Sepia Cinderella was a pretty entertaining "race movie" of the time period

Francine Everett, July Jones, Inez Newell, and Don Wilson in Dirty Gertie from Harlem U.S.A. (1946)

Sidney Poitier, Pamela Branch, Isa Crino, Francesca Jarvis, Lisa Mann, and Lilia Skala in Lilies of the Field (1963)

Harry Belafonte and Dorothy Dandridge in Bright Road (1953)

Lena Horne and Bill Robinson in Stormy Weather (1943)

Paul Newman, Louis Armstrong, and Joanne Woodward in Paris Blues (1961)

Jeff Chandler, Judith Braun, and Charles Drake in Red Ball Express (1952)

Billy Daniels, William Greaves, and Sheila Guyse in Sepia Cinderella (1947)

Freddie Bartholomew and Billy Daniels in Sepia Cinderella (1947)

Billy Daniels

Sheila Guyse

Tondaleyo

Vincent Valentini

A struggling songwriter (Billy Daniels) abandons his girlfriend (Sheila Guyse) for a flashy woman (Tondeleyo) after landing a hit.

Arthur H. Leonard

Sepia Cinderella

More Like Bing Crosby than Miles Davis

It&apos;s a typical show-biz success story. A vocalist and his band move up the ladder despite professional and personal complications.

I tuned in hoping to catch some hot Harlem jazz. It wasn&apos;t to be. Instead the music was right out of a Bing Crosby crooning session. Not that there&apos;s anything wrong with mellow sounds; it&apos;s just that I expected something else from an African-American production. In fact, it may be telling that the film features none of the buffoonish humor identified with so many black movie characters of the time. On the whole, the movie was conventional enough that it could have played as easily in white theaters as in black.

Outside the smooth sounds of Billy Daniels&apos;, the movie has two notable features. Oh my gosh, Sheila Guyse (Barbara) is a stunner with a voice to match. So why didn&apos;t she have a Lena Horne or Dorothy Dandridge-type career. It&apos;s too bad she apparently wound up a well-kept show-biz secret; her talent certainly merited more. On the other hand, what&apos;s with the clumsy Freddie Bartholomew interview. It&apos;s like a ten-minute audition for something or other, maybe a stand-up comic routine. But whatever, it&apos;s an almost surreal appearance for fans of the former kid star.

Other than these points, the movie&apos;s a harmless little time passer.

It's a typical show-biz success story. A vocalist and his band move up the ladder despite professional and personal complications.

I tuned in hoping to catch some hot Harlem jazz. It wasn't to be. Instead the music was right out of a Bing Crosby crooning session. Not that there's anything wrong with mellow sounds; it's just that I expected something else from an African-American production. In fact, it may be telling that the film features none of the buffoonish humor identified with so many black movie characters of the time. On the whole, the movie was conventional enough that it could have played as easily in white theaters as in black.

Outside the smooth sounds of Billy Daniels', the movie has two notable features. Oh my gosh, Sheila Guyse (Barbara) is a stunner with a voice to match. So why didn't she have a Lena Horne or Dorothy Dandridge-type career. It's too bad she apparently wound up a well-kept show-biz secret; her talent certainly merited more. On the other hand, what's with the clumsy Freddie Bartholomew interview. It's like a ten-minute audition for something or other, maybe a stand-up comic routine. But whatever, it's an almost surreal appearance for fans of the former kid star.

Other than these points, the movie's a harmless little time passer.

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