In this 20 minute short film, a nine-year-old Sammy Davis Jr. plays Rufus Jones, a young boy who dreams of being elected President. This short is as racially problematic as you’d expect it to be, given its age and subject matter. But it has a couple of great bits. Ethel Waters, skinnier than I’d ever seen her, is on hand as Rufus’ mother and she delivers a moody rendition of Underneath the Harlem Moon. And it’s downright uncanny to see Sammy Davis Jr as a nine-year-old, with a lot of his famous mannerisms and some of his famous charisma already flowering. He has a great solo tap-dance number and he sings one of the most bizarre versions of I’ll Be Glad When You’re Dead (You Rascal You) that I’ve ever heard. The visual quality isn’t great and the bulk of the short is the kind of thing that makes you roll your eyes a lot in terms of what used to be acceptable on screen. But it’s probably worth looking up the musical numbers on YouTube if you’re so inclined. 2 ½ stars.
tl;dr – bizarre & predictably problematic short stars a nine-year-old Sammy Davis Jr & it’s admittedly fun to see him performing at such a young age; little else to recommend this one. 2 ½ stars.