n the
Shadow of Hollywood: Race Movies and the Birth of Black Cinema": In 2007 I had the opportunity to consult on and appear in this
fascinating documentary that documents the Race Film era.. This documentary
provides the viewer with the sounds
and images of a nearly-forgotten era in film history when African American
filmmakers and studios created “Race Films” exclusively for Black
audiences. The best of these films attempted to
counter the demeaning stereotypes of Black Americans prevalent in the
popular culture of the day. About
500 films were produced, yet only about 100 still exist. Filmmaking pioneers
like Oscar Micheaux, the Noble brothers, and Spencer Williams, Jr. left a
lasting influence on black filmmakers, and inspired generations of audiences
who finally saw their own lives reflected on the silver screen.
$19.95
"AFRICAN AMERICAN NEWSREELS"
These are Newsreels from 1945 - 1950s produced for
African Americans audiences by "All-American Newsreels" and "Byline Newsreel".
Also included are short-subjects: "Negro in Sports; Negro in
Entertainment and Negro in Industry". BW/90mins.
$15.00
"ANNA
LUCASTA":
Eartha Kitt turns in
a vivacious and sexy performance as a young prostitute who, after being
disowned by her iron-handed father, returns home to an arranged marriage to
a wealthy suitor. But Kitt ruins her scheming brother-in-law's plan to bilk
her new husband when she actually starts to fall in love with him. Frederick
O'Neal, Henry Scott and Sammy Davis, Jr. Co-star in this powerful drama
based on the play by Philip Yordan. 97 min. Widescreen; Cast: Alvin Childress, Sammy Davis Jr., James Edwards, Rex Ingram, Eartha
Kitt. 1959 /DVD $15.00
"BEALE
STREET MAMA": - July Jones and Spencer Williams
- A street cleaner and friend find some stolen money which they use to
establish themselves in the good life. They are found out and end up losing
everything.
1946/BW/60mins.
$19.95
"BEWARE / JIVIN IN BE-BOP" $10.00Beware (1946):
Ware College is about to close its doors forever because its endowment has run
dry. A last minute appeal to famous alumni brings the college's plight to the
attention of Louis Jordan. Jordan, known as King of the Jukebox, set things
right by hounding the good-for-nothing grandson of Ware College's founder into
spending his fortune on education rather than fast living. Beware features
over a half dozen numbers by jazz great Louis Jordan and his Tympany Five.
Starring Louis Jordon and his Tympany Five, Frank Wilson, Emory Richardson,
Valerie Black, Milton Woods, Joseph Hilliard, Tommy Hix, Dimples Daniels;
Produced and Directed by Bud Pollard.
Jivin' In Be-Bop (1946, ): Dizzy Gillespie
takes center stage and hosts an old time variety show from the "Chitlin
Circuit" captured in its entirety. Jivin' in Be Bop features one smash
show-stopping tune after another performed by Dizzy and His Orchestra
intermingled with hilarious vaudeville routines. Starring Dizzy Gillispie and
His Orchestra, Helen Humes, Ray Sneed Sanji, Freddie Carter and Ralph Brown;
Directed by Leonard Anderson and Spencer Williams; Screenplay by Powell
Lindsay; Produced by William D. Anderson.
"BLACK
KING, The / JUNCTION 88" DVD $10.00 Black
King: The Reverend Charcoal Johnson fires up his congregation with his "Back to
Africa" scam. He even manages to turn the eye of beautiful young Mary Lou,
with outrageous promises to make her the Queen of Africa when they reach the
Dark Continent. A biting satire based on the real-life "Back to Africa"
crusade of Marcus Garvey. 1932/BW/ 60min. "Junction 88": In the sleepy town of Junction 88, young Buster Jenkins
dreams of song writing stardom. Featuring lively music from a talented cast
that includes bandleader Noble Sissle, and a comical performance by Pigmeat
Markham, Junction 88 is a jumpin' jive musical from the later years of
all-Black cinema. Starring Pigmeat Markham, Bob Howard, Nobel Sissle, Wyatt
Clark, Marie Cooke, Augustus Smith and Abbey Mitchell . 1947/BW 60min.
"BIRMINGHAM BLACK BOTTOM":
The
first All Black "talkies". Produced by the Christie Company, this
DVD
contains four shorts:
"Music Hath Harms"
Roscoe Griggers (Spencer Williams) puts himself
forward as a great musician who really he can't play at all and just leads a
band. He is offered a large amount of money to perform himself so arranges
with a band member to play for him under the stage while he mimes. His rivals
get wind of this and stop his friend from playing. "The Melancholy Dame"
1929 - Spencer Williams. The story relates
the troubles of "Permanent Williams," darktown cabaret owner, who is forced to
hire his divorced wife and her new husband as entertainers. His second wife
doesn't relish the fact., "Framing of the Shrew"
1929 - An obstreperous wife (Preer) is tamed and trained by her smaller
but wily husband. Evelyn Preer, Spencer Williams, Roberta Hyson, Edward
Thompson.
"Oft In The Silly Night."1929 - Romance blossoms between a Black
chauffeur and the boss's daughter. Spencer Williams, Evelyn Preer, Edward
Thompson.1925/BW/60mins..
$19.95
"BIRTH
OF A RACE": Released in 1919,
Birth of a Race was directed by John W.
Noble and produced by Emmett J. Scott. Emmett Scott had acted as personal
secretary to Booker T. Washington prior to Washington's death in 1915. The
production is documented as having received support from both Washington and
his Tuskegee Institute. The film began shooting in Tampa, Florida in 1913.
Though this clearly predates the production of
Birth of a Nation, Dixon's novel "The Clansmen" had been adapted to the
stage and as early as 1910 had been the recipient of protest.
Birth of the Race did not receive the attention anticipated by its
makers, yet neither was it the only film to directly counter Griffith's in
these early days of the Race Film industry.
BW/Silent/1919 $19.95
[NOTE: This is a special order title from my
collector contact, allow additional time for delivery]
"BIRTH OF A NATION": Based on a play called "The Clansmen," D.W. Griffith's three-hour Civil War
epic traces the development of the Civil War itself, the assassination of
Abraham Lincoln and the rise of the Ku Klux Klan through the lives of two
families. After The Birth of a Nation,
nothing was the same!!!! What has become
increasingly problematic about The Birth of a Nation is Griffith's
condescending attitude toward Black slaves, and the ringing excitement
surrounding the founding of the Ku Klux Klan. Griffith, whose political ideas
were naive at best, seemed genuinely surprised by the criticism of his
masterwork, and for his next project he turned to the humanist preaching of
the massive Intolerance. Despite protests, Birth sold more tickets than any
other movie, a record that stood for decades, and President Woodrow Wilson
compared it to "history written in lightning." I
only offer this film for historical comparison with films made by Black
filmmakers $6.95
"BLACK
SHADOWS ON THE SILVER SCREEN":
Ossie Davis Narrates this motion picture history of African American's
involvement in American cinema between 1900 - 1950. This documentary is
complete with scenes from films depicting positive and negative Black images.
Contributions of Black filmmakers like Oscar Micheaux illustrate the rugged path
trod by Black producers and actors. Highlighted are the careers of Paul Robeson,
Josephine Baker, Fredi Washington. . Music include performances by Duke
Ellington, Cab Calloway and others. 1975/ BW-Color/55 min., $15.00
[NOTE: This is a special order title from my
collector contact, allow additional time for delivery]
"BOARDING HOUSE BLUES":
This film stars the great Jackie "Moms" Mabley. Born
Loretta Mary Aiken in 1894, acting as Jackie Mabley, better known as "Moms,"
she made a career of spinning hardship into comic gold with her pioneering
comedic routine into race relations, feminist and lesbian issues, "Moms"
Mabley is best remembered for her classic comedy albums recorded for Chess
Records and her appearance in the feature film Amazing Grace (1974) which was
her last film. $10.00
Plot: "Moms" can't pay the note
on her rooming house for entertainers. John Mason & Company, Johnny Lee
Jr., Dusty Fletcher, Marcellus Wilson, Marie Cooke, Emery Richardson, James
Cross & Harold Cromer (Stump & Stumpy), Sidney Easton, Freddie Robinson, J.
Augustus Smith, Edgar Martin, John Piano, Lucky Millinder & his Orchestra, Una
Mae Carlisle, Bull Moose Jackson, Berry Brothers, Lewis & White, Anistine Allen,
Paul Breckenridge, Lee Norman Trio & "Crip" Heard (one-armed and
one-legged dancer.) The entertainers get together and hold a "rent party.
"BODY AND SOUL": An extremely
rare film that marks the acting debut of Robeson in this Oscar Micheaux
directed silent film. Robeson is caste in dual roles: as a corrupt preacher
and his good brother. This is the story of a minister gone corrupt who
associates with the owner of a house of gambling, from whom he extorts money.
He forces a girl of his church to steal her mother's savings and leave home.
He later kills the girl's brother, when the brother attempts to rescue the
girl. But, when its all said and done it's only a dream. Required to give a balance to his theme by the New York Censors,
Micheaux changed the preacher's role so that he is preacher, then detective,
then finally an uplift bourgeois future husband for the heroine.
1925/BW/Silent/60mins.. DVD $10.00
"BORDERLINE": "RARE" Paul Robeson film, also featuring his
wife Eslanda Robeson, PLOT: Adah [Eslanda], a Black
woman, has an affair with Thorne, a white man, much to the dismay of some of the
prejudiced townsfolk and Thorne's wife, Astrid. Adah [Eslanda] attempts a
reconciliation with her man, Pete [Robeson], but eventually leaves him and the
town. Meanwhile, Astrid goes mad and cuts Thorne's face and arm with a knife, then mysteriously dies. Thorne is tried but acquitted. Meanwhile, Pete is
subjected to racist comments from Astrid and an old lady. After the death of
Astrid, these racist feelings lead to Pete being treated as an outcast. Because
of the events, the mayor sends Pete [Robeson] a letter asking him to leave town
for the good of all concerned. 1930/BW/Silent $19.95
[NOTE: This is a special order title from my
collector contact, allow additional time for delivery]
"BOY,
WHAT A GIRL": Two smooth-talking producers are
trying to raise money for their musical review. They line up a potential
backer who will put up half the cash if they can find someone else to
Co-finance the production. The duo enlist the services of a cigar-smoking
cross-dresser named "Bumpsie" (Tim Moore), who poses as the wealthy "Madame
Deborah" to fool the backer. Their scheme goes smoothly - until the real
Madame shows up! Madness and mayhem mix with jam sessions at a Harlem roof
party where legendary drummer Gene Krupa performs a surprise drum solo. Famous
Black entertainers include Big Sid Catlett and his band, The Slam Stewart
Trio, Deek Watson and The Brown Dots, and The International Jitterbugs. Tim
Moore is known to millions of fans as George "Kingfish" Stevens, of the
extremely popular "Amos 'n' Andy" television show (1951-1953). He played in
musical revues on Broadway and in Europe before embarking on a movie career
that includes His Great Chance (1923) and Darktown Revue (1931). Moore had
already retired from 50 years of performing when he was cast as "Kingfish."
1946/BW $10.00
"BRIGHT ROAD" Based
on an award-winning short story by
Mary Elizabeth Vroman,
the film is largely set at a rural Black school in an unspecified Southern
community. An idealistic new fourth-grade teacher Jane Richards (Dorothy
Dandridge) makes it her mission in
life to "reach" troublesome failing student C. T. Young (Philip
Hepburn). Just when Jane and the boy
are making progress, tragedy strikes, plunging C. T. into the depths of
depression and defeatism. With the help of the school's compassionate
principal (Harry
Belafonte), Jane is able to get C.
T. back on the right track—and as a bonus, the boy becomes an unexpected hero
in a moment of crisis. Handled in a leisurely, understated fashion,
$25.00
[NOTE: This is a special order title from my
collector contact, allow additional time for delivery]
"BRONZE BUCKAROO/
JUKE JOINT/GO DOWN DEATH/
BLOOD OF JESUS": Bronze Buckaroo: Herb Jeffries, Lucius
Brooks, Artie Young and Spencer Williams, Jr. are cowpokes who avenge the
death of a friend's father.
1937/BW/60min
Juke Joint:Directed by & stars Spencer Williams, Jr. with July
Jones. A drama about a pair of drifters who try to repay their landladies
kindness by rescuing her daughter from slick talking man. 1947/BW/70mins. Blood of Jesus:
Written and starring Spencer William's, Jr. A sinful husband accidentally
kills his newly baptized wife. 1941/BW/45mins. Go Down Death:
Folk-like drama, strong on religion. Minister try's to close down clubs on
Sunday, but one club owner retaliates. He takes pre-arranged photos of the
Minister in a compromising position, to black mail him. One of the ministers
church members knows what really happened and she also happened to be the
woman who raised the corrupt club owner (Spencer Williams). When compromising
photos are safely locked away by club owner, his dead father's ghost leads
women to photos. While removing photos she's discovered by Spencer Williams, a
struggle ensues which results in her death. After attending funeral, burial
and church services, the club owner is haunted and taunted mentally by voices
of guilt, until he goes crazy. Film ends with scenes of Hell as depicted from
"Dante's Inferno", sucking in the corrupt club owner. 1945/BW/50 Minutes
$10.00 $7.50
"BROKEN
STRINGS /GANG WAR" DVD $10.00
"Broken Strings": Co-scripted and starring Clarence Muse with
Sybil Lewis, William Washington. A classical violinist injures his fingers.
The son becomes a violinist to earn the needed cash to restore his father's
paralyzed hand. Much to his father's dismay, the son plays swing instead of
classical music. 60 minutes.. This musical drama is loosely based on the film
"The Jazz Singer." 1940/BW/60mins. "Gang War" (1940) Plot:
War rages among New York mobsters over the profits from jukeboxes. Director:
Leo C. Popkin. Cast: Ralph Cooper, Gladys Snyder, Reginald Fenderson, Laurence
Criner, Monte Hawley, Ernest "Sunshine Sammy" Morrison. 1940/BW/54mins
"BURLESQUE IN HARLEM / PARADISE IN HARLEM": Paradise in
Harlem: Black comic Lem Anderson is weary of doing his minstrel comedy on
the vaudeville circuit. He dreams of becoming a serious stage actor and
playing the lead in Shakespeare's Othello. As distant as this dream seems, it
recedes even further when Lem witnesses a mob hit outside the theater. Forced
to leave town or face death, Lem heads down south to find work, but his
personal demons and a drinking habit bring this new life to ruin as well. Just
as all seems lost, his impossible dream comes true when he is called back to
New York to star in Othello. When the mobsters learn that he has returned to
town, they resolve to silence him for good. 1939/BW/60min Burlesque
in Harlem: A provocative peek at a typical Harlem burlesque show, complete
with racy slapstick comedy, bawdy blues singers, slick tap dancers, and
voluptuous exotic showgirls in minimal attire. Legendary black comic, Pigmeat
Markham, makes an appearance in a clever, fast-talking sketch about a sex
clinic. Though tame by contemporary standards, these acts were definitely
considered to be "adult entertainment" at the time. Burlesque in Harlem is a
fascinating look at how society's mores have changed in the last half
century.1949
DVD $10.00
"CARMEN JONES": Oscar Hammerstein
It's All-Black revision of Bizet's "Carmen," brought to the screen by Otto
Preminger. Showcases Harry Belafonte as a handsome soldier whose love for
sexy, conniving Dorothy Dandridge leads him to murder. Pearl Bailey, Olga
James and Diahann Carroll also star in this classic.
1954/BW/105mins/ $10.00
"DARK
MANHATTAN":The story is about a lad who
rises to control of the policy racket in Harlem, meets a sweet and clean
nightclub singer and falls in love with her. Before they can get married, a
rival gang tries to muscle into the numbers racket and, at the end, the lad
gets shot gunned and dies in the arms of his girl. 1937/BW/
DVD $15.00
[NOTE:
This is a special order title from my collector contact, allow additional time
for delivery]
"DEVIL's DAUGHTER,
The [AKA: "Pocomania."] (1939) / CHLOE, LOVE IS CALLING (1934)": "The Devil's Daughter,"
Nina Mae McKinney essays the title role of a phony voodoo high priestess in
Haiti who clashes with her half-sister over their late father's banana
plantation. With Ida James, Jack Carter and Hamtree Harrington. 114 min.
total. Drama
Director: Marshall Neilan Cast: Olive Borden, Reed Howes, Molly O'Day, Philip
Ober : NR B&W
"Chloe", Love Is Calling"follows the child of a Black voodoo mistress from the Everglades as she
discovers that she may really be the daughter of a white plantation owner.
Taboo in its time for its depiction of interracial romance, this atmospheric
drama stars Olive Borden, Reed Howes and Molly O'Day.
$10.00
"DECKS RAN RED, The:
Very hard to find, - In this sea-going suspense drama, Edwin Rumill
(James Mason) is the former first mate of an ocean liner who leaps at the
chance to have a vessel under his full command. However, the S.S. Berwind is
no ship to write home about, a freighter from the mothball fleet whose captain
has recently died. The crew is often ill-tempered, and Mahia (Dorothy
Dandridge), the wife of the ship's cook, doesn't make anyone
more comfortable with her flirtatious nature. Rumill learns that the bad
attitude of his crew has a sinister undercurrent: two of the hands, Leroy
Martin (Stuart Whitman) and Henry Scott (Broderick Crawford), have hatched a
scheme to murder Rumill and the rest of the crew, bring in the ship as
salvage, and sell it to the highest bidder, expecting to earn close to a
million dollars. Rumill must rally support if he and the other men hope to
survive. 1958/BW/90min./ $25.00
[NOTE: This is a special order title from my
collector contact, allow additional time for delivery]
"DIRTY GERTIE FROM HARLEM USA / SEPIA CINDERELLA":
Dirty Gertie From Harlem U.S.A. (1946, B&W): Dancer
Gertie La Rue is the toast of Harlem, but she's been two- timing her beau, Al,
the man who put her in the spotlight. Fearing Al's retribution, Gertie drags
her entire show troupe out to the remote island of Trinidad, where she hopes to
lay low for a while. She's also managed to make her self imposed exile a
lucrative one, setting up a residency at Diamond Joe's nightclub. While Gertie
drinks, cusses, and flirts her way across Trinidad, dark clouds are gathering
overhead; local revivalist Jonathan Christian is on a moral crusade to have
her deported. Sepia
Cinderella (1947, B&W): Bob Jordan is an aspiring
songwriter with a melody stuck in his head. Naive in the ways of love, he's
having some trouble writing the lyrics for his would-be hit. Barbara, a
fellow musician and secret admirer, helps him finish the romantic ballad.
"Cinderella" becomes an instant smash, and as Jordan's career takes off,
lovelorn Barbara can only watch as her man slips away. Fame is a fickle
thing, though, and Bob's flirtation with the fast life is short. Loveless
and jobless, his agent has a brilliant idea to get his career back on track
- a Cinderella contest. The gimmick is simple; at Jordan's next show, every
available woman in the audience will bring a single slipper. The owner of
the slipper that Bob selects will be invited upstage to join him in
performing a duet of his signature song. The big night arrives, and Barbara
happens to be in the audience. $10.00
"DOUBLE DEAL / MISTAKEN IDENTITY [AKA Murder With
Music]": DVD $10.00:
Double Deal:
Robbery and murder are the sideshows at a nightclub
run by crime boss Murray Howard. His shady henchmen, Dude and Sharpie, kill a
security guard during a jewelry store heist. The getaway is clean, but they'd
made the mistake of taking young Tommy McCoy along on the job. Now sweating
with guilty panic, Tommy's suspicious behavior is bound to draw heat, so Dude
devises a scheme to frame the kid for homicide. 1939/BW/60min
Mistaken Identity:(A.K.A. Murder with Music), Louis the piano player is
murdered by a knife-throwing killer in the middle of a show at Bill Smith's
nightclub. Music is the real highlight of Mistaken Identity focusing
most of its screen time on hot performances by The Skippy Williams Band
Starring Nelle Hill, George Oliver, Bill Dillard, Ken Renard, Noble Sissle.
1941
"HARLEM RIDES THE RANGE /
DIRTY GERTIE FROM HARLEM / MOON OVER HARLEM / THE BIG TIMERS":
Harlem Rides The Range: Stars Herb
Jeffries, Spencer Williams, Jr. and Clarence Brooks. The Singing cowboy is out
to foil dastardly outlaws who stole the deed to a radium mine. 1939/BW/58mins. Dirty Gertie From Harlem, USA:Gertie goes to Trinidad to hide from her boyfriend and finds fun and songs
at a Harlem style variety show. A Spencer Williams directed film.
1946/BW/60mins. Moon Over Harlem: Takes a
look at the life, love and struggles of a family from Harlem The Big Timers:A poor girl
falls for an Army officer. Her mother pretends to own the hotel to encourage
the romance. Stars Stepin Fetchit, Francine Everett, Duke William's and
others. 1945/40mins $10.00 $7.50
"ELEVEN
P.M".: RARE!!! Starring Richard Maurice, Leo Pope,
Sammie Lane, H. Marion Williams. A writer has several appointments set for
Eleven P.M. but falls asleep and dreams the plot for a new drama which
includes a strange element of reincarnation. 1928/BW/Silent/60min $19.95
[NOTE: This is a special order title from my
collector contact, allow additional time for delivery]
"EMPEROR JONES":
Playwright Eugene O'Neill's early work
often combined memorable characters and stories with social commentary and
innovative theatrical concepts--and among his first great successes was
The Emperor Jones, which starred perhaps the single finest African
American actor of the 1920s and 1930s, the legendary Paul Robeson. When United
Artists purchased the screen rights, Robeson went with the package, and this
1933 film was the result. Plot: Paul Robeson a Pullman Porter in the depression
era, is sent to prison for an accidental killing. He later escapes to a
Caribbean island where he uses his superior intellect and physically
intimidating presence to set himself up as "Emperor." But his own past
troubles have hardened him. He uses his position to bleed the
population--and eventually they revolt against him.
Cast: Paul Robeson, Dudley Digges, Frank H. Wilson, Fredi Washington,
Ruby Elzy, George
Haymid Stamper, Brandon Evans, Rex Ingram, Moms Mabley, Harold
Nicholas, Blueboy O'Connor, Fritz Pollard, Lorenzo Tucker. 1933/BW/72mins.. $15.00
Did you know:
Jackie "Moms" Mabley and Fredie Washington were cast members in this
film? You may not recognize Fredi. Because of her fair
complexion censors thought white audiences would think Robeson had interaction
with a white woman, so they made Washington wear dark make-up.
"EXILE,
The": A drama/romance of the
"Race
movie" genre, it was
Micheaux's first feature-length talkie, and the first
African
American talkie.
The central plot is
concerned with a young Black man [Baptiste] whose fiancée comes into ownership of a
mansion located on South Parkway in Chicago. The mansion serves as a combination
cabaret and brothel. The young man, appalled, leaves the city for the plains
of South Dakota where he meets a pretty young girl whom he assumes to be white. He becomes her
friend and protector but the race barrier stands between them, until it is
revealed that she is part Negro. He returns to Chicago where he is framed for
murder by his ex-fiancée.
The girl from South Dakota takes a train to Chicago, where she and Baptiste are reunited; they marry and return to South Dakota.
Cast: Eunice Brooks, Stanley Morrell, Celeste Cole, Kathleen Noisette, Charles
R. Moore, Nora Newsome, George Randol, A.B. DeComathiere, Carl Mahon, Lou
Vernon, Louise Cook, Roland Holder, Donald Heywood, Don Heywood and His Band,
Leonard Harper, Leonard Harper and His Chorines. 1931/BW/
$19.95
[NOTE: This is a special order title from my
collector contact, allow additional time for delivery]
NOTE: Micheaux often refer to the
"One-drop rule" in this and many of his films. It's clear that in his
time's the "conception" of race, defines her as Black. The plot gives
Micheaux plenty of opportunity to stage nightclub acts, notably singer Celeste
Cole, dancer Louise Cook tap dancing" Roland Holder dancer, and Don Heywood
and His Band, as well as a bevy of chorus girls
"GANG SMASHER' S
[AKA Gun Moll]"
Nina Mae McKinney plays a dame who runs the Harlem rackets. Ralph
Cooper wrote the screen play for this film that also stars, Monte Hawley,
Mantan Moreland, Edward Thompson, Lawrence Criner, Vernon McCalla and others.
1938/BW/65mins. $19.95
[NOTE: This is a special order title from my
collector contact, allow additional time for delivery]
"GANG
WAR / BROKEN STRING" DVD $10.00 "GANG WAR" (1940)
Plot: War rages among New York mobsters over the profits from jukeboxes.
Director: Leo C. Popkin. Cast: Ralph Cooper, Gladys Snyder, Reginald Fenderson,
Laurence Criner, Monte Hawley, Ernest "Sunshine Sammy" Morrison.
1940/BW/54mins "BROKEN STRINGS":
Co-scripted and starring Clarence Muse with Sybil Lewis, William
Washington. A classical violinist injures his fingers. The son becomes a
violinist to earn the needed cash to restore his father's paralyzed hand. Much
to his father's dismay, the son plays swing instead of classical music. 60
minutes.. This musical drama is loosely based on the film "The Jazz Singer."
1940/BW/60mins.
"GREEN PASTURES, The"
In this 1936 film version of the Connelly play,
Rex Ingram is nothing
less than brilliant as De Lawd, speaking the most ludicrous of lines with
dignity and quiet authority. Others in the All-Black cast include
Eddie "Rochester" Anderson
as Noah,
Frank Wilson as Moses,
George Reed as Rev.
Deshee, and
Oscar Polk as Gabriel,
who has the film's single most stirring line: "Gangway! Gangway for de Lawd
God Jehovah!"
DVD $19.95 .
"GIRL
FROM CHICAGO / SON OF INGAGI / The GIRL IN ROOM 20 /
LYING LIPS": DVD $10.00
Girl From Chicago: A secret agent falls for a Mississippi schoolteacher
who moves to New York. Written and Directed by Oscar Micheaux.1932/BW/69mins.
Lying Lips:A night club
chanteuse is setup for a crime. Her detective/boyfriend tries to uncover the
killer. Stars Earl Jones (father of James Earl Jones)
Edna Mae Harris and others. Oscar Micheaux director. 1939/BW/70mins. Son of Ingagi:
Directed by and staring Spencer Williams. The first All-Black horror film, A scientist who is wealthy and a recluse wills
her fortune and a gloomy old house to a newlywed, the daughter of the man that
she once loved but who did not return her love. The scientist has brought back
from Africa an ape man who drinks a potion she has concocted in the
laboratory. The ape man turns on her and kills her. Later, he murders an
attorney who is searching for $20,000 in gold that the scientist has hidden in
her home. Zeno, brother of the scientist and ex-convict, finds the money but
is discovered by the ape-man. Zeno fires on him, but is killed by the ape-man
before he dies. A detective finally recovers the gold and presents it to the
newlyweds. Girl In Room
20: Directed by & stars Spencer Williams, Jr. with July Jones. A small
town girl goes to New York to make her way as a singer. 1947/BW/60mins.
$10.00
$7.50
"GOD’s
STEPCHILDREN / GIRL IN ROOM 20":
God's Stepchildren
Written, Directed & Produced by Oscar Micheaux. PLOT: A
light-skinned African-American girl, Naomi (Jacqueline Lewis), abandoned by
her birth mother, denounces her own race in this controversial melodrama. When
Naomi's teacher (Ethel Moses) takes umbrage to the girl's statement that "God
didn't make Negroes" ("we're all God's children," Mrs. Cushinberry replies),
Naomi spreads a false rumor that the teacher is having an affair with a
married professor. A riot ensues, and Naomi is shipped off to a convent by her
distraught mother (Alice B. Russell, Micheaux's wife) for 12-years. Returning
to the family farm years later, a grown-up Naomi (Gloria Press) falls for her
step-brother Jimmy (Carmen Newsome) who she can't have. Encouraged to marry a
dark skinned Negro, she gives birth to a baby boy only to leave him with her
foster mother. She leaves, marries a white man once again denouncing the
"Negro race." When her new husband discovers Naomi's race, he turns her out,
and the disgraced woman drowns herself in a river. Stars Alice Russell, Carmen
Newsome & others. 1937/BW/65mins. Girl In Room 20: Spencer Williams
film. Geraldine Brock, is a country girl who journeys to New York. Her
presence attracts every con man and hustler in the Big Apple. After being
victimized and exploited by a number of disreputable types, Brock finally
wises up-but not soon enough for a peaches 'n' cream happy ending.
DVD $10.00
"GO, MAN GO": The inspirational story of the famed
basketball tricksters The Harlem Globetrotters is chronicled in this
drama. The Trotters began in the 1920s when a manager catches a group of
talented players on the basketball court. He becomes obsessed with getting
these young Black men the recognition he feels they deserve. He gathers
them together as a team and they begin barnstorming a series of small
towns. The film's climax takes on overtones of the Civil Rights Movement
when it depicts a major game between them and an all-white team of
champions. The Globetrotters beat the tar out of their opponents. One of
the main storylines concerns the friendship between Saperstein and his
wife, and player Inman Jackson and his wife. .DVD
$25.00
[NOTE: This is a special order title from
my collector contact, allow additional time for delivery]
"JAZZ
10-PACK:" :Synopsis:
For movie buffs and collectors alike! This star-filled movie pack has been
carefully remastered on DVD for hours of home entertainment. There
are 10 films from the All-Black
Cast film era, with a Jazz performance in each show/film/soundie. $10.00
Set includes:
"JIVIN IN BE-BOP / BEWARE"
Jivin' In Be-Bop (1946, B&W): Dizzy Gillespie
takes center stage and hosts an old time variety show from the "Chitlin
Circuit" captured in its entirety. Jivin' in Be Bop features one smash
show-stopping tune after another performed by Dizzy and His Orchestra
intermingled with hilarious vaudeville routines. Starring Dizzy Gillispie and
His Orchestra, Helen Humes, Ray Sneed Sanji, Freddie Carter and Ralph Brown;
Directed by Leonard Anderson and Spencer Williams; Screenplay by Powell
Lindsay; Produced by William D. Anderson. Beware (1946, B&W):
Ware College is about to close its doors forever because its endowment has run
dry. A last minute appeal to famous alumni brings the college's plight to the
attention of Louis Jordan. Jordan, known as King of the Jukebox, set things
right by hounding the good-for-nothing grandson of Ware College's founder into
spending his fortune on education rather than fast living. Beware features
over a half dozen numbers by jazz great Louis Jordan and his Tympany Five.
Starring Louis Jordon and his Tympany Five, Frank Wilson, Emory Richardson,
Valerie Black, Milton Woods, Joseph Hilliard, Tommy Hix, Dimples Daniels;
Produced and Directed by Bud Pollard.
$10.00
"HALLELUJAH"
The first All-Black Cast film produced by a major studio,
HALLELUJAH represented the culmination of King Vidor's long-standing desire to
do a project dealing with the lives of African Americans, strongly influenced
by his childhood experience in Galveston, Texas. The film stars Daniel Hayes
as Zeke Johnson, an impoverished young sharecropper living in South Carolina.
When he and his brother Spunk (Everett McGarritty) go north to sell their
cotton crop, Daniel falls for the seductive Chick (Nina Mae McKinney) without
realizing she's a shill for the rigged crap game of her lover, Hot Shot
(William Fountaine). Finally grasping the scam, Daniel fights with Hot Shot,
but his brother is fatally shot during the struggle.
The grief-stricken Zeke is reborn as a preacher, traveling the country,
spreading the word of the Lord. The cynical Chick appears among the
congregation at one of his revival meetings and finds herself moved by his
sermonizing. After Daniel baptizes her in the river, the couple elopes, and he
finds work in a sawmill. But Chick's innate restlessness will again create
problems for her new husband. Although now somewhat dated, the film was
probably the closest approximation of African-American life put onscreen up to
that time. The film's outstanding, meticulously researched soundtrack, ranging
from jazz to spirituals, derives from the director's lifelong affinity for
such music. 1929/BW/1HR 40MINS. DVD $19.95
"HARLEM
GLOBETROTTERS, The": The story of the legendary
Harlem Globetrotters
takes second place to the rise to prominence of All-American athlete
Billy Brown (a star
Globetrotter, here
playing himself). While still in college,
Brown drops his
education in favor of joining the famed basketball team. Lacking the esprit de
corps of his teammates,
Brown is only
interested in fattening his bank account. It takes a few major setbacks,
coupled with the no-nonsense devotion of his sweetheart Ann Carpenter (a
surprisingly subdued
Dorothy Dandridge) to
realign
Brown's priorities.
Thomas Gomez heads
the cast as
Abe Saperstein, the
real-life entrepreneur who organized the
Trotters back in 1927.
Oddly enough, The Harlem Globetrotters suggests that the team is
comprised of serious hoopsters, rather than the zany clowns we've come to know
and love.
DVD $25.00
"HARLEM
IS HEAVEN": 1932 - .
Starring -
Bill
Robinson, John Mason, Putney Dandridge, Jimmy Baskett, Anise
Boyer, Henri Wressell, Alma Smith, Bob Sawyer, John Mason, Ferdie Lewis, Myra
Johnson, Margaret Jenkins, Jeli Smith, Slick Chester, Thomas Mosley, George
Nagel, Naomi Price, Jackie Young, Eubie Blake and his Orchestra. ... The story
is woven around the true life experiences of Robinson. It has to do with the
adventures of a beautiful young actress just arrived from the south and the
manner in which she is aided and befriended by Bill, star of a musical revue
of a leading Harlem theatre. How the girl, Jean Stratton played by Anise
Boyer, falls in love with the juvenile of the show, Chummy Walker is told with
skill and the many complications and thrills that ensue are vividly portrayed.
$25.00
[NOTE: This is a special order title from my
collector contact, allow additional time for delivery]
"ISLAND IN THE SUN" Political
intrigue and romantic gamesmanship send an already torrid Caribbean community
to the boiling point in this drama. Maxwell Fleury (James
Mason) and David Boyeur (Harry
Belafonte) are two men running for political
office in a British-controlled island in the West Indies. Maxwell is the son
of a wealthy and socially prominent white family, while David is a black labor
leader with a groundswell of popular support but little money. A scandal
erupts in the press alleging that Maxwell is of mixed racial ancestry, but
Maxwell is actually pleased about the news, thinking that it may endear him to
black voters. Maxwell is not pleased, however, when he hears that his wife
Sylvia (Patricia
Owens) has been having an affair with the
urbane but rootless Carson (Michael
Rennie), taking the matter seriously enough
to murder Carson himself. Maxwell's younger sister Jocelyn (Joan
Collins) is also in hot water, romantically
speaking; she has set her sights on Eun Templeton (Stephen
Boyd), the son of the Island's governor, and
she hopes to snare him into marriage by allowing him to get her pregnant.
Elsewhere on the island, David is secretly having an affair with a white
woman, Mavis Norman (Joan
Fontaine), while David's former girlfriend,
Margot Seaton (Dorothy
Dandridge), has become involved with a white
man, Denis Archer (John
Justin). Based on the novel by Alex Waugh,
Island in the Sun also
features songs from
Harry Belafonte,
including "Lead Man Holler" and the title tune. $19.95
"KEEP
PUNCHING": Former boxer Henry
Armstrong stars as a fighter who is seduced by the high life and fast women.
Henry Jackson [Armstrong] is the pride of his small
town. He wins a golden gloves title and later goes to New York with his
manager Ed Watson despite opposition from his father and sweetheart, Fanny. He
meets an old school chum, Frank, who turns out to be a cold blooded gambler
betting that Henry loses the fight. On the day of the fight, a plot to drug
Henry's liquor just before he leaves to fight is thwarted 1948/BW/80mins.
$15.00
[NOTE: This is a special order title from my
collector contact, allow additional time for delivery]
"KILLER
DILLER": When the regular stage magician fails to appear for a
scheduled show, Dusty Fletcher shows up in his place by materializing out
of thin air in theater manager Dumdome's office. Dusty hasn't quite
mastered the magic show's mysterious stage props-closets that make people
vanish. When Dumdom's fiancée, Lola, and her new pearl necklace disappear,
the enraged manager tells his secretary, Butterfly McQueen, to call in the
police. Fortunately for Dusty, the cops are more clueless than he is,
giving him plenty of time to court cute Butterfly as they pursue him.
The Nat "King" Cole Trio, Jackie "Moms" Mabley, The Clark
Brothers, the Andy Kirk Orchestra and many more talented performers make
this a magical delight. Dusty
Fletcher shows off the masterful command of slapstick farce that made him
one of the godfathers of Black comedy. Butterfly McQueen is best
remembered for her memorable portrayal of Prissy in the 1939 classic
Gone With The Wind. Jackie "Moms" Mabley began working in show
business in 1908, and after many decades of success in the Black circuits,
found mainstream fame in the 1960s. DVD $10.00
"KING
SOLOMON'S MINE":
Adventure film about the search for King Solomon's diamond mine. Robeson and
Cedric Hardwick endure violent sandstorms, attacks by Zulu tribesmen and
volcano eruptions.
The classic story of action, danger and fabulous wealth in the wilds of
darkest Africa Stars Cedric Hardwick as adventurer Allan Quartermain, with
support from Paul Robeson (who sings in the film), Roland Young and Anna Lee.
The plot gets under way when
Anna Lee organizes an
expedition to locate her father, who has disappeared in the wilds of Africa
while searching for King Solomon's Mines, a legendary diamond repository.
Umbopa's motivation for guiding the expedition is to reclaim the tribal
throne wrested from him by treacherous witch-doctor Gagool (Sidney
Fairbrother). At first treated as white
gods by the natives, the explorers soon find their lives imperiled. Thanks
to Umbopa's know-how, the whites are saved from a horrible death and the
evil tribesmen are overthrown. As for King Solomon's Mines, Quartermaine and
his party finally locate the fabled diamond cache—and then fate deals an
ironic hand, as fate has a habit of doing.
89 min. 1937/BW/81min
DVD $10.00
"AFRICAN AMERICAN NEWSREELS"
These are Newsreels from 1945 - 1950s produced for
African Americans audiences by "All-American Newsreels" and "Byline Newsreel".
Also included are short-subjects: "Negro in Sports; Negro in
Entertainment and Negro in Industry". BW/90mins.
$15.00 
"ANNA
LUCASTA":
Eartha Kitt turns in
a vivacious and sexy performance as a young prostitute who, after being
disowned by her iron-handed father, returns home to an arranged marriage to
a wealthy suitor. But Kitt ruins her scheming brother-in-law's plan to bilk
her new husband when she actually starts to fall in love with him. Frederick
O'Neal, Henry Scott and Sammy Davis, Jr. Co-star in this powerful drama
based on the play by Philip Yordan. 97 min. Widescreen; Cast: Alvin Childress, Sammy Davis Jr., James Edwards, Rex Ingram, Eartha
Kitt. 1959 /DVD $15.00
"BAND
OF ANGELS" After she learns she is of African lineage, the
penniless daughter (Yvonne De Carlo) of a once-prosperous Kentucky family is
sold as a slave to a New Orleans millionaire (Clark Gable) and soon becomes
his mistress. When the Civil War erupts, Gable is threatened by one of his
former slaves (Sidney Poitier) who has joined the Union army. With Rex
Reason, Efrem Zimbalist, Jr.; Raoul Walsh directs.
Cast:
Raymond Bailey,
Yvonne De Carlo,
Clark Gable,
Andrea King,
Patric Knowles,
Tommie Moore,
Sidney Poitier,
Rex Reason,
Ray Teal,
Torin Thatcher,
Efrem Zimbalist Jr.
1957/127min./BW/ DVD $19.95
"BEALE
STREET MAMA": -
July Jones and Spencer Williams
- A street cleaner and friend find some stolen money which they use to
establish themselves in the good life. They are found out and end up losing
everything.
1946/BW/60mins.
$19.95 
"BEWARE / JIVIN IN BE-BOP" $10.00 Beware (1946):
Ware College is about to close its doors forever because its endowment has run
dry. A last minute appeal to famous alumni brings the college's plight to the
attention of Louis Jordan. Jordan, known as King of the Jukebox, set things
right by hounding the good-for-nothing grandson of Ware College's founder into
spending his fortune on education rather than fast living. Beware features
over a half dozen numbers by jazz great Louis Jordan and his Tympany Five.
Starring Louis Jordon and his Tympany Five, Frank Wilson, Emory Richardson,
Valerie Black, Milton Woods, Joseph Hilliard, Tommy Hix, Dimples Daniels;
Produced and Directed by Bud Pollard.
Jivin' In Be-Bop (1946, ): Dizzy Gillespie
takes center stage and hosts an old time variety show from the "Chitlin
Circuit" captured in its entirety. Jivin' in Be Bop features one smash
show-stopping tune after another performed by Dizzy and His Orchestra
intermingled with hilarious vaudeville routines. Starring Dizzy Gillispie and
His Orchestra, Helen Humes, Ray Sneed Sanji, Freddie Carter and Ralph Brown;
Directed by Leonard Anderson and Spencer Williams; Screenplay by Powell
Lindsay; Produced by William D. Anderson. 
"BLACK
KING, The / JUNCTION 88" DVD $10.00 Black
King: The Reverend Charcoal Johnson fires up his congregation with his "Back to
Africa" scam. He even manages to turn the eye of beautiful young Mary Lou,
with outrageous promises to make her the Queen of Africa when they reach the
Dark Continent. A biting satire based on the real-life "Back to Africa"
crusade of Marcus Garvey. 1932/BW/ 60min. "Junction 88": In the sleepy town of Junction 88, young Buster Jenkins
dreams of song writing stardom. Featuring lively music from a talented cast
that includes bandleader Noble Sissle, and a comical performance by Pigmeat
Markham, Junction 88 is a jumpin' jive musical from the later years of
all-Black cinema. Starring Pigmeat Markham, Bob Howard, Nobel Sissle, Wyatt
Clark, Marie Cooke, Augustus Smith and Abbey Mitchell . 1947/BW 60min.
"BIRMINGHAM BLACK BOTTOM":
The
first All Black "talkies". Produced by the Christie Company, this
DVD
contains four shorts:
"Music Hath Harms"
Roscoe Griggers (Spencer Williams) puts himself
forward as a great musician who really he can't play at all and just leads a
band. He is offered a large amount of money to perform himself so arranges
with a band member to play for him under the stage while he mimes. His rivals
get wind of this and stop his friend from playing.
"The Melancholy Dame"
1929 - Spencer Williams. The story relates
the troubles of "Permanent Williams," darktown cabaret owner, who is forced to
hire his divorced wife and her new husband as entertainers. His second wife
doesn't relish the fact.,
"Framing of the Shrew"
1929 - An obstreperous wife (Preer) is tamed and trained by her smaller
but wily husband. Evelyn Preer, Spencer Williams, Roberta Hyson, Edward
Thompson.
"Oft In The Silly Night."
1929 - Romance blossoms between a Black
chauffeur and the boss's daughter. Spencer Williams, Evelyn Preer, Edward
Thompson.
1925/BW/60mins..
$19.95 
"BIRTH
OF A RACE": Released in 1919,
Birth of a Race was directed by John W.
Noble and produced by Emmett J. Scott. Emmett Scott had acted as personal
secretary to Booker T. Washington prior to Washington's death in 1915. The
production is documented as having received support from both Washington and
his Tuskegee Institute. The film began shooting in Tampa, Florida in 1913.
Though this clearly predates the production of
Birth of a Nation, Dixon's novel "The Clansmen" had been adapted to the
stage and as early as 1910 had been the recipient of protest.
Birth of the Race did not receive the attention anticipated by its
makers, yet neither was it the only film to directly counter Griffith's in
these early days of the Race Film industry.
BW/Silent/1919 $19.95
[NOTE: This is a special order title from my
collector contact, allow additional time for delivery]
"BIRTH OF A NATION": Based on a play called "The Clansmen," D.W. Griffith's three-hour Civil War
epic traces the development of the Civil War itself, the assassination of
Abraham Lincoln and the rise of the Ku Klux Klan through the lives of two
families. After The Birth of a Nation,
nothing was the same!!!! What has become
increasingly problematic about The Birth of a Nation is Griffith's
condescending attitude toward Black slaves, and the ringing excitement
surrounding the founding of the Ku Klux Klan. Griffith, whose political ideas
were naive at best, seemed genuinely surprised by the criticism of his
masterwork, and for his next project he turned to the humanist preaching of
the massive Intolerance. Despite protests, Birth sold more tickets than any
other movie, a record that stood for decades, and President Woodrow Wilson
compared it to "history written in lightning." I
only offer this film for historical comparison with films made by Black
filmmakers $6.95 
"BLACK
SHADOWS ON THE SILVER SCREEN":
Ossie Davis Narrates this motion picture history of African American's
involvement in American cinema between 1900 - 1950. This documentary is
complete with scenes from films depicting positive and negative Black images.
Contributions of Black filmmakers like Oscar Micheaux illustrate the rugged path
trod by Black producers and actors. Highlighted are the careers of Paul Robeson,
Josephine Baker, Fredi Washington. . Music include performances by Duke
Ellington, Cab Calloway and others. 1975/ BW-Color/55 min.,
$15.00
[NOTE: This is a special order title from my
collector contact, allow additional time for delivery]
"BOARDING HOUSE BLUES":
This film stars the great Jackie "Moms" Mabley. Born
Loretta Mary Aiken in 1894, acting as Jackie Mabley, better known as "Moms,"
she made a career of spinning hardship into comic gold with her pioneering
comedic routine into race relations, feminist and lesbian issues, "Moms"
Mabley is best remembered for her classic comedy albums recorded for Chess
Records and her appearance in the feature film Amazing Grace (1974) which was
her last film. $10.00
"BODY AND SOUL": An extremely
rare film that marks the acting debut of Robeson in this Oscar Micheaux
directed silent film. Robeson is caste in dual roles: as a corrupt preacher
and his good brother. This is the story of a minister gone corrupt who
associates with the owner of a house of gambling, from whom he extorts money.
He forces a girl of his church to steal her mother's savings and leave home.
He later kills the girl's brother, when the brother attempts to rescue the
girl. But, when its all said and done it's only a dream. Required to give a balance to his theme by the New York Censors,
Micheaux changed the preacher's role so that he is preacher, then detective,
then finally an uplift bourgeois future husband for the heroine.
1925/BW/Silent/60mins..
DVD $10.00
"BORDERLINE":
"RARE" Paul Robeson film, also featuring his
wife Eslanda Robeson, PLOT: Adah [Eslanda], a Black
woman, has an affair with Thorne, a white man, much to the dismay of some of the
prejudiced townsfolk and Thorne's wife, Astrid. Adah [Eslanda] attempts a
reconciliation with her man, Pete [Robeson], but eventually leaves him and the
town. Meanwhile, Astrid goes mad and cuts Thorne's face and arm with a knife, then mysteriously dies. Thorne is tried but acquitted. Meanwhile, Pete is
subjected to racist comments from Astrid and an old lady. After the death of
Astrid, these racist feelings lead to Pete being treated as an outcast. Because
of the events, the mayor sends Pete [Robeson] a letter asking him to leave town
for the good of all concerned. 1930/BW/Silent
$19.95
[NOTE: This is a special order title from my
collector contact, allow additional time for delivery]
"BOY,
WHAT A GIRL": Two smooth-talking producers are
trying to raise money for their musical review. They line up a potential
backer who will put up half the cash if they can find someone else to
Co-finance the production. The duo enlist the services of a cigar-smoking
cross-dresser named "Bumpsie" (Tim Moore), who poses as the wealthy "Madame
Deborah" to fool the backer. Their scheme goes smoothly - until the real
Madame shows up! Madness and mayhem mix with jam sessions at a Harlem roof
party where legendary drummer Gene Krupa performs a surprise drum solo. Famous
Black entertainers include Big Sid Catlett and his band, The Slam Stewart
Trio, Deek Watson and The Brown Dots, and The International Jitterbugs. Tim
Moore is known to millions of fans as George "Kingfish" Stevens, of the
extremely popular "Amos 'n' Andy" television show (1951-1953). He played in
musical revues on Broadway and in Europe before embarking on a movie career
that includes His Great Chance (1923) and Darktown Revue (1931). Moore had
already retired from 50 years of performing when he was cast as "Kingfish."
1946/BW
$10.00
"BRIGHT ROAD" Based
on an award-winning short story by
Mary Elizabeth Vroman,
the film is largely set at a rural Black school in an unspecified Southern
community. An idealistic new fourth-grade teacher Jane Richards (Dorothy
Dandridge) makes it her mission in
life to "reach" troublesome failing student C. T. Young (Philip
Hepburn). Just when Jane and the boy
are making progress, tragedy strikes, plunging C. T. into the depths of
depression and defeatism. With the help of the school's compassionate
principal (Harry
Belafonte), Jane is able to get C.
T. back on the right track—and as a bonus, the boy becomes an unexpected hero
in a moment of crisis. Handled in a leisurely, understated fashion,
$25.00
[NOTE: This is a special order title from my
collector contact, allow additional time for delivery]
"BRONZE BUCKAROO/
JUKE JOINT/GO DOWN DEATH/
BLOOD OF JESUS":
Bronze Buckaroo: Herb Jeffries, Lucius
Brooks, Artie Young and Spencer Williams, Jr. are cowpokes who avenge the
death of a friend's father.
1937/BW/60min
Juke Joint: Directed by & stars Spencer Williams, Jr. with July
Jones. A drama about a pair of drifters who try to repay their landladies
kindness by rescuing her daughter from slick talking man. 1947/BW/70mins. Blood of Jesus:
Written and starring Spencer William's, Jr. A sinful husband accidentally
kills his newly baptized wife. 1941/BW/45mins. Go Down Death:
Folk-like drama, strong on religion. Minister try's to close down clubs on
Sunday, but one club owner retaliates. He takes pre-arranged photos of the
Minister in a compromising position, to black mail him. One of the ministers
church members knows what really happened and she also happened to be the
woman who raised the corrupt club owner (Spencer Williams). When compromising
photos are safely locked away by club owner, his dead father's ghost leads
women to photos. While removing photos she's discovered by Spencer Williams, a
struggle ensues which results in her death. After attending funeral, burial
and church services, the club owner is haunted and taunted mentally by voices
of guilt, until he goes crazy. Film ends with scenes of Hell as depicted from
"Dante's Inferno", sucking in the corrupt club owner. 1945/BW/50 Minutes
"BROKEN
STRINGS /GANG WAR" DVD $10.00
"Broken Strings": Co-scripted and starring Clarence Muse with
Sybil Lewis, William Washington. A classical violinist injures his fingers.
The son becomes a violinist to earn the needed cash to restore his father's
paralyzed hand. Much to his father's dismay, the son plays swing instead of
classical music. 60 minutes.. This musical drama is loosely based on the film
"The Jazz Singer." 1940/BW/60mins. "Gang War" (1940) Plot:
War rages among New York mobsters over the profits from jukeboxes. Director:
Leo C. Popkin. Cast: Ralph Cooper, Gladys Snyder, Reginald Fenderson, Laurence
Criner, Monte Hawley, Ernest "Sunshine Sammy" Morrison. 1940/BW/54mins
"BURLESQUE IN HARLEM / PARADISE IN HARLEM": Paradise in
Harlem: Black comic Lem Anderson is weary of doing his minstrel comedy on
the vaudeville circuit. He dreams of becoming a serious stage actor and
playing the lead in Shakespeare's Othello. As distant as this dream seems, it
recedes even further when Lem witnesses a mob hit outside the theater. Forced
to leave town or face death, Lem heads down south to find work, but his
personal demons and a drinking habit bring this new life to ruin as well. Just
as all seems lost, his impossible dream comes true when he is called back to
New York to star in Othello. When the mobsters learn that he has returned to
town, they resolve to silence him for good. 1939/BW/60min Burlesque
in Harlem: A provocative peek at a typical Harlem burlesque show, complete
with racy slapstick comedy, bawdy blues singers, slick tap dancers, and
voluptuous exotic showgirls in minimal attire. Legendary black comic, Pigmeat
Markham, makes an appearance in a clever, fast-talking sketch about a sex
clinic. Though tame by contemporary standards, these acts were definitely
considered to be "adult entertainment" at the time. Burlesque in Harlem is a
fascinating look at how society's mores have changed in the last half
century.1949
DVD $10.00 
"CABIN IN THE SKY": Glossy All-Black MGM musical with Eddie
"Rochester" Anderson as a gambler whose soul becomes the prize in a
contest between God and the Devil. Lena Horne, Ethel Waters, Rex Ingram,
Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington are featured; Vincente Minnelli's first
directing assignment. Songs include "Shine," "Happiness Is a Thing Called
Joe," "Li'l Black Sheep," more. 98 min.1943/BW/ Audio
commentary; theatrical trailer; bonus short "Studio Visit" (1946).
Category:
Musicals Director:
Vincente Minnelli
Cast:
Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson,
Louis Armstrong,
Bill Bailey,
Willie Best,
Lena Horne,
Rex Ingram,
Butterfly McQueen,
Mantan Moreland,
Oscar Polk,
Kenneth Spencer,
Ethel Waters
DVD $19.95
"CARMEN JONES": Oscar Hammerstein
It's All-Black revision of Bizet's "Carmen," brought to the screen by Otto
Preminger. Showcases Harry Belafonte as a handsome soldier whose love for
sexy, conniving Dorothy Dandridge leads him to murder. Pearl Bailey, Olga
James and Diahann Carroll also star in this classic.
1954/BW/105mins/ $10.00
"DARK
MANHATTAN": The story is about a lad who
rises to control of the policy racket in Harlem, meets a sweet and clean
nightclub singer and falls in love with her. Before they can get married, a
rival gang tries to muscle into the numbers racket and, at the end, the lad
gets shot gunned and dies in the arms of his girl. 1937/BW/
DVD $15.00
[NOTE:
This is a special order title from my collector contact, allow additional time
for delivery]
"DEVIL's DAUGHTER,
The
[AKA: "Pocomania."] (1939) / CHLOE, LOVE IS CALLING (1934)":
"The Devil's Daughter,"
Nina Mae McKinney essays the title role of a phony voodoo high priestess in
Haiti who clashes with her half-sister over their late father's banana
plantation. With Ida James, Jack Carter and Hamtree Harrington. 114 min.
total. Drama
Director: Marshall Neilan Cast: Olive Borden, Reed Howes, Molly O'Day, Philip
Ober : NR B&W
"Chloe", Love Is Calling"
follows the child of a Black voodoo mistress from the Everglades as she
discovers that she may really be the daughter of a white plantation owner.
Taboo in its time for its depiction of interracial romance, this atmospheric
drama stars Olive Borden, Reed Howes and Molly O'Day.
$10.00
"DECKS RAN RED, The:
Very hard to find, - In this sea-going suspense drama, Edwin Rumill
(James Mason) is the former first mate of an ocean liner who leaps at the
chance to have a vessel under his full command. However, the S.S. Berwind is
no ship to write home about, a freighter from the mothball fleet whose captain
has recently died. The crew is often ill-tempered, and Mahia (Dorothy
Dandridge), the wife of the ship's cook, doesn't make anyone
more comfortable with her flirtatious nature. Rumill learns that the bad
attitude of his crew has a sinister undercurrent: two of the hands, Leroy
Martin (Stuart Whitman) and Henry Scott (Broderick Crawford), have hatched a
scheme to murder Rumill and the rest of the crew, bring in the ship as
salvage, and sell it to the highest bidder, expecting to earn close to a
million dollars. Rumill must rally support if he and the other men hope to
survive. 1958/BW/90min./ $25.00
[NOTE: This is a special order title from my
collector contact, allow additional time for delivery]
"DIRTY GERTIE FROM HARLEM USA / SEPIA CINDERELLA":
Dirty Gertie From Harlem U.S.A. (1946, B&W): Dancer
Gertie La Rue is the toast of Harlem, but she's been two- timing her beau, Al,
the man who put her in the spotlight. Fearing Al's retribution, Gertie drags
her entire show troupe out to the remote island of Trinidad, where she hopes to
lay low for a while. She's also managed to make her self imposed exile a
lucrative one, setting up a residency at Diamond Joe's nightclub. While Gertie
drinks, cusses, and flirts her way across Trinidad, dark clouds are gathering
overhead; local revivalist Jonathan Christian is on a moral crusade to have
her deported. Sepia
Cinderella (1947, B&W): Bob Jordan is an aspiring
songwriter with a melody stuck in his head. Naive in the ways of love, he's
having some trouble writing the lyrics for his would-be hit. Barbara, a
fellow musician and secret admirer, helps him finish the romantic ballad.
"Cinderella" becomes an instant smash, and as Jordan's career takes off,
lovelorn Barbara can only watch as her man slips away. Fame is a fickle
thing, though, and Bob's flirtation with the fast life is short. Loveless
and jobless, his agent has a brilliant idea to get his career back on track
- a Cinderella contest. The gimmick is simple; at Jordan's next show, every
available woman in the audience will bring a single slipper. The owner of
the slipper that Bob selects will be invited upstage to join him in
performing a duet of his signature song. The big night arrives, and Barbara
happens to be in the audience.
$10.00 
"DOUBLE DEAL / MISTAKEN IDENTITY [AKA Murder With
Music]": DVD $10.00:
Double Deal:
Robbery and murder are the sideshows at a nightclub
run by crime boss Murray Howard. His shady henchmen, Dude and Sharpie, kill a
security guard during a jewelry store heist. The getaway is clean, but they'd
made the mistake of taking young Tommy McCoy along on the job. Now sweating
with guilty panic, Tommy's suspicious behavior is bound to draw heat, so Dude
devises a scheme to frame the kid for homicide. 1939/BW/60min
Mistaken Identity: (A.K.A. Murder with Music), Louis the piano player is
murdered by a knife-throwing killer in the middle of a show at Bill Smith's
nightclub. Music is the real highlight of Mistaken Identity focusing
most of its screen time on hot performances by The Skippy Williams Band
Starring Nelle Hill, George Oliver, Bill Dillard, Ken Renard, Noble Sissle.
1941 
"HARLEM RIDES THE RANGE /
DIRTY GERTIE FROM HARLEM / MOON OVER HARLEM / THE BIG TIMERS":
Harlem Rides The Range: Stars Herb
Jeffries, Spencer Williams, Jr. and Clarence Brooks. The Singing cowboy is out
to foil dastardly outlaws who stole the deed to a radium mine. 1939/BW/58mins.
Dirty Gertie From Harlem, USA:
Gertie goes to Trinidad to hide from her boyfriend and finds fun and songs
at a Harlem style variety show. A Spencer Williams directed film.
1946/BW/60mins. Moon Over Harlem: Takes a
look at the life, love and struggles of a family from Harlem The Big Timers: A poor girl
falls for an Army officer. Her mother pretends to own the hotel to encourage
the romance. Stars Stepin Fetchit, Francine Everett, Duke William's and
others. 1945/40mins _small.jpg)
"ELEVEN
P.M".: RARE!!! Starring Richard Maurice, Leo Pope,
Sammie Lane, H. Marion Williams. A writer has several appointments set for
Eleven P.M. but falls asleep and dreams the plot for a new drama which
includes a strange element of reincarnation. 1928/BW/Silent/60min
$19.95
[NOTE: This is a special order title from my
collector contact, allow additional time for delivery]
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"EMPEROR JONES":
Playwright Eugene O'Neill's early work
often combined memorable characters and stories with social commentary and
innovative theatrical concepts--and among his first great successes was
The Emperor Jones, which starred perhaps the single finest African
American actor of the 1920s and 1930s, the legendary Paul Robeson. When United
Artists purchased the screen rights, Robeson went with the package, and this
1933 film was the result. Plot: Paul Robeson a Pullman Porter in the depression
era, is sent to prison for an accidental killing. He later escapes to a
Caribbean island where he uses his superior intellect and physically
intimidating presence to set himself up as "Emperor." But his own past
troubles have hardened him. He uses his position to bleed the
population--and eventually they revolt against him.
Cast: Paul Robeson, Dudley Digges, Frank H. Wilson, Fredi Washington,
Ruby Elzy, George
Haymid Stamper, Brandon Evans, Rex Ingram, Moms Mabley, Harold
Nicholas, Blueboy O'Connor, Fritz Pollard, Lorenzo Tucker.
1933/BW/72mins.. $15.00
"EXILE,
The": A drama/romance of the
"Race
movie" genre, it was
Micheaux's first feature-length talkie, and the first
African
American talkie.
The central plot is
concerned with a young Black man [Baptiste] whose fiancée comes into ownership of a
mansion located on South Parkway in Chicago. The mansion serves as a combination
cabaret and brothel. The young man, appalled, leaves the city for the plains
of South Dakota where he meets a pretty young girl whom he assumes to be white. He becomes her
friend and protector but the race barrier stands between them, until it is
revealed that she is part Negro. He returns to Chicago where he is framed for
murder by his ex-fiancée.
The girl from South Dakota takes a train to Chicago, where she and Baptiste are reunited; they marry and return to South Dakota.
Cast: Eunice Brooks, Stanley Morrell, Celeste Cole, Kathleen Noisette, Charles
R. Moore, Nora Newsome, George Randol, A.B. DeComathiere, Carl Mahon, Lou
Vernon, Louise Cook, Roland Holder, Donald Heywood, Don Heywood and His Band,
Leonard Harper, Leonard Harper and His Chorines. 1931/BW/
$19.95
[NOTE: This is a special order title from my
collector contact, allow additional time for delivery]
"GANG SMASHER' S
[AKA Gun Moll]"
Nina Mae McKinney plays a dame who runs the Harlem rackets. Ralph
Cooper wrote the screen play for this film that also stars, Monte Hawley,
Mantan Moreland, Edward Thompson, Lawrence Criner, Vernon McCalla and others.
1938/BW/65mins. $19.95
[NOTE: This is a special order title from my
collector contact, allow additional time for delivery]
"GANG
WAR / BROKEN STRING" DVD $10.00 "GANG WAR" (1940)
Plot: War rages among New York mobsters over the profits from jukeboxes.
Director: Leo C. Popkin. Cast: Ralph Cooper, Gladys Snyder, Reginald Fenderson,
Laurence Criner, Monte Hawley, Ernest "Sunshine Sammy" Morrison.
1940/BW/54mins "BROKEN STRINGS":
Co-scripted and starring Clarence Muse with Sybil Lewis, William
Washington. A classical violinist injures his fingers. The son becomes a
violinist to earn the needed cash to restore his father's paralyzed hand. Much
to his father's dismay, the son plays swing instead of classical music. 60
minutes.. This musical drama is loosely based on the film "The Jazz Singer."
1940/BW/60mins.
"GREEN PASTURES, The" 
In this 1936 film version of the Connelly play,
Rex Ingram is nothing
less than brilliant as De Lawd, speaking the most ludicrous of lines with
dignity and quiet authority. Others in the All-Black cast include
Eddie "Rochester" Anderson
as Noah,
Frank Wilson as Moses,
George Reed as Rev.
Deshee, and
Oscar Polk as Gabriel,
who has the film's single most stirring line: "Gangway! Gangway for de Lawd
God Jehovah!"
DVD $19.95 .
"GIRL
FROM CHICAGO / SON OF INGAGI / The GIRL IN ROOM 20 /
LYING LIPS": DVD $10.00
Girl From Chicago: A secret agent falls for a Mississippi schoolteacher
who moves to New York. Written and Directed by Oscar Micheaux.1932/BW/69mins.
Lying Lips: A night club
chanteuse is setup for a crime. Her detective/boyfriend tries to uncover the
killer. Stars Earl Jones (father of James Earl Jones)
Edna Mae Harris and others. Oscar Micheaux director. 1939/BW/70mins.
Son of Ingagi:
Directed by and staring Spencer Williams. The first All-Black horror film, A scientist who is wealthy and a recluse wills
her fortune and a gloomy old house to a newlywed, the daughter of the man that
she once loved but who did not return her love. The scientist has brought back
from Africa an ape man who drinks a potion she has concocted in the
laboratory. The ape man turns on her and kills her. Later, he murders an
attorney who is searching for $20,000 in gold that the scientist has hidden in
her home. Zeno, brother of the scientist and ex-convict, finds the money but
is discovered by the ape-man. Zeno fires on him, but is killed by the ape-man
before he dies. A detective finally recovers the gold and presents it to the
newlyweds. Girl In Room
20: Directed by & stars Spencer Williams, Jr. with July Jones. A small
town girl goes to New York to make her way as a singer. 1947/BW/60mins.
"GOD’s
STEPCHILDREN / GIRL IN ROOM 20":
God's Stepchildren
Written, Directed & Produced by Oscar Micheaux. PLOT: A
light-skinned African-American girl, Naomi (Jacqueline Lewis), abandoned by
her birth mother, denounces her own race in this controversial melodrama. When
Naomi's teacher (Ethel Moses) takes umbrage to the girl's statement that "God
didn't make Negroes" ("we're all God's children," Mrs. Cushinberry replies),
Naomi spreads a false rumor that the teacher is having an affair with a
married professor. A riot ensues, and Naomi is shipped off to a convent by her
distraught mother (Alice B. Russell, Micheaux's wife) for 12-years. Returning
to the family farm years later, a grown-up Naomi (Gloria Press) falls for her
step-brother Jimmy (Carmen Newsome) who she can't have. Encouraged to marry a
dark skinned Negro, she gives birth to a baby boy only to leave him with her
foster mother. She leaves, marries a white man once again denouncing the
"Negro race." When her new husband discovers Naomi's race, he turns her out,
and the disgraced woman drowns herself in a river. Stars Alice Russell, Carmen
Newsome & others. 1937/BW/65mins. Girl In Room 20: Spencer Williams
film. Geraldine Brock, is a country girl who journeys to New York. Her
presence attracts every con man and hustler in the Big Apple. After being
victimized and exploited by a number of disreputable types, Brock finally
wises up-but not soon enough for a peaches 'n' cream happy ending.
DVD $10.00 
"GO, MAN GO": The inspirational story of the famed
basketball tricksters The Harlem Globetrotters is chronicled in this
drama. The Trotters began in the 1920s when a manager catches a group of
talented players on the basketball court. He becomes obsessed with getting
these young Black men the recognition he feels they deserve. He gathers
them together as a team and they begin barnstorming a series of small
towns. The film's climax takes on overtones of the Civil Rights Movement
when it depicts a major game between them and an all-white team of
champions. The Globetrotters beat the tar out of their opponents. One of
the main storylines concerns the friendship between Saperstein and his
wife, and player Inman Jackson and his wife. .DVD
$25.00
[NOTE: This is a special order title from
my collector contact, allow additional time for delivery]
"JAZZ
10-PACK:" :Synopsis:
For movie buffs and collectors alike! This star-filled movie pack has been
carefully remastered on DVD for hours of home entertainment. There
are 10 films from the All-Black
Cast film era, with a Jazz performance in each show/film/soundie. $10.00
Set includes:
"HALLELUJAH"
The first All-Black Cast film produced by a major studio,
HALLELUJAH represented the culmination of King Vidor's long-standing desire to
do a project dealing with the lives of African Americans, strongly influenced
by his childhood experience in Galveston, Texas. The film stars Daniel Hayes
as Zeke Johnson, an impoverished young sharecropper living in South Carolina.
When he and his brother Spunk (Everett McGarritty) go north to sell their
cotton crop, Daniel falls for the seductive Chick (Nina Mae McKinney) without
realizing she's a shill for the rigged crap game of her lover, Hot Shot
(William Fountaine). Finally grasping the scam, Daniel fights with Hot Shot,
but his brother is fatally shot during the struggle.
"HARLEM
GLOBETROTTERS, The": The story of the legendary
Harlem Globetrotters
takes second place to the rise to prominence of All-American athlete
Billy Brown (a star
Globetrotter, here
playing himself). While still in college,
Brown drops his
education in favor of joining the famed basketball team. Lacking the esprit de
corps of his teammates,
Brown is only
interested in fattening his bank account. It takes a few major setbacks,
coupled with the no-nonsense devotion of his sweetheart Ann Carpenter (a
surprisingly subdued
Dorothy Dandridge) to
realign
Brown's priorities.
Thomas Gomez heads
the cast as
Abe Saperstein, the
real-life entrepreneur who organized the
Trotters back in 1927.
Oddly enough, The Harlem Globetrotters suggests that the team is
comprised of serious hoopsters, rather than the zany clowns we've come to know
and love.
DVD $25.00 
"HARLEM
IS HEAVEN": 1932 - .
Starring -
Bill
Robinson, John Mason, Putney Dandridge, Jimmy Baskett, Anise
Boyer, Henri Wressell, Alma Smith, Bob Sawyer, John Mason, Ferdie Lewis, Myra
Johnson, Margaret Jenkins, Jeli Smith, Slick Chester, Thomas Mosley, George
Nagel, Naomi Price, Jackie Young, Eubie Blake and his Orchestra. ... The story
is woven around the true life experiences of Robinson. It has to do with the
adventures of a beautiful young actress just arrived from the south and the
manner in which she is aided and befriended by Bill, star of a musical revue
of a leading Harlem theatre. How the girl, Jean Stratton played by Anise
Boyer, falls in love with the juvenile of the show, Chummy Walker is told with
skill and the many complications and thrills that ensue are vividly portrayed.
$25.00
[NOTE: This is a special order title from my
collector contact, allow additional time for delivery]
"ISLAND IN THE SUN" Political
intrigue and romantic gamesmanship send an already torrid Caribbean community
to the boiling point in this drama. Maxwell Fleury (James
Mason) and David Boyeur (Harry
Belafonte) are two men running for political
office in a British-controlled island in the West Indies. Maxwell is the son
of a wealthy and socially prominent white family, while David is a black labor
leader with a groundswell of popular support but little money. A scandal
erupts in the press alleging that Maxwell is of mixed racial ancestry, but
Maxwell is actually pleased about the news, thinking that it may endear him to
black voters. Maxwell is not pleased, however, when he hears that his wife
Sylvia (Patricia
Owens) has been having an affair with the
urbane but rootless Carson (Michael
Rennie), taking the matter seriously enough
to murder Carson himself. Maxwell's younger sister Jocelyn (Joan
Collins) is also in hot water, romantically
speaking; she has set her sights on Eun Templeton (Stephen
Boyd), the son of the Island's governor, and
she hopes to snare him into marriage by allowing him to get her pregnant.
Elsewhere on the island, David is secretly having an affair with a white
woman, Mavis Norman (Joan
Fontaine), while David's former girlfriend,
Margot Seaton (Dorothy
Dandridge), has become involved with a white
man, Denis Archer (John
Justin). Based on the novel by Alex Waugh,
Island in the Sun also
features songs from
Harry Belafonte,
including "Lead Man Holler" and the title tune. $19.95
"KEEP
PUNCHING": Former boxer Henry
Armstrong stars as a fighter who is seduced by the high life and fast women.
Henry Jackson [Armstrong] is the pride of his small
town. He wins a golden gloves title and later goes to New York with his
manager Ed Watson despite opposition from his father and sweetheart, Fanny. He
meets an old school chum, Frank, who turns out to be a cold blooded gambler
betting that Henry loses the fight. On the day of the fight, a plot to drug
Henry's liquor just before he leaves to fight is thwarted 1948/BW/80mins.
$15.00
[NOTE: This is a special order title from my
collector contact, allow additional time for delivery]
"KILLER
DILLER": When the regular stage magician fails to appear for a
scheduled show, Dusty Fletcher shows up in his place by materializing out
of thin air in theater manager Dumdome's office. Dusty hasn't quite
mastered the magic show's mysterious stage props-closets that make people
vanish. When Dumdom's fiancée, Lola, and her new pearl necklace disappear,
the enraged manager tells his secretary, Butterfly McQueen, to call in the
police. Fortunately for Dusty, the cops are more clueless than he is,
giving him plenty of time to court cute Butterfly as they pursue him.
"KING
SOLOMON'S MINE":
Adventure film about the search for King Solomon's diamond mine. Robeson and
Cedric Hardwick endure violent sandstorms, attacks by Zulu tribesmen and
volcano eruptions.
The classic story of action, danger and fabulous wealth in the wilds of
darkest Africa Stars Cedric Hardwick as adventurer Allan Quartermain, with
support from Paul Robeson (who sings in the film), Roland Young and Anna Lee.
The plot gets under way when
Anna Lee organizes an
expedition to locate her father, who has disappeared in the wilds of Africa
while searching for King Solomon's Mines, a legendary diamond repository.
Umbopa's motivation for guiding the expedition is to reclaim the tribal
throne wrested from him by treacherous witch-doctor Gagool (Sidney
Fairbrother). At first treated as white
gods by the natives, the explorers soon find their lives imperiled. Thanks
to Umbopa's know-how, the whites are saved from a horrible death and the
evil tribesmen are overthrown. As for King Solomon's Mines, Quartermaine and
his party finally locate the fabled diamond cache—and then fate deals an
ironic hand, as fate has a habit of doing.
89 min. 1937/BW/81min
DVD $10.00