msladysoul Reviews

Big Boy (1930)

Disgusting!

[1/10 · 4 May 2011]

As a black person viewing this film, it was extremely disturbing for someone of this generation, and I'm sure to black people of that time it was insulting, but what could they do. They had no power to complain. It was politically correct to be racist and insulting of other races back then, because whites were superior and what they said went. They didn't care to take black people's feelings into consideration. Gladly, things have changed. This film couldn't and wouldn't be done today. If you want a black person, get a real black person to play a role, don't black-up a white person and make them look ridiculous and un-naturally black. Blacks aren't just black-face, black people's skin tone range from black, dark brown, brown, light brown, caramel, honey, mocha, yellow, olive, even pale.

Of course white people gave this movie positive reviews because its not their race being insulted or offended. These are the reasons why racism, discrimination, bigotry, and prejudice will always exist, because you will always have people who condone the behavior in this movie, by making up excuses like "its not that racist" or "oh, that how it was back then." I'm sure if the shoe was on the other foot, it wouldn't be as amusing.

Al Jolson passing as black, portraying a black man, was extremely stereotypical, of course, he would act in that way. He wouldn't act educated or with class or sense, whites wouldn't want to see that, naturally Jolson would roll the eyes and act a fool, sing of the lord, and carry watermelons, white people wouldn't have had it any other way. Jolson doesn't represent positive blackness to me, but of course whites think he did a great job portraying a black, because that's how they view us.

I read how some people say Jolson didn't act like an "uncle tom" so that should give some relief, well like I said he was still very stereotypical, and of course he could talk sassy and tough to some whites, because it was known he was white, so he could get away with it. If he was really black, he wouldn't have been able to talk up to whites on screen that way. When Jolson looks at the white woman that walks pass him when he's singing at the club, you know if he really was black, that part would have been cut from the film. If Jolson really wanted to make blacks look good and if he didn't mean no harm, he could have portrayed the new era of black people, not stereotypical, Southern, shuffling, yes-sir black, but the northern, Harlem black, bold, head up, educated, glamorous, ambitious, listen to Ethel Waters, "Underneath a Harlem Moon." The only true portrayal in this movie is the racist Southern man who says all kind of racial insults.

I hate to see how blacks, native Americans, asians have been treated in the movies back then. Its making it harder for me to watch these old classic movies, especially since the racism is so obvious and blatant. Whites were always superior and well-behaved, while people of color were made fun of, inferior, and not as well-behaved as whites, now we know the "white lies" and that whites weren't so perfect, but whites always put themselves in the best light back then.

From what I know about Jolson, he seemed to have been influenced by blacks, which you can see in his singing and dancing. Possibly, his dressing up in black-face was a way to become a black man to him. I've seen minstrel shows from back then and seen many black-face comedians, and found them insulting and offensive and they knew they were, but like I said it was okay to make fun of blacks back then, but with Al Jolson it seems he really wanted to be black, even though his portrayal was negative. Maybe with this film he was trying to show the ignorance of white racism by becoming a black man, of course the audience knew he was really white, but by becoming black, maybe he's trying to show whites it could have been you who could have been black, so how would you like to have been mistreated? Perhaps he was also showing how blacks always had to come to save the day for white people.

Anyways, this movie was ridiculous. Jolson was supposedly the greatest entertainer in the world in his time, well, maybe he would be more remembered mainstream and appreciated by everyone if it wasn't for the black-face. I hear talk of Judy Garland, Sinatra, and others, but not much talk of Jolson, I suppose its because of the black-face. If white audiences enjoyed the play or the movie Big Boy, its because Jolson reassured them with his stereotypical black person, that blacks were everything whites thought or wanted them to be.

I try to put myself back in the 1930's, and still was offended, as I'm sure many blacks were back then, but like I said they had no say. I read black newspapers of that time, and they were disgusted by the film. A lot of whites get offended when black comedians like Chris Rock make fun of them, well maybe now you know how blacks felt seeing Cantor and Jolson. Some may say, Eddie Cantor and Jolson were appealing to the tastes back then, so you mean they were appealing to whites love of seeing people of color made fun of? None of them had the balls to stand up and say I'm not doing that? Doing blackface don't make you a greater entertainer.

hotoil, said blacks didn't have leading roles back then. This movie was made in 1930, in 1929, Nina Mae McKinney, a black actress, starred in one of the first black films, and then there was Hearts of Dixie, another black film made in 1928. So there were blacks in starring roles.

Band of Angels (1957)

Some facts....some fictions!

[5/10 · 6 April 2011]

This movie is something else I must say. I just don't know how to take it. I guess the thing that upset me the most was this movie was another example of Hollywood being racist, while telling a story about racism, their displaying racism. First thing that upset me was they cast a white actress to the part of a mixed black person, Hollywood did this often in movies about mixed race people (Pinky, Lost Boundaries, Imitation of Life, Show Boat), they always would cast white actors and actress and try to make them look ethnic, instead of hiring light-skinned black actress and actors to play the part, it would bring an authenticity to the role if a real black played the part. For this particular movie, Band of Angels, Hilda Simms (famous for playing Anna Lucasta on Broadway) who was a beautiful, talented, light-skinned black woman, would have been perfect as Manty, but as some reviewers have said, a true black and a white kissing and being in love on screen was taboo and something the world wasn't ready to see yet, but it was okay to see a "pretend black girl played by a white" and a white man in love, how much sense does that make??? Manty once lived as a white privileged girl, so when she finds out she's "black," she can't accept her blackness or the black side, and throughout the movie she's still acts like a white girl, detached in many ways. Yvonne De Carlo, doesn't even play the tragic mulatto well, she seems very cold, especially when she's on the black side. Its because she has no experience as a black, she can't bring that experience to the role, so she seems very detached and going through the motions in some parts of the movie. She couldn't bring the suffering and hardships of being black like a real black actress could.

This movie showed some truth about slavery, many white slave masters were sleeping with black women and having black mistresses. Where do you think all these different tones of black people come from? Many blacks have white ancestry, but most whites won't admit they have black relations. Many slave masters would keep their mixed race children a secret from their white families. President Thomas Jefferson has black descendants, from the children he had with his black slave mistress, but most white descendants of Thomas Jefferson haven't been as welcomed to them. I saw a common theme in this movie it seems the men couldn't wait to sleep with or rape the light-skinned Manty, proving that during slavery, many light-skinned black women were used as sex slaves back then, but yet still slaves.

Another thing about this movie is the "one drop of black blood" rule. This was something made up by whites to keep mixed race people out of their race. Whites wanted to keep their race pure, so even if a mixed race person looked more white, that drop of black kept them from being white. They didn't have a choice to choose to be black or white. White people were in denial of their black-white relations and gung-ho about not accepting mixed race ones, and that's still true to this day. Our President Obama is of mixed race, but people call him black. Also back then there was a rule that if your mother was a slave, you had to be a slave. That was one way slave owners could keep more slaves from being free. Quite a few black men were able to buy their freedom, but most black women couldn't afford their freedom and plus if a slave was of mixed race, she still had to be a slave, even if her father was a white man, if her mother was black she still had to be a slave.

There's some discrepancies in this film, I doubt in real life back then a Manty could just be crossing the color line back and forth, being black then being white. If you were lucky enough to pass and get away with it, you ran away somewhere no one knew you. If you were known as black, people would keep an eye on you so you wouldn't pass. Manty had more freedoms then a black girl would be given in true life back then, and she had more freedoms then even white woman would ever be given, so I doubt Manty would just be all over the place like she was in this film. Slave masters back then who were having affairs with blacks, didn't carry on so openly as this movie suggest. I doubt in real life Manty and Clark Gable would ride out into the sunset and live happily ever after.

I could understand the bitterness of Rau-Ru, Clark Gable's character buy slaves and supposedly treat them nice, to make up for being apart of the slave trade, but yet his slaves are still slaves, not free to go and come as they please. I wonder how many white slave owners back then thought they could make up for buying slaves by being nice.

Michele, played by model Carrole Drake, is a pretty house slave, who once was the mistress of Clark Gable, but when Manty was brought in, Michele had to move over, but she still loves him. It supposedly was taboo for a black and white romance, but anyone could see Michele and Clark Gable had something going on between them, without kissing. Carrole never did any other films, and that's ashame, she was wonderful in this part.

Tommie Moore was marvelous as the spunky, naughty, sassy Dolly, she was a wonderful black actress who people don't even know. She was a great actress, but like many black actress and actors it was hard to find work and get recognition. Juanita Moore, famous for Imitation of Life, was wonderful in her small part.

Dispossessed Blues (1943)

Dancing In The Street!

[9/10 · 15 December 2010]

This soundie is a short music video basically showing the popular dance of the 40's, the lindy hop. The setting of the soundie is on a street, with a woman getting kicked out of her apartment, all of her stuff is getting put out, even her piano, and she starts playing some boogie woogie on the piano to get rid of her blues. There's a attractive young lady sitting on the porch with a guitar player, and she starts moving to the beat, she appears to be flirting with the guitar player, then a guy comes up and grabs her hand to dance, leaving the guitar player displeased. The girl and guy start lindy hopping in the street, then other neighbors and passer-bys start dancing to. Lynn Albritton, the piano player, starts everyone "dancing in the street," 20 years before Martha Reeves and The Vandellas, of Motown, started everyone dancing in the street. The soundie is really entertaining. Most of the performers in the soundies were uncredited, sadly, we'll never know who most of the talents in the soundies are, but I gotten to know who some of the talents are featured in the soundies. Many were regulars in the soundies, and many were actual performers around Harlem nightclubs, especially the women, who were chorus girls and dancers at popular Harlem nightclubs. The lead dancer in this soundie was in all of Lynn Albritton soundies. These soundies really are a great source of info, if you want to know what entertainment and life was like back in the 40's. The soundies featured artists who aren't known today, but back then they were popular. Lynn Albritton, was a great piano player, but info on her is very hard to find.

Keep Smiling (1943)

Great War Song!

[7/10 · 15 December 2010]

This is a wonderful soundie, with The Four Ginger Snaps. They were a popular singing group in the 40's, with three ladies and a guy, who appeared in quite a few soundies, but this is one of few that survives. Their an entertaining, humorous group with great personality, rhythm, and harmony. The song their singing Keep Smiling is a song encouraging everyone to keep smiling because we'll win the war and buy war bonds to support the troops. The soundies gave black singers and dancers a chance to express themselves and present their talents and form of entertainment in their own way, and it's very entertaining to see. Soundies were the first type of music videos, if you ever get a chance to check out these soundies you should, to enjoy a part of entertainment history that's bygone, but will live forever through film, and its a chance to discover talent that isn't widely recognized. These soundies definitely display the popular dances, songs, and styles of the era, that you will enjoy, and you may see there's not much difference in soundies of the past and the music videos of today, there was always sex appeal.

The Scar of Shame (1929)

Scar of Shame an significant film with an important message even to this day!

[10/10 · 21 January 2010]

Scar of Shame is the best race film and one of the few surviving silent films with a black cast. Scar of Shame is an early example of black life in films. The movie simply is about the wrong road people can go down when there is no positive guidance nor education in their lives. Lucia Moses plays Louise, an abused young girl who has men in her life who wants to sexually exploit her, she's saved and looked after by Alvin Hillyard (Harry Henderson) who is a hero, who feels women should be respected, and fights for Louise's honor. They fall in love, but Louise isn't of Alvin's class, he's sort of ashame of her, Louise senses this shame, and wants to get even. Alvin goes to prison for a crime he didn't commit. They meet up later in a nightclub, Alvin had escaped from prison and lived under a different alias. He has a new love interest, the innocent, doll-faced Alice (Pearl McCormmack) who knows nothing of his past. Her father Ralph Hathaway (Lawrence Chenault) is a prominent lawyer who frequents nightclubs and knows Alvin's former wife Louise very well, but doesn't know Alvin and Louise were once married. To make a long story short, Louise tries to win back Alvin's love but realizes she can't. She even tries to blackmail him but she finds it no use. She asks forgiveness for her sins and shortcomings and commits the unthinkable. Lawrence Chenault emotes "Our people have so much to learn" when he witnesses what Louise has done. What he said has a strong message even to this day. I won't tell all what happens from beginning to end, cause I don't want to spoil it. With all the junk movies out today, you can spare an hour and a few minutes for a good movie.

I had read how people tried to turn this movie into a color issue or color chaste situation. I didn't see it. I think when it comes to anything black, people want to bring color and race up, instead of just enjoying the talents or just viewing what life and times were like back then. This film included blacks of all complexions and it definitely was a story about black life, though this particularly story could be portrayed by any race. Most race films always had a moral story for blacks and this was one of them. The film wanted to imply that blacks had a lot to learn, so not much has changed in 80 something years, and that ain't good.

This film definitely is the best out of many race films because of the professionalism of how the film was made and the acting is very natural and believable, proving that race films/black actors and actresses could make successful movies if the time and money was put into it. I also enjoy race films to see what life was like back then, the music, dancing, styles. These race films are black history visuals, if not for the talent alone. Race films couldn't make blacks rich or famous, but race films provided blacks the opportunity to be people, be beautiful, glamorous, handsome, to play people from all walks of life and portray different plots and stories that Hollywood would never let them do. Blacks of all hues and looks were given equal chances in race films.

Gorgeous, Clara Bow lookalike Lucia Moses was a popular chorus girl in the late 20's and 1930's. She was an original Cotton Club girl, along with her equally popular sister Ethel Moses, who later became Oscar Micheaux's actress. Had they been white, they would have been movie stars no doubt. Handsome Harry Henderson was a well-known actor in black theater and race films in the 1920's. Lawrence Chenault, often considered the pioneer of black theaters and movies, was a highly respected actor for over three decades. He was in many prolific films and plays in his day. He was also in Oscar Micheaux's Body and Soul with Paul Robeson, that made Paul a star. Dollface Pearl McCormmack was a popular dancer in the late 1920's and 1930's. It's sad that there many black talents who never became huge stars because of racism. All these people were deserving to be stars outside their community.

I have to comment on the color issue people seem to have. People have commented on the lighter-skinned blacks in the movie. What's wrong with lighter-skinned blacks being in movies and having leading roles? No one complains when darker-skinned blacks have leading roles. Some commented on how white Lucia Moses, Lawrence Chenault, and Pearl McCormmack looked, I say not all blacks are dark-skinned with big noses and big lips, this is a very stereotypical image some people hold of blacks. Blacks come in all colors, shapes, features, and textures like any race. It's natural for most people to say someone who is lighter skinned looks white but whites aren't the only ones with lighter skin tones. People also love to say a black woman looks white when she's beautiful; insinuating she's only beautiful because she looks white because a black woman couldn't be beautiful. There's beauty in every race. This country associates beauty with whiteness, so any woman of color that is beautiful, she quickly viewed as "white-looking." There's beautiful black, Spanish, Asian, Indian women, so I didn't find Lucia or Pearl, all that white looking. I would say Lucia looked Spanish more then white, Pearl looked black to me.

We know the color and race issues of the past, why not give these unsung black actors/actresses what they always wanted, to be judged and appreciated for their talents. We'll never get past color and race, unless, people stop being so color conscious when it comes to blacks, as if it's the only interesting thing about blacks. I wasn't looking at color. I just enjoyed watching the movie and beautiful black people, if only more people could do that.

Bright Road (1953)

A movie every teacher should see!

[9/10 · 18 January 2010]

This was really a good movie. I wish there was a sequel. I wish more teachers were like Dorothy Dandridge's character. Obviously we have many problem children now and we need more understanding teachers who are willing to have a heart, instead of just going to earn a paycheck and bark out orders and schoolwork. No wonder we have so many angry children who grow up to be angry adults, they get no love at home nor at school. I feel if you want to be a teacher, you got to realize you're more then a teacher, you got to be a parent too. You got to find a special gift, hobby, or talent in a problem child and make that child feel special and in that way, that'll help them be better in other activities and schoolwork.

Everyone in this movie touched my heart, especially the children, for kids who never acted before they were so natural and believable. In those days work for black children in movies was rare so I'm not surprised most of the black children in the movie didn't appear in any other films but I want them to know their appreciated for their appearances and I hope some of them will post on this forum to let us know what became of them.

The girl who played Tanya (Barbara Ann Sanders) had such a sweet face and tears came to my eyes when she died. I can't help but think what could have became of all these children if their were acting opportunities for black children. The boy who played C.T. (Phillip Hepburn) was amazing and his acting was so believable. Even in today's era there are many boys just like C.T. who are misunderstood and just need extra tender, loving, and care.

I noticed many black dancers/actresses who had been in Hollywood films as dancers and maids for years in this film, that weren't credited but had small parts, such as, Louise Franklin, Doris Ake, Jeni LeGon, Vivian Dandridge, Dorothy's sister. Maidie Norman was wonderful as Tanya's mother. All these black actresses didn't have the fair chance to really shine in films. They were left out because of Hollywood not wanting to give too many black women a chance in films. Lena Horne and Dorothy got a chance, but even they struggled.

Last but not least, Dorothy was wonderful as a caring teacher who won't give up on C.T. Dorothy is very pretty but not overly glamorous, she's very believable as a teacher.

See this movie if you get a chance, with all the junk out today, you can spare 66 minutes to see an inspirational film about not giving up on anyone. Sometimes people will be a problem just to test you to see if you really care. There's a scene where C.T. shows he really knows the answers to his math but he won't reveal he's really smart to the teacher. He wants her to show she cares first.

If you like this film, you will love "Take A Giant Step" starring Johnny Nash and Ruby Dee, made in 1959 or 1960. After seeing "Bright Road," I feel "Take A Giant Step" might have been a sequel to this movie. Take A Giant Step is about a troubled teenage black boy trying to find acceptance and his place in a unfair world. It's very good. Johnny Nash even resembled what an older C.T. might have looked like. There's an actress in the film who the teenage boy is in awe of and I think because he reminds her of Tanya, but that's just my take.

Anyways, you'll love both films. Why don't they make films like these anymore?

Some of These Days (1942)

One of the best sondies!

[9/10 · 5 June 2008]

I love this soundie. This soundie is less then five minutes but its very fulfilling, there's great singing, some hip dancing from guys and girls, a little acting, pretty girls, its an early form of an music video, it is a 40'ish music video. Maxine Sullivan is a great singer who had a lot of soul in her voice. She should be remembered more then what she is. I wonder who the pretty girl that was shown throughout the soundie a few times more then the others, she was the one who did a little playacting with a guy playing house with little stick figures or whatever and she had quite a few close ups. She had a wonderful personality, exuberant, and gorgeous, I'm surprised she didn't become a big star. Some of the people used in the background of soundies were used in other soundies as well, I recognized some in this soundie in other soundies, hopefully the pretty girl from this soundie I'll see in other soundies.

The Audition (1933)

Hannah Williams Jazz Songbird is the reason to see this short!

[9/10 · 21 March 2008]

I can't believe there are no comments on this short. This short by far is one of the best that you'll ever see, 9 minutes of non stop entertainment. Hannah Williams steals this short. She's a awesome singer of jazz with a vivacious personality that really makes you watch and listen to her. You can't take your eyes off of her the whole time she's performing. I can't believe she didn't become one of the more popular, remembered singers/performers. I've listen to most of the black and white singers of the 30's and I have to say the ones who are remembered Hannah is as good as and this short alone proves it. Hannah sings one of Judy Garland's famed songs "Get Happy" and I have to say Hannah makes that her song too. Other entertainers in the short are The Three X Sisters and they sing "Here Comes The Showboat" I think their a black female group but not sure but their really good, then Larry Larry, an acrobatic/tap dance team ends this great short with some excellent dancing. Not much of a story in this short, of course like many shorts, just a reason to see great entertainment from a bygone era.

One of the reasons I love shorts is because to be honest I get to discover talents that I've never heard of and can't see or hear anywhere else. Many of the talents in these Vitaphone shorts were popular in their time but didn't have longevity fame, most didn't become legends, but thanks to these shorts their talent lives on.

Youngblood (1978)

Bryan O'Dell Is Really The One Who Keeps My Attention!

[6/10 · 9 February 2008]

Bryan O'Dell was a young, charismatic, entertaining actor, most known in the 70's. Bryan was best known for playing Marvin, the pesky, annoying, nosy high school newspaper reporter on "What's Happening." In this movie "Youngblood" Bryan plays the title character and he portrays his character as a troubled, naive, impressionable teen accurately and he adds charm to his character especially when he's flirting with Sybil played by Ren Woods. Its hard to dislike Youngblood because he still maintains likability, despite joining a gang and being involved in violence, he still has a lot of heart and innocence. This movie is basically about young teens who are having problems at home and in the streets so they get involved with gangs for protection and for a family base but the particular gang in this movie, The Kingsmen, aren't doing drive by shootings, robbing innocent people, terrorizing their neighborhoods, nor selling drugs, in fact, when someone they know dies of a drug overdose, the Kingsmen band together to get back at the drug dealers in their neighborhood, they take the law into their own hands, though a few members of their gang dies, The Kingsmen get justice and take care of the main guys. This movie is pretty good but there seems to be some things missing from the story, like at the end, it really doesn't show what became of the characters nor how did Youngblood feel to find out his brother was one of the drug pushers. I hear there was suppose to be a sequel explaining all that but there wasn't a sequel, but sequel or not, this movie should have had a more satisfactory ending. Another thing missing was what became of Sybil, it really wasn't explained whether she was addicted to drugs or pregnant or both and it would have been a little romantic to see love blossom between Sybil and Youngblood. Another thing missing was whether Rommel played by Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs got a job and took care of his family or whether he died or not. Anyways this film is pretty good but some things were missing in the story that could have made this film a classic or iconic black film. Everyone holds their own in this movie and plays their characters naturally with great enthusiasm. Most of the black actors and actresses in this film didn't do much work after this movie because of the lack of work for blacks in Hollywood, but most of them did do acting and extra work on TV shows in the 70's, you might notice some. There were many talented actors and actresses of color in the 70's that just didn't get substantial work or their due opportunities so they became obscure. There were a few Soul Train Dancers in the nightclub dance scene that some may recognize if their Soul Train fans.

Anyways, the movie is very realistic, not a iconic movie, but a pretty good movie, better then whats out today. I was most impressed with Bryan O'Dell. I wonder what became of him. I hear Bryan was actually in his mid-20's when he did this film, he played a 16 year old but wasn't. He looked very young for his age so he always had to play people younger then him and he was believable, but his youthful looks might have been a downfall because he didn't get many grown-up parts, if he's in his 50's now, I wonder has he retained his youthful looks because if he did he probably would look 30'ish or 40'ish. I give the movie a 7 out of 10. I wish there were movies out today that try to come up with a solution to end some of the things ruining the black community. I wish people today would band together to end the drug and violence problems.

Son of Ingagi (1940)

Laura Bowman, Alfred Grant, Arthur Ray, and The Four Toppers are the talents in the film!

[7/10 · 28 December 2007]

I see there are many bad reviews for this movie mostly from Caucasian people who don't really care for race films or appreciate the efforts and are comparing race films with Hollywood films that had big budget that could make any movie better. I consider myself a expert on race films, I try to research the films and the people in it who have been forgotten and overlooked for their contribution to cinema, deserving or not. Son of Ingagi, is not one of the best race films, but I enjoyed it after watching it a few times. Instead of knocking the whole cast, there are quite a few good actors and actresses in this film who try to make the best in this film. Laura Bowman, one of the early black actresses of stage and screen, was a highly respected and talented actress, her acting was in the same fashion of Ethel Barrymore, Marie Dressler, and. She really stands out in this film. She was always great at playing an intimidating, misunderstood, grouchy old woman but she could be comical with the same traits. Handsome and suave Alfred Grant showed his potential as an actor in this film. He showed every true emotion for any given situation more then any other in the cast. Daisy Bufford who played the wife, was a little too cheerful for an horror movie. There were times where she should have been scare instead of smiling and looking calm. I just can't believe her in this film. I would liked to have seen Margaret Whitten, Sybil Lewis, Theresa Harris, or Mae Turner, some of race films better actresses in the wife part. Arthur Ray who plays the Doctor's brother is always good as the conniving old Grinch. Zack Williams was good at the grunts, roars, and I beg to differ if you saw such a thing as him in your home, you would be a little scared My problem with some of the acting was for an scary movie, there was times the husband and wife were a little too cheerful for living in a home where murders were committed but I understand that not too much emphasis, dialog, and attention was given to the actors and actresses in race films, most of these films were shot in a week, but if one is going to make any film or any kind, at least make it good, don't just do anything or show little concern because of lack of money or time. No this movie won't scare you but it gave me a chance to witness black actors and actresses playing people from all walks of life and not being stereotypes and many showed potentiality as actors and actresses. If black actors and actresses were developed by studios like many white actors and actresses, many could have been great.

Basically this film is centered around a young married couple who's marriage is interrupted by mystery and murder that indirectly involves them. Dr. Jackson, a woman who is invited to their wedding, was connected to the wife's father whom she was in love with. The Doctor wants to give all her life earnings and home to the young married couple for being nice to her and because of love of the wife's father. The Doctor is killed by the ape she brought back from Africa, (how she got it into this country I'll never know) it seems he dranked something the Doctor mixed up that was gonna do something significant to change humanity, I wonder what it was because it made the ape dangerous and gave the ape killing tendencies. The ape killed his master, his Doctor. The young married couple finds the body and is suspected of killing the doctor because a will is found in which their to inherit the Doctor's money and home and its believed they made the will up and kill the Doctor because there's no other suspects. The young couple move into the Doctor's house (why I don't know, I wouldn't move into a home where someone was killed and the murderer is still loose) and they don't know there's an ape in the basement. An attorney is killed while visiting the home and so the detectives stake out at the home and well its found out later who committed the crimes and other stories unravel. Maybe the movie would have been more interesting if the husband and wife would have suspected each other. I mean there was really no whodunit between the husband and wife. The wife was walking around like nothing was happening.

I like The Four Toppers, they were a great singing group. I wonder if The Four Tops knew it was a grew before them with sort of the same name?

By Whose Hand? (1932)

Watch this movie; it'll be the best 63 minutes you ever spent!

[10/10 · 11 January 2007]

A Little Spoiler - Every pre-code fan should catch this movie, "By Whose Hand?". It was a very entertaining and rare 65 minute classic movie that was shown on Turner Classic Movies. This movie is another example of pre-code greatness. Crime, Love, Betrayal, and Murder all takes place on a train ride. Slick and Smooth Ben Lyon plays Jimmy Hawley, a newspaper reporter who is always got his eye out for a story. He gets kissed accidentally by pretty Alice (Barbara Weeks) and because of that he follows her to California on a train where a big story evolves right before his eyes. The train ride has plenty of suspects with a shady past, a jewelry distributor (Kenneth Thomson), a gorgeous moll named Eileen (Ethel Kenyon), a criminal, a bitter man, and the wife of a criminal who's going to help her husband get even with the man who framed him who's on the train. The jewelry man is killed and the beautiful moll is suspected because of her being seen with him and because of her past, the bitter guy who the jewelry man fired is suspected of killing out of revenge. The convict and his wife are suspects too even Alice (Barbara Weeks). Ben Lyon plays detective and points out the guilty and innocent. I won't give all all the details in case some of you haven't seen it.

There is mention of dope cigarettes - weed - which was given to the man to fall asleep so he could be killed. There is also plenty of sexual innuendos that pre-code movies were known for. The newlywed couple was cute, especially, the blonde, little cutie. During the drama, the funny part is when the detective tells everyone to come out of their sleepers and he ask the newlywed couple what they were doing during the murder and the newlywed couple starts to blush and look guilty and giggles because they were having sex during the murder - they didn't say that but their face told it. That's what I like about pre-code, pre-code didn't have to be filthy and vulgar to be entertaining and sexy like movies today. Movies today should learn something from pre-code movies. This movie has everything and it's jam-packed for being just a 65 minute movie. That's what I love about pre-code, pre-code proved a movie doesn't have to be 2 hours long to be entertaining or to tell the story fully. There was a beginning, middle, and end, the pre-code movies get to the point without a lot of unnecessary parts which is good for an impatient person like me. Pre-code is entertaining all the way through. Please see this movie, I personally recommend it!

Lost Boundaries (1949)

Is Light skin better? The hypocrisy of Hollywood!

[8/10 · 19 May 2006]

Quite moving. The only complaint I have is Hollywood was very hypocritical. They do a movie on blacks passing as white because of lack of opportunities but they won't give real blacks a chance to play the leading parts in Pinky and Lost Boundaries. The leading characters are good in their roles, they try really hard to step in the shoes of the Negro but they don't know what it's really like for a Negro or a white-looking Negro. The movie would have been more so effective with white-looking, mulatto Black actors/actresses playing the part. Fredi Washington was the only white-looking Negro to play a true mulatto in Imitation of Life. There were many white looking black actors and actresses who could have played the leading parts such as Hilda Simms, Anne Wiggins Brown, Fredi Washington, Jack Carter, Barrington Guy, Monte Hawley, Niles Wells, Dick Campbell, Lorenzo Tucker, Frank Silvera but Hollywood rather use white actors and actresses who didn't even look mulatto to play white Negroes. I feel if your gonna do a movie on light-skinned Blacks passing as whites, at least, get whites who look the part. Linda Darnell would have been perfect as the mulatto in this movie and in Pinky because Linda looks mulatto, she don't look like the average white woman just like Ava Gardner and Helen Morgan who played mulattoes in Showboat. Hollywood's main audience were white so they catered to white audiences and they knew whites didn't want to see REAL white-looking Negroes passing for white being among whites on screen, it would be too real for white America, they rather see white actors playing the "passing" role.

I often wonder how could a so-called Black look white and not be white? I feel if you look white, why not be white if that's dominant in you regardless if you have one or two drops of black blood. No one is pure 100% white or black. Whites made the rule that if you got one or two drops of black blood in you, your Black even if you look white. White America didn't want mixed blood in their race, even if it was their fault, so they called the mixed blood ones mulattoes and kept a close eye on them making sure they didn't pass. One thing I want to add is not every mulatto wanted to be white, not all of them were confused and ashamed like these movies try to make lighter complected Negroes out to be. Not all of them were forced to be Black by society, many chose to be Black. Many white looking Blacks were more prouder to be Black then some darker ones. Many never took the easy way out by passing when they could have but it never crossed the minds of ones actors mentioned above. Leonard Reed, a popular performer in his time lived as Black and white but he was mostly involved in the Black race.

When people say light skin is better do they mean if your light you have a better chance at a better life because you can pass for white? This movie proved whites didn't care how light a black person looked, if you had black ancestry, black family, black blood, your in the same boat as darker Blacks. Don't let other people's prejudice and racism be your problem, that's their problem. Being white doesn't automatically mean your free and perfect. This same year this movie came out, one of the first black female playwrights Elsie Roxborough committed suicide after passing for white for over 10 years, she wasn't much of a success as a white woman as she was a Black woman which goes to prove the grass isn't always so greener on the other side.

The young kids in the movie after finding out their Black already know at a young age the ridicule they will face in life and automatically they think something is wrong with them because society teaches kids at a young age, white is right and black is bad by separating and by talk. Movies of this type always try to make it look like Black people's problems are their own faults and whites done nothing wrong when it was whites who taught self-hatred to the Negro and brainwashed everyone to feel something is wrong with Blacks. If this really was the land of the free no one would hate or feel the need to pass to have a better life.

Some passed for white to help their race later like in slavery time mulattoes would pass later to return to buy their family who were still slaves and give them freedom. Many would trick whites like by buying a home from whites that they couldn't get if it was known they were Black. Some felt the white man do wrong by being prejudice so blacks did wrong by passing. This movie proves judge a person by their work, heart, goodness, forget color and race. This movie also proves not everyone hates their race but if their desperate enough to pass to get what they want they will pass. Merle Oberon hid her true race because she knew she wouldn't have become a big star. So she tricked Hollywood. Frank Silvera was a black man who passed in Hollywood movies. Some still don't know that he was a black man. He played different races on screen but off screen he was a black man. The only way for him to show his talent and not be judged was by tricking the whites in Hollywood and Broadway. Many non-whites passed and hid their true identity, or let people guess in Hollywood, Broadway, and in the world so they couldn't be judged wrongfully. So maybe light skin is better if you chose to pass. A racist and prejudice person is a person has an inferiority complex they have to make others feel something is wrong with them to make themselves feel good.

Broken Strings (1940)

The world needs to see this film!

[9/10 · 7 April 2006]

This is by far the one of the top best of Black Cinema films. This truly was an excellent cast who had experience in acting and it shows. The cast weren't people picked up off the street like some in Black Cinema but trained actors and actresses. For an almost 60 minute movie, it's very fulfilling, fast pace but understandable. Clarence Muse, one of the great Black actors who don't entirely get the recognition he deserves gets one of his few opportunities to star in a movie and show his talent, most of his work were as stereotypes in Hollywood movies. Clarence plays a great violinist who loses the use of his hand but through his son, who has the same talent, he tries to live through and wants him only to play classical music, no swing or jazz, he's almost violently opposed to him playing swing but realizes soon after much convincing that all music is beautiful when he gains the use of his hand again. Sybil Lewis is the leading lady who would remind you of a Rosalind Russell, is a wonderful black actress who we don't hear about and many don't know her but in every role she's a natural, she plays the daughter of Clarence Muse character. Tomiwitta Moore is another wonderful, lovely black actress who's very charming in her role, she plays a young teen girl when she was really in her early 20's but because she was so petite, young looking and had a girlish voice she could play young girls or adult women. Tomiwitta and Sybil had better chances to be actresses, create their own images in Black Cinema, they had more control, they didn't have to be stereotypes and play monotonous roles like the black actresses in Hollywood. These ladies should be remembered more but because they didn't cross over their over looked yet they contributed to cinema and open doors by proving Blacks could be successful on their own making their own films showing if you want things done right do it yourself because you can't expect others to represent you rightfully and that's what ones in Black Cinema proved. Edward Thompson is wonderful as the trouble-making son of the boss who makes trouble when he can't have his way with Sybil Lewis character and tries to sabotages her boyfriend played by classy Pete Webster who all work at the same place. William Washington is wonderful as the young son who is a talented violinist who wants to prove to his father that swing can be beautiful music too but he has to suffer for it. Darby Jones is so entertaining and charming. You'll love his snake hips dance. The cute, talented Stevens Sisters are quite an eyeful, what ever happen to talent like that? Ruby Dandridge, Dorothy Dandridge mother is in this film and has a few scenes of comedy, you sure can tell that's Dorothy's mother. Stymie Beard, as we all know from the Little Rascals is great as the sneaky, conniving stool pigeon who tries to sabotage William Washington because he's better as a violinist. Also, Clarence Brooks and Jess Lee Brooks has small parts in the film, it's always good to see them. Elliott Carpenter illustrates how any form of music is beautiful. I love it when he says, "Blacks are the most musical people because they have suffered and know how to express music more soulfully and heartfully." Music can talk without saying a word.

This truly is a great film, I'm sure if it was a white cast it would be known and shown more. I also like this film because it shows a different side of Blacks that Hollywood wouldn't dare show. In this movie Blacks are who they really are, their elegant, classy, well-dressed, well-spoken in this movie. I love to watch these films to see Blacks in the nightclubs enjoying each other's company and presence, having a good time, showing they weren't always down and sad people. Black filmmakers today should check out Black cinema films such as this one, these movies give better portrayals of Blacks then today's films and the black movie stars today are able to be stars but selling out to be one, they aren't anything like Blacks in these types of movies.

I love the part where Clarence Muse says basically he's happy to be playing for his people because he and they share a kinship, a bond, and basically he hopes to be a credit to his race and history. Basically, he doesn't need whites approval or validation to feel like somebody like most black stars feel the need to cross over to whites, win so-called white awards to feel like somebody but this character feels otherwise and you hardly ever hear Blacks speak like that. That's the problem with today's generation if they used their talent to try to be a credit and good role model for their race and open doors they wouldn't be thinking about degrading themselves or their race they would want to use the talent they inherit from their culture for good.

This film also shows that Blacks were capable of playing roles and stories of people from all walks of life. Just because your Black doesn't mean the only stories you can act in has to be black-oriented. This is a black cast but color and race is not even a topic, just blacks being human beings and only through these Black cinema films were they able to be this way, even today, Blacks rarely get a chance to be human beings and play colorless parts. You'll enjoy this film with your family because it's timeless. Movies aren't made like this anymore. I wish this movie could be shown more, like on Turner Classic Movies, instead of ones just happening to find it.

Love Me or Leave Me (1955)

Ruth Etting and Doris Day two different types of singers, two different stories!

[7/10 · 28 March 2006]

I enjoy this movie, this is what good entertainment is all about, Hollywood today should learn lessons from movies like this.

Well, as all of us classic movie fans know that the 1950's was the era of movies about real-life vocalists who rose to fame but had a hard price to pay that ruined them. Lillian Roth's story "I'll Cry Tomorrow" portrayed by Susan Hayward, The Helen Morgan Story, The Country Girl, then "A Star Is Born," and countless of other fictional or non-fictional films on vocalists who pay the ultimate price for fame. We never get enough of seeing movies about fallen stars who left a place in our hearts.

This particular movie always interested me, I saw this movie on Turner Classic Movies and fell in love with the singing of Doris Day, I didn't know there was a real Ruth Etting, I didn't know she was really portraying a real life singer, I didn't check out the real Ruth Etting until 2 years ago, I saw her for the first time in "Hips Hips Hooray" on Turner Classic Movies and was kind of shocked the real Ruth wasn't anything like how Doris Day portrayed her. Doris Day's portrayed Ruth as a sexy and sassy performer and sung with a strong, jazzy, bluesy voice, when I saw the real Ruth perform in the movies and in 2 shorts, she wasn't sexy and sassy, she was reserved, the type of performer to stand still and sing with great emotion and feeling, she wasn't the wiggling hips type like Doris Day portrayed and Ruth's voice was so light, airy, powerful without being loud and aggressive, you don't hear the blues, jazz in Ruth's voice yet she was a torch singer. I see why she was popular she was a one of a kind. She didn't have to shout and sing various notes to get a song across, she knew how to put over a number without all that fancy stuff, singers today could learn a lot about singing from Helen Morgan, Lillian Roth and Ruth Etting, they didn't have to jump around, move around, shake their butts, be overly blatantly sexual, they weren't loud and annoying to make you cover your ears, they just sung their songs, each word with feeling, they didn't do all that oooh, ahhh, ooohwoooyeah stuff. The two things that Ruth and Doris did have in common was they both sing with great feeling and emotion.

The real Ruth Etting seems frail and too sweet, she's adorable, which makes me wonder why she hooked up with a gangster anyway but then again looks can be deceiving, I heard she wasn't the sweet, girl next door type in the first place and she wasn't so naive and a pushover like Doris Day portrayed her. Doris is very curvy and plump in this movie, she looks tough and looks like she could let the limping Cagney have it and run so he couldn't catch her yet Doris portrays Ruth as weak, so it makes me wonder what the real Ruth Etting was really like, the real Ruth looks so frail and innocent, she looks as though you could knock her over with a feather but I hear she was tougher than Doris portrayed her but I guess the movie was more interesting portrayed Ruth as naive and gullible. You know how Hollywood is, they never tell the whole truth, they either leave something out and put in what they want. Ruth Etting didn't like this movie, she said many things were false and she was going to sue but told not to by Walter Winchell. Ruth Etting was one of the top singers in her prime, the definition of a torch singer. She was quite unique and powerful yet with a little voice and a little body but you believed everything she singed, her adorable face and presence would naturally make you feel her pain, behind the pretty face that was a lot of hurt that was obvious through her singing. She was a true artist who makes you stop and listen.

Keep Punching (1939)

You'll enjoy this movie!

[7/10 · 2 March 2006]

This is one of the best of Black Cinema, proving Blacks were capable of portraying roles and people from all walks of life, not just black people or stereotypes of blacks to tell a story. Something that Blacks in Hollywood should be doing but if Blacks want that they will have to make their own movies but today Blacks are able to be movie stars, rich and famous but yet still in stereotypical roles but too blind to see. Anyways, the cast in a A plus cast featuring popular actors, actresses, dancers and bandleaders, one of the most beautiful actresses of screen, Francine Everett, one of the few to earn the title movie star, plays the part of sweet Fannie Singleton who is Henry's beau and unfortunately is not very encouraging but turns a leaf towards the end and learns you have to stand by your man or someone else will, and that someone else is Jerry Jordan played Mae Johnson, a popular actress who is perfect as the femme fatale trying to ruin Henry's career but makes up for her wrong, her partner in crime is Handsome, charming Willie Bryant a childhood friend of Henry's who befriending him again to ruin him, veteran actors Canada Lee, Lionel Monogas, George Wiltshire and Hilda Offley adds their years of experience to the movies. Hamtree Harrington is very funny and able to be funny without being a buffoon like Hollywood were making of Stepin Fetchit. Francine Everett, was one of the best, most familiar faces of Black Cinema as it is now called, back than it was called, All Black Cast or Race Film movies. Francine was able to play any type of role, naturally and effectively. Hollywood would only offer Francine stereotypical roles which she thought weren't deserving to her talent so that's why she didn't have much success there so within Black Cinema she was willing to play various parts and have her talent exploited positively. Francine was loved as much by black audiences as Lena Horne and Dorothy Dandridge was but just because only cross-overs and ones who were approving to whites are only remembered which is wrong to overlook blacks who stayed stars within their race and helped in the enhancement of blacks in movies by making their own and who done more for the race but are hardly ever mentioned in Black history achievements so I guess whites determined who's remembered or important in Black history. Francine truly was the greatest, whether Hollywood or Black Cinema, who cares, movies are movies, Black Cinema provided Francine the opportunities to be a versatile actress unlike Hollywood than and now. Francine truly deserves more recognition and any movies she was in was always watchable. No actress was ever as charming, beautiful, vivacious and lively as Francine then and now. You sure will enjoy this movie, especially the musical number and nightclub scenes. If you want to see what Blacks were really like back then and why Blacks were considered the greatest entertainers in the 1930s and 1940's, watch this movie and other Black Cinema films which will show why whites couldn't stay out of Harlem than. This movie, among others, provide a very different portrayals of Blacks than Hollywood, no homely, dumb, stereotypical types but very good-looking, well-dressed, well-spoken Blacks just like whites, they prove they are human beings, playing their parts without a label or stereotype that anyone would be proud of.

Murder on Lenox Avenue (1941)

Not the greatest, but not the worse!

[6/10 · 19 January 2006]

Not a bad movie at all but certainly not the greatest but it is watchable. With most of these Black Cinema films, you have to watch a few times before you get it. Instead of being called, Murder on Lenox Ave, it should of been called, Harlem Blues or something.

The most interesting of the cast are the pretty actresses who all give convincing performances. First, Dene Larry who plays Ola is quite convincing in her role as the good girl who disobeys her father for the first time but it is a good decision. She's sweet but speaks her mind when its time to do so. She's a natural as an actress, giving feeling, personality, and charm in everything, she has the right gestures and expressions whether happy or sad.

Cristola Williams plays Rosalia, the woman who loves a man who doesn't love her. She plays her role like Ann Harding or Helen Twelvetrees would, always the sad woman who can't helping loving a bad man. Cristola is a gorgeous lady who was also a fine actress of stage and screen, she appeared in quite a few Black Cinema films. She was also a lovely singer. Cristola Williams and Dene Larry are two wonderful black actresses, or Negro actresses I should say, who should be given recognition. Just because they didn't go to Hollywood or cross over their not looked at as important but they are because they contribued to Black movie-making a great deal, by making their own films to prove they had what it took, no stereotype, no labels, just playing various people from all walks of life and having the power to create their own images. Even Blacks in Hollywood don't have that freedom today.

The three sisters, or show biz chicks who live upstairs are wonderful together, their like a comedy threesome, their sassy and sexy but good girls. Their names are never said, but their listed in the credits at the end as Emily Santos, Flo Lee and Wahneta or Wahnetta San. They were also in Sunday Sinners, which was done the year before this movie and involved the same cast.

Alec Lovejoy is always good to see. Edna Mae Harris, a familiar face in Black Cinema is a singer and the other woman. She sings two charming songs and looks gorgeous. She resembles Lena Horne in voice and looks in this movie. I like her sweet instead of hot. Mamie Smith is always a natural, so you can't expect anything bad from her. Norman Astwood, handsome talented actor is one of the unsung black actors who we don't hear about just because he didn't go to Hollywood or cross over but his contributions are evident. He was a popular actor in his time. He was too white looking for Hollywood but through Black Cinema, he got his chance. He's kind of like a Clark Gable in a way.

Great blues singer Mamie Smith always is a delight in all the movies she's done. Alberta Perkins was a true actress and it shows, she was in quite a few films and on stage. She was a powerful woman with a powerful presence and powerful voice with a wonderful sense of humor. Mamie Smith, Alberta Perkins, Henrietta Loveless, Laura Bowman, and Mercedes Gilbert were wonderful actresses who got to show their various talents in Black Cinema films a.k.a Race Films, Colored Cast or Black cast films but they had what it took for mainstream Hollywood and Broadway. They had what it took to cross over but whites being prejudice and partial back then had a limit to how many Blacks they would let be stars and that position was filled by Ethel Waters, the token Black, who got a chance to cross over and be successful in Hollywood and Broadway, since she was getting all the breaks there was no room for others. It's always been a limit to blacks being successful mainstream, especially towards actresses even in Hollywood today only a few make it to the top. Anyways, they all are true talents and their contributions and talents is undeniable. The movie has a lot of different stories going on, a father who wants his daughter to marry a man she doesn't love, the father doesn't know but the guy is out for no good, he really wants the trust fund so that's the only reason why he'll marry his daughter, the guy has a nightclub singer he's chasing, and another young lady who lives in the same building who's hopelessly in love with him and wants him to marry her right away but he treats her bad after he got what he wanted, after watching the movie a few times I found the reason why she kills herself is because she's pregnant with his child and is ashame for having sex outside of marriage (remember, this is the 1940's folks), so when the guy doesn't want want to marry her and she commits suicide by jumping out of the apartment building window, the father's daughter wants to marry another man and go down south to teach but the father thinks he's crooked, the father wants to help Harlem be a better place and drive the crooked people out, there's fighting and shooting but there is surprisingly no real happy ending. Everything is fast paced. It may take a few times watching the movie to get everything going on. A lot of things are going on without real explanation, like for example, the girl who is pregnant out of wedlock, there's no mention of it but it's obvious.

This doesn't seem like an amateur cast, most everyone in the cast has been in movies before and most were in show business. I would like to have seen a little bit more in this movie. It seems everything is crammed at the end.

Big Timers (1945)

Francine Everett steals the movie again!

[6/10 · 13 December 2005]

This movie is a short one but it tries to fill in as much as it can and fast. Francine Everett is the only reason to see this movie, she's one of the most beautiful woman in movies ever and her beauty could rival any white actress. Francine plays a poor girl who's dating a wealthy, high society lieutenant and he think's she's high class because of her lovely trained voice. He sends a letter to her to let her know he's coming to meet her family. She's afraid for him to visit to find out she comes from a poor family and not marry her. Her mother who is a chambermaid helps her daughter by sneaking a hotel room and pretending she's a rich lady so her daughter won't be embrassed, their caught but everything works out in their favor. Francine always delivers the good even if others in the cast don't. Many said Francine was Hollywood material. She was offered a contract from Fox but her husband at the time actor Rex Ingram discouraged the idea. She refused many offers from Hollywood to play stereotypical type roles but she did appear in a few Hollywood productions but had she not turned down the contract from Fox there's no telling what she could have become. Francine didn't hit it big in Hollywood but she became a movie star to black America through black cinema. She got to do more in these types of movies than Lena Horne and Dorothy Dandridge ever did in Hollywood but because she didn't had cross over success she's overlooked. Lou Swarz is quite funny, she's like an Alice Brady. Duke Williams is the ideal movie matinée idol for girls, he's very handsome and not bad as an actor. Stepin Fetchit performance is one many blacks would look down on but look at him as a comedienne because that's what he is. The girl band in the movie has a great sound, remember this is the era of girl bands.

Tall, Tan, and Terrific (1946)

Wish it could of been longer!

[7/10 · 13 December 2005]

A delightful fast-pace movie this is starring the leading man and lady of Black Cinema, Monte Hawley and Francine Everett, two familiar and beloved faces of Black Cinema. The movie involved around a nightclub owner and his gambling problem which lands him in trouble for a crime he didn't commit and he loses his club and girl but all is solved and through it all wonderful entertainment. The girl band, Francine Everett's singing, The Two Fat Men, Myra Johnson, Edna Mae Harris, Mantan Moreland and the chorus girls entertained and keep the movie going. Handsome Dots Johnson is quite an actor along with Rudy Toombs, Monte Hawley needs no introduction, he was the top actor of his time, Barbara Butterbeans Bradford is very funny with Mantan Moreland.

Paradise in Harlem (1939)

The Best!

[8/10 · 13 December 2005]

This movie is by far one of the best in Black Cinema, an all star cast consisting of Percy Verwayen, Edna Mae Harris, Francine Everett, Babe and Eddie Matthews, Norman Astwood, Frank Wilson, Madeline Belt, Lucky Millander, Alec Lovejoy, and Mamie Smith. This movie is about a performer who wants to do Shakespeare but no one wants to give him a chance, they rather see him in "blackface." He gets caught up in trouble when he sees a murder committed by gangsters and they do all they can to ruin his life and career, but he finally gets his chance to do Shakespeare and its almost ruined by the audiences until the saints and the sinners join together and bring jazz and gospel together. The Othello scene is the best. The entertainment is wonderful. You get to see why Harlem became a household name and why black performers were called the best entertainers. Babe Matthews is electrifying, Francine Everett is as wonderful as an actress can be, Edna Mae Harris is vibrant as ever, Madeline Belt is sweet and hot, Percy Verwayen is the man you'd love to hate. You can't go wrong with this, Black filmmakers should check this one out and try to make movies like this.

The Exile (1931)

Not bad, Not Bad At All! Elegant Nightclub Scenes showing how Blacks REALLY were!

[7/10 · 13 December 2005]

Like most of Micheaux's movies you have to watch a few times to really get it. I like to watch the rare gems of actors and actresses in his movies. Catherine Noisette, not Kathleen or Katherine Noisette, is a gorgeous lady with charm and she's the snotty, stuck up, glamorous, gossipy type in the fashion of Kay Francis and Myrna Loy. I would like to have seen more of her, she had what it took to be a full-fledged actress, her scenes are few but you won't miss her. The Black Press had quite a lot to say about her, she most of been of some importance. Eunice Brooks is as always great and convincing. I love the nightclub scenes, it shows what black America was like and doing at the time, very different from how white Hollywood depicted Black America, Blacks were beautiful and handsome, glamorous, fun-loving and elegant looking in this film, you'll only see them this way in Black Cinema films outside of Hollywood. If you don't like the movie, at least watch for the entertainment and the view of the real Black America. The movie is about John Baptiste, a good, farm boy type who is dating a wicked and highly ambitious woman named Edith, who he breaks up with when she doesn't give up her evil, sinful lifestyle and live a quiet, country life with him, he goes back to where he comes from and ends up falling for a woman who he presumes is white, played by Nora Newsome or Newcome and for that reason he breaks up with her and goes back to wicked Edith, she gets killed by a man she used and abused and John is suspected of killing her but all ends well, as all movies were back than, there is a happy ending John is cleared when the real killer of Edith played by the great black elegant actor Carl Mahon (one of Micheaux's very few better actors) confess and John finds that the girl he thought was white really is black (a monotonous theme of Micheaux's movies)and they live happily ever after.

The entertainment in the movie is wonderful, Micheaux didn't go wrong there, he always included good entertainment, you can't leave out black entertainers in a time when black entertainers were said to be the best. He knew if people didn't like the movie, they'll like the entertainment, which is true to this day. Black Cinema in those days made sure to include great music and entertainment. Leonard Harper, a man who helped many great black talents become successes, he was highly respected in his time in show business, he was like a Ziegfield and Busby Berkeley, he lends his expertise to Micheaux, we get to see his beauty chorus, tap dancers and Louise Cook, a popular dancer in the 30's who was married to one of the Mills Brothers. Donald Heywood's band is great as always, he had a helping hand in many Black Cinema films of the early years.

Sunny Side Up (1929)

An entertaining movie for all ages to enjoy!

[8/10 · 1 September 2005]

This movie is so entertaining. Janet Gaynor is sweet but doesn't make you sick. She does some great dancing, funny thing is she does some moves you would see Fred Astaire do but he wasn't even in the movies when this movie came out, so I guess it's true when they say nothing is really new, someone has done it before. I didn't even know Janet could dance and sing. I can see why she was considered America's sweetheart and the personification of an young American girl, many felt she was a positive role model and introduce a new image unlike wild Clara Bow. Marjorie White, she has yet to disappoint me in any performance she gives. She steals just about every scene she's in but the whole cast holds their own. Marjorie was a great comedienne and so pretty. She was the first musical comedy star in my eyes. I wish more spotlight is put on her and her films. She's as better or up there with Carole Lombard, Patsy Kelly, Lucille Ball, and Thelma Todd. Marjorie is a natural. She died young and tragically in 1935. This is a nice little movie, Hollywood don't do movies like these anymore, innocent but not saint and it's so entertaining and charming. Like the other reviewer I thought it be a dud to. Just about all the stars of the movie sing and dance to sweet songs. Sharon Lynn sings a sweet song. Frank Richardson is a riot. Charles Farrell and Janet Gaynor were the top screen couple in the early 1930's. Farrell couldn't seem to get out of that shadow. Movie fans always wanted to see them together, it was a hard for either to break and do other things. This is a nice movie to enjoy with your family, it's a change from what we see on TV today. Oh another thing to point out is I think Marjorie White was the first to say a curse word in a major movie. She said "hell" It's not really bad but it had my jaw drop because I never heard any stars say that in early movies, its such an innocent time, of course I wouldn't be shock by it today, people use worser words then that but it was funny and cute coming from cutie pie Marjorie White.

Ready, Willing and Able (1937)

Ruby, Wini and Carol

[7/10 · 12 August 2005]

This movie is very nice. Not a must see but worth seeing. Ruby Keeler is always fun and pretty to watch. She dances fine in the movie. Carol Hughes is beautiful. Wini Shaw is an excellent singer and very beautiful. But she sounds a lot like Helen Morgan which is something that might of stopped her from gaining more fame. Ross Alexander is attractive and has a nice voice but he's no Dick Powell which stopped him from gaining fame at Warner Bros. Louise Fazenda is funny as usual. Anyone who criticizes Ruby's dancing, should see this movie, she dances quite well in "Handy with your feet" number. She acts fine and naturally as a girl in her position would.

Harlem Is Heaven (1932)

Anise Boyer is Tops!

[7/10 · 6 May 2005]

This is a wonderful movie. Another goodie of Black Cinema. Anise Boyer steals the movie. She is strikingly pretty. The prettiest of Black Cinema. What a natural in front of the scene, even though this was her first and only movie. Anise Boyer was a Cotton Club chorine alongside Lena Horne. Many times she was voted more prettier then Horne. She was also called the prettiest chorine of the East. In this movie Anise is petite but powerful. The story is basically like most musicals of the 1930's. A girl comes from the south to the big city Harlem looking for work, she gets to become a star but she has to pay for her stardom and she gets involved in some risky business, through it all she remains sweet and unharmed. She's a girl you won't forget. She has a dry tarty type of voice that's so cute. She's a mixture of Alice White and Jean Harlow. She is just sweet as pie and tough as nails. Anise steals the movie even from Bill Robinson. The best scene of the movie is Anise getting into a cat fight with Greta (Alma Smith- popular dancer in the 1930s) it's one of the best fight scenes in movie history. As little as Anise is she dominates the fight and she goes to town on Greta and when little, tough Jean (Anise) gets down beating up Greta, Jean (Anise) grabs her and say "are you gonna talk, huh?" in the same fashion of Humphrey Bogart and Cagney. What woman have you seen fight and talk like that? Only in Black Cinema could it happen. Though it's called Black Cinema, Blacks got to play versatile roles, play human beings from all walks of life unlike Hollywood where Blacks had to be "black" or the stereotype. The movie is fun and entertaining. You get to see how entertainment was in the greatest era of Black entertainment. You get to see Bill Robinson do his famous dances, act, and fight. You get to see handsome Henri Wessell and talented James Baskett, who isn't talked about much who also won a special Academy Award, why isn't he mention as much as Hattie McDaniels? Eubie Blake band is great as always.

Blonde (2001)

Marilyn isn't so hard to understand

[5/10 · 17 April 2005]

I read all the reviews on the the Marilyn Monroe movie, Blonde. I can tell she's your favorite so your naturally partial to her and will stick up for her. But come on, if it walks like a duck, acts like a duck, its a duck. A lot of women didn't cheapen themselves to make it. Oh, you want to say, she couldn't help it if she was sexy and beautiful, that has nothing to do with it, a lot of women are but they don't become whores. There's a time and place for everything. If she was a decent woman, she wouldn't of slept around with married men, who just wanted her for one thing and when they found out she wasn't all they thought, they wanted out. She ruined her own life. Being a sex symbol is an art. I don't think so. Anyone can shake their hips, take photos in the nude, talk sexy, walk sexy. She was low in life because she had to know she was being used and she let herself be used. You are what you attract. What's good about being a sex symbol? What woman in their right mind wants to be known as just a sex symbol who know how to turn on the men and just there to cater them and she was that wasn't she. She added something to classic movies and I give her that but I don't make allowances for someone just because their a big star or legend. Would you want to be someone's friend who was promisicous? Do you deal with promisicous women on the street? no I'm sure most of you don't but if their a big star you make excuses for their wrongs. Being an artist is not being sexy and being good in bed. Marilyn Monroe isn't so hard to understand. She's not complex. She was just a woman who wasn't raised right, wasn't taught right from wrong so how could she know what was right or wrong. She lived life the only way she knew how. She slept around to gain love but that don't work. It should be give and earn love then sex.

Pick a Star (1937)

Not great but good entertainment!

[2 April 2005]

A wonderful movie. Rosina Lawrence is beautiful, charming, great personality. Patsy Kelly is as always funny. She is truly one of the great female comedians. She is a unsung comedian legend. Without Patsy the movie wouldn't have been much. Lyda Roberti is excellent, another comedian who doesn't get the honor she deserves. I bet Patsy and Lyda are a great laugh together in the films they appeared in. Whatever happen to movies. What happen to the great songs and simple but breathtaking entertainment? The guy in the nightclub scene that is entertaining that Jack Haley intrudes on and almost ruins his show but the audience enjoys is hilarious. What is his name? This isn't the greatest movie but good entertainment. This is a must.