|
''Clean Pastures'' is a ''Merrie Melodies'' animated cartoon directed by I. Freleng, produced by Leon Schlesinger, and released to theatres on May 22, 1937 by Warner Bros. and Vitaphone. The cartoon is a parody of Warner Bros.' 1936 film, ''The Green Pastures''. It tells of an ersatz Heaven called "Pair-O-Dice" and its angels' efforts to win souls from "Hades Inc." A Stepin Fetchit caricature fails to recruit any souls in Harlem, New York City. However, jazz-singing angels incorporate "rhythm" into the pitch, and Harlem's African Americans follow them as they dance their way to Heaven. Schlesinger and Warner Bros. had problems with ''Clean Pastures'' from the start. Hollywood censors alleged that the film ran afoul of the Hays Production Code because it burlesqued religion. Later commentators surmise that the censors also objected to the portrayal of a Heaven run by African Americans. In 1968, the short's stereotypical portrayal of black characters prompted United Artists to withhold it from distribution as one of the infamous Censored Eleven. Modern critics have been no kinder to the film and cite its portrayal of black characters as offensive and reliant on negative stereotypes. Musicologist Daniel Goldmark interprets the film as a send-up of black religion and culture and the increasing identification of 1930s white audiences of jazz music with black culture. Religion scholar Judith Weisenfeld sees ''Clean Pastures'' as a metaphor for the replacement of rural, minstrel show stereotypes of blacks for modern, urban ones. ==Plot== ''Clean Pastures'' opens in Harlem, New York City, where African American caricatures gamble, drink, and dance in a sea of bars, clubs, and dancing girls. In Heaven, known as "Pair-O-Dice", a black Saint Peter reads the headline, "Pair-O-Dice Preferred Hits New Low As Hades Inc. Soars". The angel rings an angelic Stepin Fetchit with enormous lips〔Goldmark 94.〕〔Weisenfeld 79.〕—probably a reference to Oscar Polk's performance as Gabriel in ''The Green Pastures''—〔Weisenfeld 80.〕 and orders him to rectify the situation. Gabriel descends to Harlem and stands by a sign (modeled after James Montgomery Flagg's World War I Uncle Sam poster)〔 that reads, "Pair O Dice Needs You! Opportunity, Travel, Good Food, Water Melon, Clean Living, Music, Talkies". Nevertheless, the denizens of Harlem continue with their iniquity. Angels, caricatures of jazz performers Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, Fats Waller, and Jimmie Lunceford, tell Saint Peter that to get people to paradise he will need "rhythm"〔〔Goldmark 186, note 41.〕 (the short's credits list no voice actors, but a member of the all-black jazz group the Four Blackbirds —possibly Leroy Hurt—provides the cartoon's celebrity impressions).〔Goldmark 186, note 44.〕 The musicians go to Harlem and break into a performance of "Swing for Sale", and the Harlemites flock to listen. The film's climax takes on the characteristics of "a revivalist camp meeting" as the band makes its way to Pair-O-Dice, and people follow them in droves.〔Goldmark 95–6.〕 The newcomers receive their halos, and in the cartoon's final gag, the Devil himself asks to be admitted. ''Clean Pastures'' is a musical film, which means that it shifts between musical and non-musical sections, both of which are integral to the story.〔Goldmark 93.〕 Carl Stalling's musical score makes use of both public-domain music and songs owned by Warner Bros. Stalling's music "supplies both the foundation for the story and the driving force behind the animation." Music is of such importance that characters in ''Clean Pastures'' dance about even when no performers are pictured.〔 The all-black jazz group the Four Blackbirds performs the backing vocals for these songs.〔 A choir of a capella, black male voices opens the cartoon with "Save Me, Sister, from Temptation", a song from the 1936 Warner Bros. film ''The Singing Kid'' featuring Al Jolson. Thus, Stalling establishes one of the cartoon's themes, that sinners may be redeemed, from the opening credits. As the scene shifts to Harlem, the jazz standards "Nagasaki" and "Sweet Georgia Brown" accompany the bevy of African American vices. Caricatures of Bill "Bojangles" Robinson and Al Jolson perform snippets of the blackface tunes "Old Folks at Home" and "I Love to Singa". However, the short's major number is "Swing for Sale", performed by caricatures of popular black jazz performers. The short ends with a jazzed-up version of James A. Bland's minstrel spiritual "Oh! Dem Golden Slippers".〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Clean Pastures」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|