Campeones de ébano

The Harlem Globetrotters (1951)

** (out of 4)

Fun but poorly made feature about an All-American college player (Billy Brown) who decides to leave school and join the Globetrotters, although their head coach Abe Saperstein (Thomas Gomez) is against the idea. Soon the new player is starting to rub the other members the wrong way. THE HARLEM GLOBETROTTERS was apparently a huge hit when it was first released and I'm going to guess that this was due to how popular the basketball group was and it had zero to do with the quality of the film. I will admit that the film kept me entertained but there's no question that it was poorly made in just about every aspect. What we've basically got are a couple actual Globetrotter games that were filmed and then the "story" was added around them. We basically have a smart kid quitting college to play ball but then he starts to think about what direction he should take going forward. This includes several scenes with the coach, getting into it with his teammates and trying to please his new wife (Dorothy Dandridge) who is worried about his future. The entire film has an incredibly cheap look to it as the basketball footage at times looks worse that stock footage. It also doesn't help that most of the performances are fairly bad. This includes many of the actual Globetrotters but I don't blame them any since none of them were professional actors. They're actually what keeps the movie working so well because as a sports fan it was just interesting to see how they were playing the game back then and especially compared to today. I thought getting to watch the basketball footage was the most interesting thing and I think it's what will keep most people glued to the movie.

For any basketball fan this movie is worth the enjoyment of seeing the original Globetrotters in action. The movie itself is pretty weak but I guess that Scotty Pippen commercial of a few years back where he is slamming against those old guys doing set shots was not far off from the way it was.

The story constructed around the basketball play of the legendary Globetrotters is pretty simple, but they sure are fun to watch. Just seeing them standing around in a circle and throw the ball around with their assortment of trick passes, Sweet Georgia Brown playing in the background, was very entertaining (and man, I love that tune). It's a nice snapshot of the 1951 team, led by Marques Haynes and his silky slick handle, as well as big man Goose Tatum, who clowns around and palms the ball without even using all of his fingers. When a white reporter holds his hand up for comparison, it looks like a child's. The Globetrotters had lots of antics up their sleeves, but also a ton of skill - in 1948 and in 1949, they beat the Minneapolis Lakers, a powerhouse, champion team in the leagues that preceded the NBA (the NBL and BAA) - and this is essentially the team that did that.

The love interest (Dorothy Dandridge) is unfortunately not well developed, and if you're watching for Dandridge you'll be disappointed, because her role is so small. The subplots involving gamblers and the star young player considering other options are also pretty weak. The real interest, not surprisingly, is in seeing these players on the court. Even if the game footage is often not all that mind-blowing, it does show just how much the game has changed in 70 years, and we get the playful clowning around.

The Globetrotters play against all-white teams and in front of an all-white audience, so there is undeniably a racial element here, especially when you consider that the first black man to break the color barrier in the NBA did so only a year earlier (Earl Lloyd, 1950, soon followed by others, including several Globetrotters). The film doesn't broach the taboo subjects of the racism they encountered which is unfortunate, but I loved how the players are treated as real people. They have families, don't speak in stereotypical dialect, and their new star player (Billy Brown) was an honors student in college, having made a measured financial decision to play basketball. What a dramatic and welcome change from the depiction of African-Americans in films in the preceding decades.

All-American college player Billy Richards (Billy Brown) gives up on a potential academic career to play with the famous 'barnstorming' basketball team but egos and injuries complicate things. The film was made as the Globetrotters were shifting to being more of an entertainment franchise than a sports team, with much of the comedy provide by Reece 'Goose' Tatum (a talented hoopster and a great physical comedian). The story is slight, with conflicted Richards sneaking off to get married, which costs the Trotters a key game against the New York Celtics and maybe Richards his future career in sports. As natural entertainers, the Globetrotters playing themselves are fine (both on- and off-court). Brown, who was not an actor, is surprisingly good in the central role, as are Dorothy Dandridge, who plays his wife and character actor Thomas Gomez as the team's long-time manager Abe Saperstein. Race issues play a relatively minor role in the story beyond references to what would be now called 'Black colleges' (such as the fictional Baltimore State that is trying to lure Richards into its chemistry program) and the concept that the Globetrotters, a highly successful professional team, is a symbol and source of pride for other African-Americans (something that the self-centered Richards doesn't seem to 'get'). The game has changed a lot since the film was made, so there are no flamboyant dunks (a staple of the entertainment side of the modern game) but the Trotter's warm up, the famous 'magic circle', is fun to watch and the game scenes, though dated, are entertaining in a 'news-reel' sort of way.

The struggling 28 year old Dorothy Dandridge continued to pad out her c.v. and pay her bills by acting in this dull film. In the past, I would have said that she was lucky to be offered a role in films at her age, but now I can see that she suffered for her art.