Race Films
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- DirectorArthur DreifussStarsMonte HawleyJeni Le GonEdward ThompsonTommy McCoy and "Dude" Markey are both in love with Harlem singer/dancer Nita. Markey robs a jewelry store and turns the loot over to gang-boss Murray Howard. Later, Markey robs the safe, steals the jewelry, and, in order to get rid of his rival for Nita, frames the robbery on McCoy. The latter's big-brother thinks otherwise and, with Nita's help, sets out to prove it.
- DirectorJosh BinneyStarsDusty FletcherGeorge WiltshireButterfly McQueenAn all-Black comedy and dance revue with stars of stage and screen.
- DirectorOscar MicheauxClarence WilliamsStarsClarence BrooksDorothy Van EngleAndrew BishopA black night watchman at a chemical factory finds the body of a murdered white woman. After he reports it, he finds himself accused of the murder.
- DirectorOscar MicheauxJerry MillsStarsCharles D. LucasEvelyn PreerIris HallThe Homesteader involves six principal characters, the leading one being Jean Baptiste (Charles Lucas), a homesteader far off in the Dakotas, the lone African American living in the area. To this wilderness arrives Jack Stewart, a Scotsman, with his motherless daughter, Agnes (Iris Hall), who doesn't know that she is biracial. In Agnes, Baptiste meets the girl of his dreams. Peculiar fate threw her in the company of the Homesteader, but, because Baptiste is black and Agnes is presumably white, their love is forbidden by law. Baptiste eventually sacrifices the love of this girl of his dreams, goes back to his own people and marries Orlean, the daughter of a black preacher named McCarthy. McCarthy, the embodiment of vanity, deceit and hypocrisy, really admires the marriage his daughter has made. He speaks of the "rich" young man she has married, praises him to the highest. Baptiste does not know, however, that McCarthy requires and is in the habit of having people praise him. Baptiste does not do it because he is not of the temperament to do so. Because of this failure grows the tragedy of mismarriage to Orlean (Evelyn Preer), a sweet girl, kind and good, but like her mother, without the strength of her convictions. Baptiste, Orlean having failed him, is persecuted by McCarthy and by Ethel (McCarthy's other daughter), who, like her father, possesses all the evil a woman is capable of; she is married to weak-kneed Glavis. In the end, Orlean, driven insane by the evil she had been the innocent cause of, rights a wrong which causes Baptiste to go back to his land in the Dakotas, where he finds the girl he first discovered. Later, he learns[by whom?] the truth about her race and the story has a beautiful ending.
- DirectorOscar MicheauxStarsEvelyn PreerFlo ClementsJames D. RuffinAbandoned by her fiancé, an educated black woman with a shocking past dedicates herself to helping a near bankrupt school for impoverished black youths.
- DirectorOscar MicheauxStarsEvelyn PreerA.B. DeComathiereSam LangfordThe brute is a gambler,boxing manager and underworld boss who mistreats a young woman, who is forced into marriage with him for money after her original fiance is thought dead. When that man returns ,he attempts to rescue her.
- DirectorOscar MicheauxStarsIris HallWalker ThompsonLawrence ChenaultRacists learn that the land a negro owns lies over a vast oil field, and threaten his life when he refuses to sell.
- DirectorOscar Micheaux
- DirectorOscar MicheauxStarsEvelyn PreerEdward R. AbramsLawrence ChenaultA young black man is accused of the murder of a white woman.
- DirectorOscar MicheauxStarsWilliam FountaineShingzie HowardAlma SewellAbout the contents of a last will and testament left behind by an African-American sharecropper who was lynched after being falsely accused of the murder of a white plantation owner.
- DirectorOscar MicheauxStarsLouise BordenWilliam FountaineShingzie HowardA young black man who joins the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and becomes a hero by rescuing a captive mixed-race woman from a hostile American Indian tribe. The young man later purchases a ranch that becomes the foundation for great financial wealth.
- DirectorOscar MicheauxStarsJ. Homer TuttEvelyn PreerSalem Tutt WhitneyA young black Harvard graduate fights against a variety of obstacles, including racist opposition, in order to build a school for black children.
- DirectorOscar MicheauxStarsAndrew BishopLawrence ChenaultShingzie HowardThe misadventures of a man who accepted a bet to spend a night in a haunted house.
- DirectorOscar MicheauxStarsPaul RobesonMarshall RogersLawrence ChenaultA malevolent phony preacher plots to take advantage of a woman from his congregation who happens to be in love with his long-estranged identical twin brother.
- DirectorOscar MicheauxStarsSalem Tutt WhitneyAmy Birdsong
- DirectorOscar MicheauxStarsEvelyn PreerLawrence Chenault
- DirectorOscar MicheauxStarsGrace SmithLaurence CrinerLionel MonagasAn African American entrepreneur who has built up his fortune in South America returns to the U.S. and falls in love with a young woman who turns out to be part of a notorious family of criminals.
- DirectorOscar MicheauxStarsShingzie HowardAndrew BishopLawrence ChenaultRena ( Shingzie Howard ), a beautiful mulatto woman, who passes as white, receives a proposal from an aristocratic white millionaire who has fallen in love with her. Rena accepts without revealing the secret of her racial background. Unhappy, Rena returns to her former lover, Frank Fowler, a black man, who has risen to power despite his color. She tells him that although she has fooled the public, she has not fooled herself.
- DirectorOscar MicheauxStarsWilliam EdmonsonA.B. DeComathiereArdelle DabneyGeorge Eldridge Van Paul, the son of a white father and a black mother, is brought up to believe that he is completely white. He falls in love with Hester Morgan, a black girl, but when she learns that he is white, she refuses to see him.
- DirectorOscar MicheauxStarsKathleen NoisetteWilliam A. Clayton Jr.Bessie GivensDetails the plight of a young woman who falls in love and marries a glib con artist who abandons her without money on their wedding night.
- DirectorOscar MicheauxStarsLorenzo TuckerWilliam A. Clayton Jr.Kathleen NoisetteFilm producer Winston L. Jaune gives his brother J. Lee a job in his company. J. Lee promptly steals company funds, spends lavishly in cabarets, at wild parties, and on women. Hw thereby put the company in financial difficulties.
- DirectorOscar MicheauxStarsKathleen NoisetteLoretta TuckerSalem Tutt WhitneyA US cavalry officer rescues a mulatto girl, raised in Africa, from slavers.
- DirectorOscar MicheauxStarsWilliam A. Clayton Jr.Willor Lee GuilfordRichard B. HarrisonCon artists try to trick an old man out of his life savings.
- DirectorOscar MicheauxStarsEunice BrooksStanley MorrellCeleste ColeA young man named Jean in post-World War I Chicago falls in love with a beautiful girl named Edith. He proposes to her, but realizes that she's involved in the rackets and won't leave them, so he goes back home to South Dakota, where he becomes a successful rancher. There he falls for a white girl, but guilt drives him back to Chicago, where he runs into Edith again, and they agree to marry. When Edith is later found murdered, Jean is blamed for the crime.
- DirectorOscar MicheauxStarsCeleste ColeAmon DavisDonald HeywoodMusical numbers and comedy routines.
- DirectorOscar MicheauxStarsLucille LewisWalter FlemingLaura BowmanJohn Walden, left home 20 years earlier and has been "passing" as white in a town where no one knew of his background. He returns home to take his now grown sister back with him so she too can live a life as a white woman. He even goes so far as to find her a suitable white man to marry. Unfortunately, she can not get over the young black man she left back home.
- DirectorOscar MicheauxStarsLawrence ChenaultA.B. DeComathiereLaura BowmanA movie producer offers a nightclub singer a role in his latest film, but all he really wants to do is bed her. She knows, but accepts anyway. Meanwhile, a patron at the club gets a note saying that she'll soon get another note, and that she will be killed ten minutes after that.
- DirectorOscar MicheauxStarsCarl MahonStarr CallowayAlice B. RussellAn undercover government agent on a case in Mississipi meets and falls in love with a beautiful young woman who's being menaced by a local crime boss. He rescues the girl, and they leave Mississippi and head to Harlem, but their troubles follow them: they become involved in the murder of a local crime boss there.
- DirectorOscar Micheaux
- DirectorOscar MicheauxStarsLawrence Chenault'Slick' ChesterA.B. DeComathiereGangsters in Harlem make plans to commit a kidnapping.
- DirectorOscar MicheauxStarsAndrew BishopEthel MosesLorenzo TuckerHelen Ware, an artist's model, known as the Brown Venus is sad, discouraged and unhappy. When her men friends learn that she often poses nude, they try to become unduly "friendly" or just shun her, with the result that a beautiful girl with the figure of a Goddess finds herself without a lover. In desperation, she goes to a notorious night club and is later seen about to start on the downward trail. In New York's Harlem section, gangdom is running riot. Gangster Kid Cotton kills a man and runs away with the man's sweetheart, who is unaware of the crime until she reads about it in a newspaper at the "Mad Mullah" club in Chicago. Helen is near their table, overhears their discussion of the killing, and later finds herself involved in the case. Government undercover man Robert Fletcher trails Cotton to Chicago, and a peculiar twist of fate brings Helen to his hotel room, and a most intimate situation follows. Cotton sets up a numbers bank in Chicago in opposition the the policy gang, and a gang war breaks out. Gomez and his gang are rubbed out and Cotton becomes the king of the underworld. But the dragnet, thrown around him by Fletcher, begins to tighten.
- DirectorOscar MicheauxStarsBee FreemanSol Johnson'Slick' ChesterA young college student falls under the influence of a murderous gambler.
- DirectorOscar MicheauxStarsCora GreenLarry SeymourHazel DiazTed Gregory is trying to be the first black producer to mount a show on Broadway, but he has trouble with his star singer.
- DirectorOscar MicheauxStarsJacqueline LewisEthel MosesAlice B. RussellA young light-skinned Negress struggles to find her place in both the black and the white worlds.
- DirectorOscar MicheauxStarsEdna Mae HarrisCarman NewsomeRobert Earl JonesA nightclub singer refuses to "date" customers, so she's framed for the murder of her aunt, convicted of the killing and sent to prison.
- DirectorOscar MicheauxStarsCarman NewsomeEthel MosesAlec LovejoyA black Harvard graduate confronts racism.
- DirectorOscar MicheauxStarsGladys WilliamsRobert Earl JonesCarman NewsomeGangsters use a woman to get to a boxer and convince him to throw a big fight.
- DirectorOscar MicheauxStarsWilliam ByrdLeroy CollinsVerlie CowanMartin Eden is a successful African-American farmer in South Dakota. He is in love with Deborah Stewart, but he believes that she is white and that she would not be interested in him. He is unaware that Deborah also loves him.
- DirectorBayer MackStarsOscar MicheauxThe Czar of Black Hollywood is a documentary film chronicling the early life and career of African-American filmmaker Oscar Micheaux (1884-1951). Oscar Micheaux was a towering figure even by today's standards. He was not only America's preeminent black filmmaker for three decades, but also the country's most prolific; having directed or produced 22 silent movies and 15 talking pictures during his illustrious, yet tumultuous career. The Czar of Black Hollywood uses archival film, photos, illustrations and music to weave a compelling narrative of Micheaux's early life and his production of the first feature length silent film and sound motion picture by an African-American.
- DirectorSam NewfieldStarsRalph CooperSybil LewisSam McDanielA young black doctor sets out to establish a free clinic in Harlem.
- DirectorLeo C. PopkinStarsRalph CooperGladys SnyderReginald FendersonTwo mobs fight for control of the jukebox racket.
- DirectorWilliam L. NolteRalph CooperStarsRalph CooperLena HorneLaurence CrinerA theatrical producer puts aside his own success to boost the career of a talented singer.
- DirectorHarry L. FraserStarsRalph CooperTheresa HarrisLaurence CrinerA gang leader is torn between two women: his "moll" Kay and his childhood girlfriend Grace, who is now a star on radio. Pursued by two dedicated police officers for a gangland killing, he attempts to use Grace as his alibi. Complications ensue.
- DirectorHarry L. FraserRalph CooperStarsRalph CooperCleo HerndonClarence BrooksA low-level gangster determines to let nothing stand in the way of his gaining control of the numbers rackets in Harlem.
- DirectorLeo C. PopkinStarsNina Mae McKinneyLaurence CrinerMonte HawleyUndercover anti-gang agent works in a nightclub where a protection racket is headquartered.
- DirectorFred WallerStarsCab CallowayCab Calloway and His Cotton Club OrchestraLena HorneCab Calloway performs two numbers at the Cotton Club, then takes his friends down to Harlem for a jitterbug party.
- DirectorVincente MinnelliBusby BerkeleyStarsEthel WatersEddie 'Rochester' AndersonLena HorneA compulsive gambler dies during a shooting, but he'll receive a second chance to reform himself and to make up with his worried wife.
- DirectorAndrew L. StoneStarsLena HorneBill RobinsonCab Calloway and His Cotton Club OrchestraThe relationship between an aspiring dancer and a popular songstress provides a retrospective of the great African-American entertainers of the early 1900s.
- DirectorHans BurgerStarsLena HorneAlbert AmmonsPete JohnsonAfter hours at a nightclub, the hired help have a jam session, which proves to be just what a couple of belated customers wanted to hear.
- DirectorFred WallerStarsCab CallowaySidney EastonFredi WashingtonThis jazz musical short has a comedy plot about marital infidelity.
- DirectorRoy MackStarsCab Calloway and His Cotton Club OrchestraCab CallowayJeni Le GonYoung Cab Calloway's mother is concerned because Cab spends his days listening to the radio, pretending to lead an orchestra. A deacon, passing by the apartment, hears him singing and advises him go to his wife's gypsy tea room. As she reads the tea leaves, she sees situations which lead to Cab and his orchestra performing musical numbers.
- StarsCab CallowayThe CabaliersAn early form of music video featuring the legendary Cab Calloway and his orchestra.
- DirectorWilliam Forest CrouchStarsCab CallowayDotty Saulter
- DirectorWilliam Forest CrouchStarsCab CallowayRusty Stanford
- DirectorWilliam Forest CrouchStarsCab Calloway
- DirectorWilliam Forest CrouchStarsCab CallowayDotty Saulter
- DirectorWilliam Forest CrouchStarsCab Calloway
- DirectorJack SchollStarsThe 3 WhippetsCab CallowayThe Five RacketeersThe Warners Shorts department, always ready when it came to making something new out of something old, took archive footage from two earlier Vitaphone shorts---"An All-Colored Vaudeville Show, 1935" and "Hi De Ho, 1937"---and came up with "Dixieland Jamboree" in 1946. "Archive footage" performers include Eunice Wilson, Adelaide Hall, the Five Racketeers, the 3 Whippets, the Nicholas Brothers (Fayard and Harold)and Cab Calloway.
- DirectorJosh BinneyStarsCab CallowayIda JamesJeni Le GonCab Calloway plays himself in a plot about jealousy, night clubs, and gangsters. Ends with a series of musical numbers.
- DirectorJoseph KohnStarsLionel HamptonFaye AdamsBill BaileyExtravaganza with lots of music legends from the 50s.
- DirectorJoseph KohnLeonard ReedStarsWillie BryantSarah VaughanLionel HamptonMusical variety filmed at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem, New York City.
- DirectorJosh BinneyStarsCab Calloway
- StarsCab CallowayCab Calloway and His Cotton Club OrchestraThis Soundie shows Cab Calloway and his orchestra performing the title song.
- DirectorWilliam Forest CrouchStarsLouis JordanCab CallowayDoc CheathamLouis Jordan, with his band, sings and performs the title song, "Caldonia,", and "Honey Child," "Tillie" and 'Buzz Me", wowing the jitter-buggers, zoot suits and bobby-soxers of the mid-1940s, all built around a wisp of a plot dealing with the difficulties of production in Harlem.
- StarsCab Calloway
- DirectorBud PollardStarsLouis JordanFrank H. WilsonEmory RichardsonWare College is a small Black college in Ware, Ohio. Once prominent, it is now low in attendance, low in enrollment and low on money.
- DirectorWilliam Forest CrouchStarsLouis JordanJune RichmondMilton WoodsOld-time musical star Schyler Jarvis, now wealthy, is dying; his last act is a visionary plan for the future happiness of his son, swing bandleader Louis Jarvis, and Honey Carter, daughter of his long-lost love. But crooked lawyer Talbot has a nefarious scheme to get his hands on the Jarvis money...and it doesn't include any happiness for Louis and Honey. Plenty of swing from Louis Jordan's Tympany Five.
- DirectorBud PollardStarsLouis JordanSuzette HarbinMonte HawleyA famous bandleader, suffering from overwork and exhaustion, goes to a sanitarium for a rest. While there he dreams of being out west at a dude ranch, where he finds himself involved in the beautiful owner's struggle to keep her ranch from falling into the hands of the villain, who wants either her or her ranch (or, preferably, both).
- DirectorJohn C. GrahamStarsLouis Jordan
- DirectorWilliam Forest CrouchStarsLouis Jordan
- DirectorJosef BerneStarsThe King Cole TrioIda JamesNat 'King' ColeThe King Cole Trio and Ida James perform the title song in this Soundie.
- DirectorWarren MurrayStarsFats WallerHilda BrownVivian BrownSoundie performance by Fats Waller of this titular song accompanied by dancers and a very big hat.
- DirectorWarren MurrayStarsFats WallerHilda BrownMyra JohnsonFats Waller performs his classic hit accompanied by his big band and a bevy of beauties.
- DirectorWarren MurrayStarsFats WallerMyra JohnsonHilda Brown
- DirectorWarren MurrayStarsFats WallerAl CaseyVivian BrownFats Waller performs his hit surrounded by beautiful women in a 1940s version music video.
- DirectorRoy MackStarsNina Mae McKinneyThe Nicholas BrothersThe Washboard SerenadersBrutus Johnson, owner of the Porter Pullman Shoe Polish Company, sponsors the Porter Pullman Shoe Polish Variety Program on the Black Network Broadcasting Co. Mezzanine Johnson, Brutus' controlling wife, has her own views of what she would like to happen on the show, she who believes has the right since it is her father who put up the money for the business. Mezzanine wants to take over the lead female singer spot from Nina Mae McKinney. This news does not sit well with Brutus, who still cannot control what his wife does. It also does not sit well with either Nina or Emmett 'Babe' Wallace, her male counterpart, the two who see themselves as a team and who learn the news through the grapevine. As the show continues and Mezzanine plots her take-over, Nina Mae and Babe have to figure out what to do to save their spots and to save the show. Nina Mae and Babe may get some unwitting help from The Nicholas Brothers, who plan to audition for the amateur segment of the show but who sell lucky number tickets as their regular business, and the radio listening public.
- DirectorKing VidorStarsDaniel L. HaynesNina Mae McKinneyWilliam FountaineA sharecropper decides to become a preacher after falling for a vamp from the city.
- DirectorRoy MackStarsEubie BlakeNina Mae McKinneyThe Nicholas BrothersTwo boys eat a blackberry pie, then they and their mother are transported to a musical set where Eubie Blake and his band are playing some great jazz.
- DirectorArthur H. LeonardStarsNina Mae McKinneyJack CarterIda JamesSylvia Walton returns from Harlem to take over a Jamaican plantation from her vindictive half-sister, amid the growing sound of drums.
- DirectorArthur H. LeonardStarsJack CarterPearl BainsJames BaskettSinger Jimmy Williams' father Joe is a chemist who recently lost his job to George Elliott. Since then, Joe has been investigating the "Adam and Even" brand of canned goods sold in Harlem. Soon after Joe tells his friend, lawyer Stanley Jackson, that racketeers are forcing storekeepers to sell the rotten canned food, he is framed for the murder of George. When the police find cyanide in Joe's laboratory, they believe that it was used to kill George. Stanley tells Joe's wife Ida that she must get a job and fight for Joe's freedom, but when offered a job by "Lucky" John Simon, the head of the racketeers distributing the food, she refuses it. Jimmy, however, decides to take a job from Lucky and goes to the Trocadero, where he performs a song and dedicates it to his mother. When Joe's appeal fails, Stanley offers to quit as his lawyer because the only piece of evidence he has found to prove Joe's innocence, an Apex salt shaker, has led them nowhere. Ida, who knows that Lucky is fond of her, gathers evidence on her own, while Stanley agrees to join Lucky's racketeers as an undercover agent. At the Trocadero, Ida sings a song and then goes to Lucky's office, where she accepts his gift of pearls. Jimmy witnesses the act and, misunderstanding his mother's intentions, commits a minor theft in order to be jailed with his father. Stanley finally breaks the case when he learns that Lucky is a former owner of the Apex Café in St. Louis, and thus connects him with the salt shaker clue and with the murder. The police return Jimmy to the Trocadero, but when Stanley tells Lucky what he knows, Lucky abducts him and Jimmy and takes them to his estate, where he and the gang force Jimmy to pace back and forth without water. The police eventually arrive and rescue them, and Stanley gets the truth out of Lucky, who is exposed in the newspapers. Reunited, the Williamses proudly listen to their son sing a song on the radio.
- DirectorRichard C. KahnStarsZack WilliamsLaura BowmanAlfred GrantA newlywed couple is visited by a strange old woman who harbors a secret about the young girl's father.
- StarsDewey 'Pigmeat' MarkhamLillian RandolphJohnny TaylorA straight man comes over to three comedians and tells them how the only way to handle a woman is to treat her rough and make her like it.
- DirectorSam NewfieldStarsDewey 'Pigmeat' MarkhamJohn MurrayAlfred CortezShorty's wife throws him out of the house for lying around reading detective thrillers and letting his boss Pigmeat get away with not paying him for the work he does at Pigmeat's barber shop in Harlem. He runs into Pigmeat on the street and asks for the money he's owed, but Pigmeat winds up convincing him that not only does he not owe Shorty any salary, but he actually overpays Shorty $1.25 a week. Later, Shorty reads about a jewel thief on the loose in Harlem and that there's a reward of $1,000 for his capture. He convinces Pigmeat that the two of them can catch this guy, collect the reward and then become famous detectives. Complications ensue.
- DirectorSam NewfieldStarsDewey 'Pigmeat' MarkhamJohn MurrayPercy VerwayenPigmeat and Shorty, who own "Pigmeat and Shorty's Bootery", are told by their landlord to either pay up or get out. They get caught trying to short-count him, and he threatens to have them arrested. After a series of disasters--they ruin a customer's suit, their store blows up--they get a telegram notifying them that a man they once did a kindness for has left them quite a bit of money and a house, but in order to get the inheritance, they have to spend a night in the bedroom of the man's house. When they arrive there, they notice two things--the place is kind of creepy and a series of spooky incidents leaves them to believe the house is haunted.