Lena Horne gets top billing?

I love the song that she sings in the beginning. I have been looking for a copy of that song but I cannot find one anywhere. The song is called Sweet Apple Wine.

I love this movie.



The Truth is out there.

Lena Horne was a beauty in her own time, and somewhat ahead of her time. She should have been born thirty years later when she would have been more appreciated in her own right. Her bad luck was to have been born at a time when bigotry still lingered even in Hollywood, although its end was clearly in sight. Lena was an exotic, very fair-complexioned black woman whose physical beauty appealed to black and white men, but in her day, overt relationships between whites and blacks was still frowned upon. Lena had been quoted as being uncomfortable with her situation but she was not embittered but annoyed at the reality. She was quoted in exasperation as saying, "...you want me in bed but you don't want me coming through the front door." That's what Lena Horne had to put up with. In the under-appreciated and little known, DEATH OF A GUNFIGHTER, Lena plays an effective role as an attractive and appealing Hispanic American woman, Claire Quintana, who runs a profitable saloon with poker tables and a brothel upstairs, typical for the Old West. Yet, Lena wasn't thrilled about playing roles outside her actual race. Nonetheless, she did a fine job here and does indeed look the part of a still sexy, early to middle-middle aged, successful Latina woman. Still, Lena Horne was successful as she could be in her heyday and when she passed away two years ago after a long life, she was still remembered.

In 1969 Lena was very well known and may have been able to bring in a few more dollars by being "featured" as one of the stars. It was also the height of the Civil Rights movement and Martin Luther King's assassination was still fresh in everyone's mind.