Comedy

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Killer Diller (1948)

Director: Josh Binney
Actors: Dusty Fletcher, George Wiltshire, Nat King Cole, Butterfly McQueen, Moms Mabley
Runtime: 73 min.

A magician makes a theatre owner's girlfriend disappear while she's wearing a thousand-dollar pearl necklace. The police come to investigate but the show goes on. Performances include Nat King Cole, the Clark Brothers and Moms Mabley.

Trivia: Nat King Cole was just 29 years old when this movie was filmed, but he was already a huge star. He was nominated for a total of seven Grammy awards, winning once for record of the year in 1959 for the single Ramblin' Rose. He sold over 50 million records during his career. He's also the father of singer Natalie Cole. Josh Binney directed several "race films" (very low-budget comedies with African-American casts). These movies were made for showings catering to black audiences in the segregated American South during the period before Civil Rights.