Review of Cinderfella

While not among Lewis's best movies, Cinderfella does include a half dozen wonderful scenes. Fella repeatedly running up and down the length of an absurdly long banquet table as he snatches bites of his own meal while getting up to pass the sugar to, light the cigarettes of, and pour wine for his wicked step family; a poignant, lonely song sung in a long, dark hallway; a sweet moment at the very end with the coming together of Cinderfella and his princess; a miming scene with Lewis conducting an audible but unseen orchestra (the companion to a similar scene in The Bellboy, which was filmed the same year); the equally famous scene of Lewis saunter-dancing down the long staircase into the ball; Cinderfella Princess Charming's dance at the ball. The movie is worth watching for these moments, for Count Basie, a very brief appearance by Joe Williams with Basie's orchestra, and some wonderful set design.

There are two main issues that really take the movie down a notch. It is painfully sexist - misogynistic, really; even more so than a lot of other examples from that era. The very explanation of why Fella has been chosen to crash the ball forms the backbone of that misogyny. The entire scene is also far longer than it needs to be and just not funny. It's also sad to see Bacie's orchestra playing for an all-white audience of ball guests. There were already some good examples of Hollywood films that had begun to overcome that racist structure, so there's really no excuse for it here.

If you can get past all of that, the movie is well worth watching for the moments mentioned at the top of this review.