Scott Joplin (Billy Dee Williams) grew up in a musical family. After his mother's death, his father kept his music in church and nowhere else. He runs away and starts playing in a bordello. He would become one of the greatest composers during the ragtime era. He would be dead in 1917 at the age of 48 from syphilis.

The movie becomes a long downhill slide after an early run. Billy Dee Williams delivers a reserved performance and then some overdramatic work. Both of which results in a dour-noted tough watch for the second half. It feels rather flat and the pacing becomes slow. I don't know if this is all strictly true. The movie could be well-served with some dramatic fictionalization to make a more compelling film. It is still interesting history and worthwhile material.

Billy Dee Williams stars as the King of Ragtime in this musical biopic, with some interesting musical stars.

It's forthright about most of the problems that Joplin faced, although race is rarely mentioned. Dick Hyman plays the piano for Williams, who does some minimal faking on the keys. None of the numbers are played all the way through, although there is a wonderful staging for "Solace", and the ragtime competition at the start is lively and very amusing. Williams is very subdued in his performance, letting himself be upstaged by Art Carney as his publisher, and Clifton James, who gives an excellent performance as Louis Chauvin. Real performers who show up -- it was produced by Motown -- include Eubie Blake, Otis Day, Spo-De-Odee, and the Commodores.

As a fit to feed historians and musicians alike into the world of early american music, this made-for-television movie may start grandiosly on one of the greatest musical scenes at the piano duel where we can even find the great Eubi Blake (living Rag time era pianist at the time, 1883-1983) BUT the films lacks in Billy Dee Williams a realistic portrayer of what it means to sit in front of the Keys, unwillingly failing to delivery the right feel at the performances and this my first sad turn off.

Yet the films carries on introducing the unknown Louis Chauvin (Clifton Davis) who actually steals the performances and this, in defence of history, stands out for the more accurate records of the time, whereas it's been read that Scott Joplin was not a great performer, as he was a genious writer (quote: ¨the king of ragtime writers¨) and this is perhaps the films more greatful achievement, to do justice to the forgotten legacy of Louis Chauvin (1881 - 1908) in the dem of american piano performers, and his subsequent fall down due to the abuses of the time (second in the ¨27 Club¨ unfamous membership) then on what the film starts to lack is a more story teller direction as the viewer has to determine what actually happens in the life of our main character, who only grows distant from his origens for the film over shortet script purpose, missing much of his unfortunate life struggles that when around at the time, (one can not be sure wheather his first and only daughter really passed away, because of the so poorly directed scene and nearly unconnected dialogs, where we only get his first wife Belle Jones simply walks away) we never get more details of his later marriages, including the passing of Freddie Alexander, whom he married in 1904 and died only 2 months later, from this period we know the song ¨Bethena¨ but the film writers decided to overpass all this in favour to make only The Maple Leaf Rag the most memorable theme, Good thing we get a bit of ¨Cascades¨ and the image of Joplin at work for the St Louis 1904 World Fair at the very least, and another scene shows us a very sick Scott Joplin finally unable to perform for possibly new backers during his very unfortunate Treemonisha period, hence we don't get to know if this acually resembles his only and last rehearsal presentation in a hall in Harlem that was according the time records, so poorly staged and with only Joplin on piano at the accompaniment, that this last call for finantial support went so wrong that even caused some of them to walk off, this sadly sealed his fate until his final days....and to the movie porpose this sort of poorly staged key points on his life is what really pulls down the good will of the film production to its best biographical goal.

The film cast well a portrait of the era and the struggle for musicians to be heard, respected and ¨save¨ at the dem of their craft and history despite all mayor divisions, human flaws and vices, but to the respect of enhancing the legacy of the The King of Ragtime Writers, a finer tuner could have delivered a more accurate E flat note to make us enjoy more the Maple Leaf Rag, and all its Cascades afterwards.