As an 83 year old who passed Mr. Robeson in the hall of our quasi tenement dwelling in the early 50s, I still remember his broad shoulders and gracious smile bestowed on a scruffy white kid! Little did I know that as the first "authentic" Othello, on Broadway, he had seduced Uta Hagen/ Desdemona while leaving Jose Ferrer/Iago in the lurch. All the while fending off the H.U.A.C. lynch party! His embrace of Stalinist Russia was more than understandable: he was accorded respect by Uncle Joe! Anent the filmic "values." The East Coast obsolete filmic facilities were on a par with Hollywood "Poverty Row" productions.Oscar Michaux was adept on cobbling features from celluloid leavings of the studios. Anyone who deems Othello as technically "primitive" might take a gander at "Les Enfants du Paradis" produced under the nose of the Nazis or other "Continental" productions. The fact that forty lynchings followed the release attests to fact that somebody was "getting the Message"! Perhaps suspension of "disbelief" ought to be encouraged at University 101s! "Jeunes filles Rouges toujours plus belles! 'Nuff said!
Review of The Emperor Jones
