lamont (Demond Wilson) mistakenly believes that the doctor has given Fred (Redd Foxx) a few months to live (actually Fred has been given a few months to pay his bill). To make the old man happy in his "last moments," Lamont and Rollo (Nathaniel Taylor) try to arrange a date between Fred and singer Lena Horne Read More

Sanford and Son: A Visit from Lena Horne

Actors: Redd Foxx, Demond Wilson, Lena Horne, John Amos, LeRoy Daniels

Synopsis: While on a tour of NBC's Burbank studios, Fred Sanford (Redd Foxx) sets eyes upon "the first lady of his dreams," the fabulous Lena Horne. Wangling a conversation with Lena while she prepares to appear on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, Fred plays upon her sympathies by weaving a tall Read More

Death of a Gunfighter

Actors: Richard Widmark, Lena Horne, Carroll O'Connor, David Opatoshu, Kent Smith

Synopsis: Famed anonymous director Alan Smithee (in this case a hybrid of Richard Totten and Don Siegel), directed this turgid western drama concerning Marshal Frank Patch (Richard Widmark), who, even though he has kept the peace in Cottonwood Springs for over twenty years, is now considered a local joke by Read More

Milton Berle Spectacular

Actors: Milton Berle

The Frank Sinatra Collection: Frank Sinatra with Lena Horne

Synopsis: Francis Albert Sinatra (1915-1998) went a long way for a kid from Hoboken, NJ. He became one of the world's most admired singers and an Academy Award-winning actor. Although he didn't have many critical or ratings successes with his two 1950s TV shows, his television specials fared better. Part of Read More

The All-Star Christmas Show

Actors: Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, George Burns, Milton Berle, Jack Benny

Synopsis: Produced for the Armed Forces overseas, this is a holiday spectacular created for Christmas. Fifty of the top stars of Hollywood in the 1950s turned out to be a part of this special. Some of these included: Bob Hope, George Burns, Bing Crosby, Danny Thomas, Dinah Shore, Shirley MacLaine, and Jane Russell Read More

Meet Me in Las Vegas

Actors: Dan Dailey, Cyd Charisse, Agnes Moorehead, Lili Darvas, Jim Backus

Synopsis: A whole slew of guest stars makes Meet Me in Las Vegas a special treat for movie buffs. The central plot concerns wealthy rancher Chuck Rodwell (Dan Dailey), who takes a Vegas vacation with his mother (Agnes Moorehead). At the same time, ballerina Maria Corvier (Cyd Charisse) also arrives in Las Read More

Harlem Swings

The Duchess of Idaho

Actors: Esther Williams, Van Johnson, John Lund, Paula Raymond, Clinton Sundberg

Synopsis: This formula Esther Williams musical casts the star as Midwestern carnival swimmer Christine Duncan, in love with bandleader Dick Layn (Van Johnson). Attempting to smooth the course of romance for her friend Ellen Hallet (Paula Raymond), Christine makes a play for Ellen's wealthy boss Douglas J. Read More

Words and Music

Actors: Mickey Rooney, Perry Como, Judy Garland, June Allyson, Lena Horne, Gene Kelly

Synopsis: The life stories of Broadway tunesmiths Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart are prettified for the screen in MGM's Words and Music. Billed fourth, the colorless Tom Drake plays Rodgers, but never mind that: the film belongs to Mickey Rooney, as the dynamic, self-destructive Lorenz Hart. Read More

Ziegfeld Follies

Actors: Fred Astaire, Lucille Ball, Lucille Bremer, Fanny Brice, Judy Garland, Gene Kelly

Synopsis: The presence of William Powell as legendary showman Flo Ziegfeld at the beginning of Ziegfeld Follies might lead an impressionable viewer from thinking that this 1946 film is a Technicolor sequel to the 1936 Oscar-winning The Great Ziegfeld. Not so: this is more in the line of an all-star revue Read More

Till the Clouds Roll By

Actors: June Allyson, Robert Walker, Judy Garland, Lucille Bremer, Gower Champion, Cyd Charisse, Joan Wells, Bruce Cowling, Van Heflin

Synopsis: MGM's Till the Clouds Roll By is the musicalized, and highly fictionalized, life story of beloved composer Jerome Kern, who gave his blessing to the production shortly before his death in 1946. As played by a gray-templed Robert Walker, Kern is a likeable but none too exciting sort who expresses Read More

Two Girls and a Sailor

Actors: Van Johnson, June Allyson, Gloria de Haven, Jimmy Durante, Lena Horne

Synopsis: Two Girls and a Sailor is another of those all-star, no-plot wartime musicals turned out by the bushel basket in the 1940s. Its lack of nuance does not lessen its entertainment value in the least. Gloria DeHaven and June Allyson play a couple of well-meaning sisters who stage their own USO shows Read More

Broadway Rhythm

Actors: George Murphy, Ginny Simms, Charles Winninger, Gloria de Haven, Lena Horne, Nancy Walker

Synopsis: The plot of the overinflated MGM musical Broadway Rhythm can be summed up briefly: Musical comedy producer Jonnie Demming (George Murphy) dismisses his vaudevillian dad Sam Demming (Charles Winninger) as old-fashioned. Jonnie signs Hollywood star Helen Hoyt (Ginny Simms) to a Broadway show, but Read More

Boogie-Woogie Dream

Synopsis: As this short opens, Teddy Wilson and his orchestra are finishing up their last gig of the night at a swank café. As the band and audience leave, a woman in the audience says the band was good, but her date says they weren't what he was looking for. The woman leaves to powder her nose and the café Read More

Stormy Weather

Actors: Lena Horne, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, Fats Waller, Dooley Wilson, Cab Calloway

Synopsis: Built around the premise of a Big Stage Show, Stormy Weather affords rare "mainstream" leading roles to some of the era's greatest African-American entertainers Lena Horne, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, Dooley Wilson, Cab Calloway, Katherine Dunham, Fats Waller, and the Nicholas Brothers. The Read More

Cabin in the Sky

Actors: Ethel Waters, Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, Lena Horne, Louis Armstrong, Rex Ingram

Synopsis: MGM knew it would take a bath on its all-black musical Cabin in the Sky (few Southern theaters of 1943 would touch the film), but the studio still provided its standard A-plus production values to the film; besides, it served as a training ground for up-and-coming director Vincente Minnelli. Based Read More

I Dood It

Actors: Red Skelton, Eleanor Powell, Lena Horne, Patricia Dane, Richard Ainley, Sam Levene

Synopsis: In later years, director Vincente Minnelli would dismiss I Dood It as his worst picture, though a more deserving candidate for that "honor" would be Minnelli's valedictory film A Matter of Time. In this remake of Buster Keaton's Spite Marriage, Red Skelton plays pants-presser Joseph Rivington Read More

Thousands Cheer

Actors: Kathryn Grayson, Mickey Rooney, Gene Kelly, Judy Garland, Mary Astor, Red Skelton, John Boles, Eleanor Powell, José Iturbi, Ann Sothern

Synopsis: Storywise, Thousands Cheer is thin stuff indeed. Insouciant PFC Eddy Marsh (Gene Kelly) wants to put on a Big Show for his fellow serviceman. Along the way, Eddy falls in love with Kathryn Jones (Kathryn Grayson), the daughter of Colonel William Jones (John Boles). End of story. The principal Read More

Swing Fever

Actors: Marilyn Maxwell, William Gargan, Lena Horne, Nat Pendleton

Synopsis: In most of his movie vehicles, bandleader Kay Kyser played a bandleader named Kay Kyser. In Swing Fever, however, Kyser is cast as aspiring songwriter Lowell Blackford. Though he isn't too successful at peddling his songs, Blackford does have one unique talent: The ability to hypnotize boxer Read More

Panama Hattie

Actors: Red Skelton, Ann Sothern, Rags Ragland, Ben Blue, Marsha Hunt

Synopsis: Cole Porter's musical hit Panama Hattie originally starred Ethel Merman on Broadway. But Merman was not a proven movie commodity, thus it was Ann Sothern who appeared in the film version as Hattie, brassy but golden-hearted proprietress of a Canal Zone hotel. Accustomed to dealing with such Read More

The Duke Is Tops

Actors: Ralph Cooper, Lena Horne, Lawrence Criner, Monte Hawley, Vernon McCalla

Synopsis: Also known as The Duke Is Tops, this is one of the best examples of the many all-black films made in the 1930s for what were then designated as "colored" theatres. Looking about 15 years old, Lena Horne plays the main attraction for the stage shows put on by a fellow named Duke (Ralph Cooper). Read More

Sesame Street: A Celebration of Me, Grover

Synopsis: Sony Wonder presents this collection of Sesame Street clips starring the furry blue monster Grover. Sesame Street: A Celebration of Me, Grover features Grover playing a wig salesman and Super Grover, a segment called "The Flyers' Roost honoring Grover," and an award-acceptance ceremony. ~ Matthew Read More