80 years ago, 1943’s Cabin in the Sky offered something unusual for the era: a film with an all-Black cast. Though not the first to pursue this slant, it nonetheless stood out as remarkable.

Cabin also marked the directorial debut of Vincente Minnelli, a filmmaker who would eventually helm two Oscar Best Picture winners. He would also claim a Best Director trophy for one of those, 1958’s Gigi.

"Little" Joe Jackson (Eddie “Rochester” Anderson) leads a sinful lifestyle of gambling and infidelity but his loyal wife Petunia (Ethel Waters) attempts to get him to lead a more righteous existence. Joe winds up back in a gambling den and when he runs afoul of the wrong party, he wounds up shot and dead.

Petunia prays for his soul, and this leads God’s representative “The General” (Kenneth Spencer) and Satan’s man Lucifer Jr. (Rex Ingram) to make a deal. They’ll bring Joe back to life and give him six months to fix the error of his ways. If Joe rehabilitates, he goes to heaven, and if not, he goes to somewhere hotter.

One catch? Joe remembers none of this, so he ends up stuck between the purity of Petunia and the sinfulness of greedy sexpot Georgia Brown (Lena Horne) while “The General” and Lucifer Jr. try to win their battle.

If nothing else, that offers an intriguing plot. Also, the concept of an all-Black cast for a movie from 1943 comes with interesting possibilities, though it also brings potential pitfalls.

It comes as no revelation to note that Blacks didn’t enjoy good treatment on movie screens circa this era. Usually depicted as uneducated and simple-minded servants, this trend made me curious to see if Cabin would make its characters much more than ethnic stereotypes.

Given that Warner precedes the movie with a disclaimer that warns of said stereotypes and biases, I figured the answer to that last question would become “no”. However, not all depictions of this sort are created equally, and this left open the door that Cabin might land on the less offensive side of the street.

After all, the movie deserves credit for the willingness to involve an all-Black cast. Inevitably, this cost the studio money, as a fair number of theaters refused to run a film with nothing but Black actors.

One era’s progressive turns into another’s cringe-worthy, though. As such, I feared the possibility that Cabin would depict its Black characters in such a crass manner that it would become tough to swallow 80 years after its release.

On the positive side, Cabin never generates into genuine ugliness. Sure, it sticks with its era’s standard race-based tropes, mainly via stereotypical “Black dialect”, but it doesn’t treat the characters in a truly poor manner.

Unfortunately, Cabin also fails to find much of interest for the viewer, even with plenty of potential fun along the way. With a plot that reminds us of efforts like Damn Yankees and Here Comes Mr. Jordan, the battle for Joe’s soul comes with ample room for delightful antics.

Unfortunately, the stagnant script explores virtually none of these. We see Joe deal with a mix of temptations but Cabin never gives any of these a spin that makes them entertaining.

As such, the film tends to meander from one bland musical number to another, with the “plot” little more than an excuse to take us to these moments. Given Minnelli’s fame as a director in this genre, one at least assumes that he’ll bring life to the song/dance scenes.

Again: no. A few fare better than others, but most of the tunes seem unmemorable, and Minnelli does little to give them life.

Indeed, these sequences seem shockingly stiff and uninventive. Perhaps those involved already worried about the film’s reception due to the nature of the all-Black cast and figured they needed to tone down the musical sequences to avoid additional potential “outrage” from bluenoses and bigots.

Whatever the case, too many of the song/dance segments lack inspiration. Cabin plods and fails to perk to life along the way.

Nothing about Cabin makes it a bad film, and I respect its pioneering nature. I just wish I found more entertainment value from the end product.

Cabin in the Sky appears in an aspect ratio of 1.37:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. This was a consistently pleasing presentation.

Sharpness usually appeared good. The film suffered from a few slightly ill-defined shots but the majority of the flick demonstrated nice delineation.

I saw no problems with jagged edges or shimmering, and the movie lacked edge haloes. In terms of print flaws, Cabin looked clean, and grain appeared natural.

Blacks appeared deep and rich, while low-light shots demonstrated fine definition and clarity. This ended up as a solid image that lost a few points only due to the occasional soft shot.

Although the DTS-HD MA monaural soundtrack of Cabin didn’t demonstrate anything special, it worked fine for its era and genre. Speech seemed slightly thin but was good for its age, as lines remained intelligible and clear.

Music demonstrated reasonable range. The score and songs didn’t impress, but it appeared acceptably bright.

Effects came across as reasonably accurate. Though they had little heft, they were clean and didn’t suffer from substantial distortion or other concerns. The audio appeared positive for its era.

A few extras appear, and we get an audio commentary from actor’s wife Evangela Anderson, actor’s daughter Eva Anderson, dancer Fayard Nicholas, Black cultural scholar Todd Boyd and film historian Drew Casper. It also includes interview excerpts from actor Lena Horne.

In terms of format, both Boyd and Casper recorded separate running, screen-specific tracks that got edited together. The others appear via interview that became dropped into the Boyd/Casper elements.

Boyd and Casper dominate. We get probably 10 minutes total from the other contributors.

Boyd’s remarks tend to reflect cultural/social elements, especially in terms of Blacks in the movie’s era. Casper sticks mainly with a view of cinematic techniques as well as more traditional “film historian” details.

The two Anderson ladies relate anecdotes connected to Eddie, and Horne provides some thoughts about the movie and her career. Nicholas offers short comments mostly connected to the Anderson family.

Those pieces offer some charming moments, but Boyd and Casper do the heavy lifting, and they perform their tasks well. In particular, Boyd helps us see the social mindset of the 1940s and the challenges encountered by the Black actors. This becomes a fluid and enjoyable commentary.

From the “Pete Smith Specialty” line of shorts, we get 1946’s Studio Visit (9:41). Here we take a comedic look at the activities on a movie lot.

Visit offers mild comedy but nothing special. It appears attached to Cabin because it offers a short appearance from Lena Horne.

In addition to the movie’s trailer, we find an Outtake for “Ain’t It the Truth” (5:41). This offers a Louis Armstrong performance of the tune.

Though the film footage went missing, we get the song itself along with photos and movie footage. It offers a good audio-only piece.

With an all-Black cast in an era where such a concept caused controversy, I hoped Cabin in the Sky would deliver a peppy musical as well. Unfortunately, the film seems flat and without the pizzazz one would expect. The Blu-ray comes with generally positive picture and audio as well as a few bonus features. Cabin deserves a look due to its historical status but the end result disappoints.