The charismatic presence of Cab Calloway one of the best entertainers is reason enough to see Hi-De-Ho. The film is chock full of numbers that Calloway sang over the years in the style that made him known as the Hi-De-Ho man. But overall the film is not the best.Hi-De-Ho is an independent production made for the black audiences of the day. I doubt too many white people saw it because it played in black neighborhood movie houses in the north and in the black theaters in the segregated south. Additionally it was done on a minuscule budget and Calloway didn't exactly have a director as talented as Spike Lee. That would come in a couple of generations.Later on Calloway showed his acting chops in such films as The Cincinnati Kid, St.Louis Blues, and The Blues Brothers. Here the plot is threadbare and it involves two rival Harlem club owners who are fighting for Cab's services and two women just fighting over Cab. The last half of the film is strictly a variety with Cab and his orchestra and other black performers.One thing very much makes this film worthwhile is it's one of the few you will find where no one is playing any kind of Stepin' Fetchit type part. For 1947 that's remarkable and I have no doubt that Calloway insisted on it. Fans of the Hi-De-Ho man will love this film.

As with all the reviews, there's no real storyline, but you MUST watch for all the great performances. One of the reviews mentions Dusty Fletcher's "blackface" performance "Open the Door Richard" is in this film - it's not on my copy. However, there seems to be earlier versions of Hi-De-Ho released with different plots (1934) and (1937) so I'm not certain if my copy is bad copy (although I have 2 copies of 1947) or if that particular act is in one of the earlier releases...whatever the case, if you are into Cab Calloway - the performances are phenomenal! The same goes for the Miller Bros. & Lois. I actually like the Peters Sisters - they had great voices and my favorite numbers were "Rainy Sunday" and "Old Lady From Baltimore"...hope this helps!

My jaw dropped shortly after the start of the movie, when Cab Calloway sang "Minnie's a Hepcat Now" solo a cappella. This was a big band leader who actually had all the music an audience needed right inside himself. An extraordinary performer; and though the rest of the movie is packed with an abundance of band numbers, he never allows a dull musical moment. Like some of the songs Cab Calloway sang, the 1947 HI-DE-HO movie mixes pathos and joie de vivre against the background of a gritty story. In a musical performance like the "Saint James Infirmary" seen here, the mixture is funny and powerful. In the plot line of the movie, it's less successful.Unfortunately, in the European TV broadcast I caught, I didn't notice that "Dusty Fletcher does his famous 'Open the Door Richard' sketch" as in the version someone else saw. An odd thing I did notice was that in the nightclub scenes when the plot is in its long suspension near the end, the dancers seem sized wrongly for the perspective, as if they were dancing in front of a screen on which the band was projected.

Cab Calloway is the center of this short film -- and just about the only thing it has to offer. As mentioned elsewhere, "Hi-De-Ho" is a genre piece weak on plot, acting and production alike. Folks who love the "King of Hi-de-ho", however, will relish his dancing, mugging, swinging and singing, oh singing! Uncredited in the opening titles except as "and his Orchestra" is a great line-up of jazz notables: Milt Hinton on bass and Cozy Cole on drums to name but two. If for no other reason, see "Hi-De-Ho" for the great big band numbers played as cool and hot as you could ask.