Kattiera Nana I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Cubussoli Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

NekoHomey Purely Joyful Movie!

Abbigail Bush what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

rodinnyc I watched this on CUNY TV. I was curious and stayed because it had enough elements to be entertaining. Ralph Cooper is handsome and likable. I didn't even realize that Lena Horne was the beautiful singer. I thought she was a Lena Horne knock off. She seems to have been required to slim down and had better glamour treatment in Hollywood films. Interesting because of its use of black actors and performers in ways they couldn't be shown in film other than those made for black audience. Talented singers and dancers and a window into what the TOBA houses were like in the south. And an extended snake oil routine of the rural south. Even the diner with its ham and eggs special is interesting as an historic window on life eighty years ago. I'm glad Lena Horne was able to make it out of this niche market even if she was still relatively isolated in the roles she could play.

MartinHafer It says in the IMDb trivia section that Lena Horne was not paid for her work in this film. Does this mean she was cheated or that she agreed to make it for free? I'd love to know more about this.In the 1930s and 40s, due to segregation, Black people were often not allowed into movie theaters with Whites. So, Black theaters opened across the country--particularly in the South. And, in many cases, these theaters brought the audiences Black-produced films. The problem, however, was that the economics of the Black community were not even close to those in the country as a whole--and most films made by these tiny independent studios were pretty poor compared to the products of the majors. While this is not always true, the acting and writing were rather suspect--and production values were pretty shabby. So, as you watch "The Duke Is Tops", cut it a bit of slack--you cannot compare a film like this to the products of MGM, Warner and the like. Yes, it's sub-par--but it's also an interesting window into the times. singer and works for a guy named 'the Duke'. The acting is the worst part--and the director (if there even was one!) didn't seem to ever re-shoot scenes in which the actors stumbled over their lines or where the singers sounded flat. Horne, who really could act, looked dreadful--and you'd never have predicted her later stardom based on her acting in this one. She's certainly not the only poor one nor the worst actor in the film--but it looks like the film was shot in only a few days--which, incidentally, it was! However, on the plus side, some of the singing is quite good and the comedy works...occasionally. Overall, it's an odd curio of a bygone era, but not a good film.

tavm The only reason The Duke Is Tops, one of several "race movies" made during the times of segregation, would be worth noting today is because it made the film debut of a 21-year-old singer named Lena Horne. She plays Ethel Andrews, a singer who has to leave her producer mentor Duke Davis (Ralph Cooper) in order to branch into the big time. Davis, however, has to fake having taken the money for her services in front of her so she won't feel sorry for having done so. He then teams up with Doc Dorando (Lawrence Criner) for a series of medicine shows throughout the south. Meanwhile, in New York, her new producers have bombed big time because they made her the whole show instead of simply the specialty act. Davis finds out from the radio and offers his services as producer and band leader to bring his lineup of other specialty acts, many of whom make their one of their few or only film appearances here, for his chance at the big time with Ethel next to him. Guess what happens? While the plot is the kind you've seen in thousands of other movie musicals during this time, the fact this was made for a certain audience makes this one of the more fascinating features I've seen during this Black History Month. Ms. Horne's singing is on good display here and it's interesting seeing her so young before her professionalism takes full hold later in her career. Among other supporting players there's an unconfirmed, according to IMDb, appearance by Lillian Randolph, Annie in my favorite movie It's a Wonderful Life and sister of Amanda Randolph who I just saw in the musical short The Black Network, as the woman with Sciatica who complains of not being cured after taking the Doc's medicine before Duke explains it's for the feet! And as a longtime Louisiana resident, I'd like to take note of two players from here in this movie: Joel Fluellen from Monroe as a tonic customer and Marie Bryant from New Orleans as the sexy dancer who appears near the musical climax. So for just Lena Horne alone, The Duke is Tops is worth seeing at least once.

Gary Imhoff The Duke Is Tops is a black version of the white show business and Broadway movies popular in the 1930's. It has the struggling broke producer, the young performer who becomes a star overnight, and the medicine show to Broadway (or in this case fashionable Harlem nightclub) plot. It is best known as the debut movie of a beautiful, 21-year-old Lena Horne, but its real star is Ralph Cooper, who gets a brief opportunity to show his singing and bandleading abilities, as well as to dance a few steps. Much of the acting is stiff and the film's editing is crude, but it has all the pleasures of an early black musical -- specialty singers, eccentric dancers, and pretty chorus girls in skimpy bikinis -- as well as a more substantial script than many other black movies of its day (or of today, for that matter).