Singing, dancing and music performances by veterans of the colored vaudeville and nightclub circuit is the main attraction. The film probably the only scene from Othello with the dialog delivered in the a cappella gospel style. The acting is quite acceptable as are the sets, though the rock bottom budget shows through in places.
8 Reviews
Harlem in Paradise.
morrison-dylan-fan3 June 2018
Warning: Spoilers
For the final day of the Cult/Drive-In/Grindhouse challenge on ICM,I decided to look in my pile of DVDs to find a short and sweet title to wrap the event up with. Nearing the bottom of the first pile,I found a box set of African American films thst my dad had picked up,which led to me visiting Harlem.
View on the film:
A leading producer in Yiddish movies at the time, director Joseph Seiden captures the sights and sounds of the era with the outdoor filming dancing along the Jazz clubs and music halls. Despite being done on a Poverty Row budget, Joseph Seiden gives the film high-notes of artistic ambition, that play out in a operatic shooting and an outstanding cappella gospel performance of Othello. Fleeing from the mob with a world- weariness, Frank H. Wilson shines up Lem Anderson optimism in escaping the seedy clubs and taking part in Othello,in the hope of finding paradise in Harlem.
View on the film:
A leading producer in Yiddish movies at the time, director Joseph Seiden captures the sights and sounds of the era with the outdoor filming dancing along the Jazz clubs and music halls. Despite being done on a Poverty Row budget, Joseph Seiden gives the film high-notes of artistic ambition, that play out in a operatic shooting and an outstanding cappella gospel performance of Othello. Fleeing from the mob with a world- weariness, Frank H. Wilson shines up Lem Anderson optimism in escaping the seedy clubs and taking part in Othello,in the hope of finding paradise in Harlem.
The Harlem Blues
sol121817 February 2011
Warning: Spoilers
***SPOILERS***Longing to be a serious as well as Shakespearian actor black comedian Lem Anderson who does black-face comedy at the Standard Theater in Harlem gets in trouble with the mob when after finishing his song and dance comedy act he witnesses a mob hit on Slym by mobster Gilman just outside the theater! Told by Gilman to shut up and keep quite about what he saw Lem does exactly that. It's Gilman's boss Rough Jackon who sends two of his enforcers Ganaway & Spanish to Lem's apartment to make sure that he got the message that his sick and bedridden wife Emma,in fearing for Lem's life, collapses and dies from a heart attack!
Lem knowing that he's a marked man takes off for Tennessee to start a new life but the shock of Emma's death just about took everything out of him. Losing job after job at the local cabarets in not being able to control his drinking Lem ends up in this dive drunk and out of cash where two of his old friends Sneeze & Laura Lou are doing a song and piano act! Sneeze & Laura talk the barley sober Lem to go with them to New York to join them not knowing what's waiting for him there: A mob bullet between the eyes! Lem takes up their offer thinking that Rough Jackson had by now forgot about him! As it turned out he didn't and as soon as the news gets to Jackson that Lem's back in town he sends out Ganaway and Spanish to lean on him, but not kill Lem, a little!
With Lem now back in action and offered the part that he's been dreaming of in the Shakespearian play Othello with him in the lead even getting shot and killed can't keep Lem from taking the part! With the play Othello being sponsored by the a local black Bapthis church Jackson now plans to discredit Lem instead of murdering him by having him caught with his paths down and drunk as a skunk with a woman other then his wife being present at his Harlem pad!
***Spoilers*** This all takes a sudden turn for the worst on both Lem as well as Jackson when the woman sent to get Lem juiced up Doll Davis gets cold feet and can't go through with Jackson's plan. Seeing that things aren't going the way they were planned the trigger-happy Ganaway shows up at the apartment and with Doll Davis jumping in front of Lem to keep him from getting shot she ends up taking a bullet for him! Lem going back to his drinking ends up getting arrested by the police when he attacks Jackson whom he holds responsible for Doll Davis getting shot and him, with all the evidence pointing his way, being framed for doing it!
Given a chance to do Othello under police guard at the Bapthis Church's rented Harlem theater Lem blows everyone there away with his interpretation of the part by adding a little bit of soul to it that in the end,after being heckled and jeered by the audience, brings the roof down! While this was going on back at Harlem Hospital Lem's friend Mamie gets a barley conscious Doll David to admit that it wasn't Lem that shot her but Jackson's hit-man Ganaway taking Lem off the hook! In the end there's a falling out between Jackson and Gilman who against his orders had Doll Davis mistakenly shot by Ganaway where both hoods ended up shooting themselves! Now being a big success on stage and cleared off all the charges in the Doll Davis shooting Lem can now go on with his career as a serious actor on both stage and screen with not having to worry about Jackson & Co. trying to off him in as well as out of the theater!
Lem knowing that he's a marked man takes off for Tennessee to start a new life but the shock of Emma's death just about took everything out of him. Losing job after job at the local cabarets in not being able to control his drinking Lem ends up in this dive drunk and out of cash where two of his old friends Sneeze & Laura Lou are doing a song and piano act! Sneeze & Laura talk the barley sober Lem to go with them to New York to join them not knowing what's waiting for him there: A mob bullet between the eyes! Lem takes up their offer thinking that Rough Jackson had by now forgot about him! As it turned out he didn't and as soon as the news gets to Jackson that Lem's back in town he sends out Ganaway and Spanish to lean on him, but not kill Lem, a little!
With Lem now back in action and offered the part that he's been dreaming of in the Shakespearian play Othello with him in the lead even getting shot and killed can't keep Lem from taking the part! With the play Othello being sponsored by the a local black Bapthis church Jackson now plans to discredit Lem instead of murdering him by having him caught with his paths down and drunk as a skunk with a woman other then his wife being present at his Harlem pad!
***Spoilers*** This all takes a sudden turn for the worst on both Lem as well as Jackson when the woman sent to get Lem juiced up Doll Davis gets cold feet and can't go through with Jackson's plan. Seeing that things aren't going the way they were planned the trigger-happy Ganaway shows up at the apartment and with Doll Davis jumping in front of Lem to keep him from getting shot she ends up taking a bullet for him! Lem going back to his drinking ends up getting arrested by the police when he attacks Jackson whom he holds responsible for Doll Davis getting shot and him, with all the evidence pointing his way, being framed for doing it!
Given a chance to do Othello under police guard at the Bapthis Church's rented Harlem theater Lem blows everyone there away with his interpretation of the part by adding a little bit of soul to it that in the end,after being heckled and jeered by the audience, brings the roof down! While this was going on back at Harlem Hospital Lem's friend Mamie gets a barley conscious Doll David to admit that it wasn't Lem that shot her but Jackson's hit-man Ganaway taking Lem off the hook! In the end there's a falling out between Jackson and Gilman who against his orders had Doll Davis mistakenly shot by Ganaway where both hoods ended up shooting themselves! Now being a big success on stage and cleared off all the charges in the Doll Davis shooting Lem can now go on with his career as a serious actor on both stage and screen with not having to worry about Jackson & Co. trying to off him in as well as out of the theater!
provides only a cameo of MAMIE SMITH as singer and actress
machineel8 August 2000
MAMIE SMITH has second billing, but her tiny part as a boarding house keeper is a background character with brief scenes. She sings two songs: (1) LORD, LORD; and (2) HARLEM BLUES (a modernized version of her signature song, "CRAZY BLUES" which had been recorded in 1920 and touted as the "first" song recorded by a black woman; not entirely true). She is another show business mystery. Hollywood filmmakers should have employed her (as they did her contemporaries, ETHEL WATERS and HATTIE McDANIEL) in major drama, musical and comedy productions.
Paradise in Harlem was quite an interesting "race movie" I just watched
tavm11 February 2014
With this month being Black History Month, I thought I should once again review some films featuring African-Americans, only this time it won't be in chronological order like I did in previous years. In this one, Frank H. Wilson plays Lem Anderson, a Minstrel performer with ambitions of doing serious drama like Shakespere's Othello. However, he gets sidetracked when he witnesses a mob hit and has to hightail it out of Harlem after his wife dies. I'll stop there and just say that not all is somber as plenty of musical numbers by the likes of Mamie Smith, Edna Mae Harris, Bebe Matthews, Juanita Hall, and Lucky Millinder abound. Oh, and Francine Everett plays a character actually named Desdemona! In summary, while amateurish, Paradise in Harlem was still quite a compelling drama with many entertaining musical numbers. P.S. As a Chicago native, I'd like to note that Lucky Millinder was raised there and played in several venues in those areas when starting out.
Fascinating Look at Harlem in 1939
jayraskin30 January 2011
The director, Joseph Seiden, started as a cinematographer in silents. In the 1930's and 40's he was the leading producer of Yiddish films in the United States. This was the first film that he directed. Seiden gets excellent performances from his cast. Some of it is stereotyped, but a great deal is honest, raw and human.
The movie is low budget, but has a documentary feel that adds to the realism. The story mixes gangsters with a Church trying to put on a version of "Othello," It isn't realistic, but it works as melodrama.
Frank H. Wilson is the star. He starred with Paul Robeson in the "Emperor Jones" in 1932 and with Rex Ingram and Eddie Rochester Anderson in "Green Pastures" in 1936. Sadly, he only played a few bit parts after this. He really creates a touching character as Lem Anderson, a vaudevillian trying to become a serious actor. He brings off the role with intelligence and sweetness.
Edna Mae Harris also stands out in a small but important role.
I believe that Orson Welles staged an all Black Othello in Harlem around the time that this movie was made. I'm pretty sure this film was partially based on that event.
The movie is low budget, but has a documentary feel that adds to the realism. The story mixes gangsters with a Church trying to put on a version of "Othello," It isn't realistic, but it works as melodrama.
Frank H. Wilson is the star. He starred with Paul Robeson in the "Emperor Jones" in 1932 and with Rex Ingram and Eddie Rochester Anderson in "Green Pastures" in 1936. Sadly, he only played a few bit parts after this. He really creates a touching character as Lem Anderson, a vaudevillian trying to become a serious actor. He brings off the role with intelligence and sweetness.
Edna Mae Harris also stands out in a small but important role.
I believe that Orson Welles staged an all Black Othello in Harlem around the time that this movie was made. I'm pretty sure this film was partially based on that event.
I quite liked the movie--especially when compared with others in the 50-film pack
hesse-noone15 February 2011
Paradise in Harlem was one of 50 films in one of those big packs of older movies. Perhaps it's not a good idea to sit down and watch the whole pack, without watching something completely different just to clear the palate. I had watched 4 or so of the films in the pack, and most were excruciatingly awful. Then I hit Paradise in Harlem, and it was like a breath of fresh air. Real people doing real things. Yes, there were stereotypes. On the other hand, John Candy could have been considered a stereotype. The characters were varied and had ups and downs. They didn't just stumble into good luck through deus ex machina. I just really liked this film. I could watch it and enjoy it and appreciate it. One little thing that I really liked--the filmmakers did not put us through Lem's no doubt silly, embarrassing vaudeville act; you saw only his makeup, which told you all you needed to know about his act.
The Best!
msladysoul13 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.
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