Who is petey wheatstraw

After nearly blowing his lungs out, Petey swiftly grabs the bomb, runs it outside and, to save everyone in the club, throws it directly at a man with a watermelon stand, because exploding watermelons look better than, say, exploding pineapples—a cinematic precedent settled in the landmark case of Lettieri v. Watermelons see Mr. Petey Wheatstraw Directed by Cliff Roquemore. Your email address will not be published. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Satan restores the comedians' victims to life, and charges Petey with the task of marrying his clock-stoppingly ugly daughter to giving him a grandchild. When Petey attempts to default on the deal, he is pursued by the devil's henchmen. Did you know Edit. Trivia Peetie sic Wheatstraw was a St. Goofs In the closing credits, the martial arts performers are listed as "marshall arts performers".

Quotes Petey : Oh, hell no, uh uh. Connections Featured in The Legend of Dolemite User reviews 20 Review. Top review. In , comedian Rudy Ray Moore must have gotten tired of the same old Dolemite routine and wanted to branch out into new characters. I'm not sure why they saw the need to create an all-new character, but there you have it. It's Moore's usual brand of humor with the same flaws we've come to expect from his movies. Born to his mother as a near ten-year-old child with a watermelon, he is soon taken under the tutelage of the wise old Bantu who teaches him martial arts and the importance of wisdom.

Years later as Petey's comedy career explodes, he becomes the target of bumbling duo Leroy and Skillet. The two want to off the comedian before his local performance can damage the profits from the grand opening of their own club.

At first it appears their plan has worked and Petey is gunned down, but the Devil has other plans for the comedian. He gives Petey the chance to return to life and seek vengeance in return for marrying his daughter and giving him a son.

Also, there's a magic pimp cane. It's still chock full of Moore's trademark humor with the added absurdity of the supernatural storyline. Even after two movies and a few years of experience, Moore and his crew still haven't learned how to tell a proper structured story on film.

The movie, as with the two previous, is all over the place. The first act is all about Leroy and Skillet's attempts at sidetracking Petey from performing the same night as their grand opening.

The second act introduces the Devil plot but continues to focus on Petey's vengeance against his attempted murderers and discovering his new powers via the magic cane. And then the final act, which almost feels tacked on, is Petey trying to outsmart the Devil and avoid the marriage to the Prince of Darkness's hideous daughter. On the contrary, it would seem that anyone who was thinking of formalizing aspects of blues songwriting in the s would be hailed a harbinger of things to come, rather than blamed for a lack of imagination.

In the later '30s, Peetie Wheatstraw 's recording sessions were being held once every two or three months and consisted of six to eight songs per date, so he had to develop formulas in order to keep his content fresh. That Wheatstraw did so successfully was something that affected nearly every blues musician within hearing distance of one of his records.

He was overwhelmingly popular throughout the s, and he is credited in some quarters with being the artist who carried the blues from its lowly status as rural "devil's music" into the cities where, in time, it would grow, thrive and change to suit the needs of a new, urban audience.

Peetie Wheatstraw would not personally live to witness these future changes. Since his death, researchers have probed arduously in an attempt get at more information about him, interviewing his acquaintances and reviewing civic records. But even more than sixty years after his death practically nothing substantive is known about him or his life, despite his ambitious recording schedule and tremendous popularity.

For someone cultivating the legend of a deal with the devil, Wheatstraw 's death was eerily appropriate -- celebrating his 39th birthday, Wheatstraw and some friends decided to drive to the local market to pick up some liquor, and on their way out they tried to beat a railroad train that was coming down the tracks at full speed.

Needless to say, they didn't make it. AllMusic relies heavily on JavaScript. Please enable JavaScript in your browser to use the site fully. Blues Classical Country. Electronic Folk International. The power to make things better.

For themselves, sure, but also for others. Maybe the end is a hell of a lot closer than either of them thinks it could be. In one scene, the cane starts vibrating for no discernible reason. Inside is a bomb planted by the rival club owners. They end up throwing it into the bed of a watermelon truck so that chunks of the fruit can rain down for blocks around. Petey uses the magical pimp cane frequently enough that Satan begins to wonder if the guy loves his magical pimp cane more than he loves the terrifying demon daughter of Hell.

He confronts Petey on Earth to remind him of their deal, and to politely suggest that he not attempt to renege on it. This is where another difference between Petey and Dolemite is made clear.

Dolemite is a natural hardass. He is, as the sequel had it, a human tornado. A genuine, according-to-Hoyle force of nature. Petey is the opposite. He absolutely fights well, but he never truly gets the upper hand until he has supernatural assistance. Petey is more of an artful dodger. So what does he do to outsmart Satan? He agrees to a time and place to meet The Devil and let himself be dragged to Hell.

Or probably both. Once we know how things wrap up — the hobo wakes up in a car full of demons and gets away — it is indeed pretty funny!

But Petey sure does creep into the territory of doing evil shit. Petey Wheatstraw gets away with us not believing its title character to be an asshole because its reality is fragile enough that we can pierce it at any point.

The Devil — being The Devil and all — is not amused. A running joke in the film is that she apparently runs a phone sex service; Petey is staying temporarily at her house and she answers the phone with a smokey, seductive voice, dropping it the instant she realizes the calls are for him.

He does indeed let Nell go when Petey shows up. Still in possession of the magical pimp cane, Petey is able to fight back against the demons. Eventually, he even downs Satan himself. Petey triumphs, because of course he does. This is one of those times. I do wonder if — even only hypothetically — Moore and Roquemore had discussed a sequel.

Leaving Petey here, suspended in this moment, would certainly leave the door open. It gets to stand on its own as a one-off oddity that feels even more valuable because it only happened once. For this brief stretch of 90 minutes or so, Moore reached the peak of his cinematic output. Maybe a sequel would have been better. Maybe it would have been exactly as good. Most likely it would have represented a step down. Probably a funny one, probably a creative one, but still a step down.

On its own, Petey Wheatstraw gets to stand as a solid achievement. I will, however, argue that Petey Wheatstraw is long overdue for a serious critical reappraisal.