St. Louis Blues

This short subject made right at the beginning of the talkie era is the only film featuring the legendary blues singer Bessie Smith. The skimpy plot of this film has Bessie's no good gambling man being caught by Bessie in the arms of Isabel Washington. As this slick crapshooting man leaves Bessie she breaks into her lament, the St. Louis Blues.

After which there's a large production number where the Hall Johnson Choir is used in a large production number which while not done with the kind of values that Busby Berkeley had still was quite good. I'm sure the black cinema people who made this film at RKO didn't have a tenth of what Berkeley spent in 42nd Street.

Thank God this treasure was preserved.

The only surviving footage of Bessie Smith "St. Louis Blues" is a fascinating glimpse at a legend and the world she lived in. Featuring a storyline painfully mirroring Smith's own personal life the short film is an interesting glimpse at black American life at the dusk of the Jazz Age. Despite the erratic nature of the film with its sketchy pacing and music it truly is a marvel to glimpse and hear Smith at her peak. Tall and slim with an amiable yet murky countenance brimming with the anger and violence she was known for her clear, stentorian and forceful voice transcends time with the one of a kind magic that elevates her music above her time. A marvel for history, music and posterity this is a must see for all lovers of art, history and culture.

See why Bessie Smith was called the "Empress of the Blues" in this early sound short. An actress she was not, but the power and expression conveyed in her singing voice as she belts out the W.C. Handy composition of the title track is incredible. This film also gives you a rare glimpse of the talent of Jimmy Mordecai. One could only imagine what they could have accomplished had they been given the opportunity afforded other actors of their time.

Bessie Smith was known as the 'Empress of the Blues.' The singer emerged as one of the most major influences in American blues as well as one of the country's premier jazz vocalists during her era.

Smith appeared in only one film, a two-reeler, November 1929's "St. Louis Blues." The short's plot was based on one of the most recorded songs in history (over 2,200). Directed by Dudley Murphy and filmed in Astoria, Queens, New York, Smith was the rare cross-over artist who appealed to both blacks and whites when segregation was still entrenched in the United States.

The film follows the lyrics of W. C. Handy's 1914 "St. Louis Blues" about a deserted woman whose ex's "got a heart like a rock cast in de sea." In the movie, Bessie discovers her boyfriend (Jimmy Mordecai) making out with another woman (Isabelle Washington) in Smith's rented room. Bessie beats up the woman as her boyfriend splits. Later, Bessie catches up with him in a speakeasy. The two dance, only to have the boyfriend dip into her pocket to steal her bankroll. She laments the way her boyfriend treats her, singing the Handy song which showcases her wide vocal range.

Movie reviewer Mark Cantor labeled the movie "St. Louis Blues" as a 'foundational film' in the canon of jazz and blues which is luckily preserved. It was the pioneer of the short movie format that introduced black jazz and blues artists to the screen, including Mamie Smith, Noble Sissle, Eubie Blake, Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway and Duke Ellington. Smith's life ended tragically at the age of 43 when she died in 1937 as a passenger in a fatal automobile accident. For future generations, "St. Louis Blues" gives a invaluable record of her impactful singing talents.

This sloppy, unstructured two reeler featuring a diamond in the rough, blues singer Bessie Smith, is a it of a bumpy buggy ride but it does lay claim to having the only visual recording of the finest female blues singer outside of Billie Holliday.

Slick Jimmy the pimp is quite a rascal around the ladies but Bessie can't quit him. Caught philandering again Bess beats the woman and Jim walks. Drowning her melancholy in beer, Jimbo reappears to the delight of the locals, busts same energetic moves and takes her for a ride again.

Blues bustles with activity from a crap game to a jumping nightclub where customers and waiters camp it up while Bessie broods. She is indeed the jewel in the crown in the picture but there are also jazz giants (James P. Johnson, Thomas Morris) as well as Johnson Hall's Choir lending support to this unevenly edited, music explosion of rare and only filmed recording of The Empress of Blues.

An orphan street performing before 10, killed in a car crash at the height of her career, bisexual Smith's tempestuous personal life probably had a Jimmie or two in it as well. If anyone had the reason to sing the blues it was certainly the tragic Smith. A must for anyone interested in the history of American music.