Murder on Lenox Avenue

First of all, this IS NOT a murder mystery, despite the title. There is a murder committed, but it happens in the last minute or two of the film, and it's no mystery who did it as it's shown on screen. Black-cast films of the 30s and 40s are usually interesting to watch, even though they are usually on a technical level about one or two rungs below PRC or Monogram at their most threadbare. This one is no exception. There's some good swing music (and some bad syrupy numbers from a young lady singer), some good performances by Mamie Smith and whoever played the bartender (the scene where he makes a "brown bomber" drink is hilarious!), and interesting plot elements involving the small merchants of Harlem banding together against exploitation. However, the film is not well-paced, too much time is spent talking rather than acting, and some of the younger actors are a bit wooden. The great blues-vaudeville vocalist Mamie Smith, the true Mother of the Blues, is fantastic in her few songs (the one on the street when she is selling her pies, near the beginning of the film, is moving and bluesy) and in her acting. How great it would have been to see her performing on stage! Much of the crew and the cast of this film made another one called Sunday SINNERS the year before, which also features some exciting scenes with Mamie Smith. Speaking of PRC, director Arthur Dreifuss actually moved UP to PRC after making this film, directing some entertaining things such as THE PAYOFF with Lee Tracy and BOSS OF BIG TOWN with John Litel, and BABY FACE MORGAN with Richard Cromwell and Robert Armstrong. He then moved up to Columbia's B unit and did two good entries in the Boston Blackie series. He wound up working for Sam Katzman in the sixties doing Riot on Sunset Strip, The Love-Ins, and the Young Runaways. Co-screenwriter Vincent Valentini also scripted such exploitation classics as SEX MADNESS (a personal favorite of mine) and BOY WHAT A GIRL, starring Tim "Kingfish" Moore. MURDER ON LENOX AVENUE doesn't seem to be going anywhere, although the supporting characters are colorful (the hunchback assistant to the crooked Mr. Marshall) and Black-cast films are of historical and cultural worth. Mamie Smith fans, however, will not want to miss her in her final years--she was still in fine form and had a power and maturity to her performance. Since (to my knowledge) we have no actual performance footage of Ms. Smith, a film like this one is the best we can do today.

In watching movies involving people of color in chronological order for Black History Month, we're in 1941 with this "race film" featuring many musical moments from the likes of Mamie Smith and Edna Mae Harris who I previously enjoyed in The Green Pastures and Lying Lips. There's also a plot involving a Pa Wilkins (Augustus Smith who's a Jacksonville, FL native which is a city I once lived in) who wants his daughter to marry a certain man but she's in love with someone else. There's also a subplot about some kind of corruption but really the only enjoyable parts of this movie are the music and occasionally some comedy though I didn't think there was much that was funny. So on that note, Murder on Lenox Avenue is worth a look for the music and not much else.

A sad fact about movies in the USA, is that in many places, black patrons were not allowed in the same movie theaters...or were forced to sit in 'colored only' sections of theaters. Because of this, many urban theaters began opening up specifically for black audiences. But because these were mostly second-rate theaters, they couldn't afford many of the first-run movies. And, in some other cases, black Americans just wanted to see films featuring people like themselves. So this led to a small industry which produced movies exclusively for these theaters, though the budgets were minuscule for these 'race films' compared to the Hollywood movies of the day. And, for the most part, the films they made are pretty dreadful...well intended...but still very dreadful artistically speaking. One such film is "Murder on Lennox Avenue".

Wet clothes.

Despite the title, the murder takes a VERY long time to occur...only in the last minute of the movie. Until then, the plot concerns control of a business association for black businesses in Harlem. Some want control so they can exploit their fellow citizens, while others really want to make the organization a positive force in the community.

As I said above, most of these films, including this one, are pretty dreadful...mostly because the folks making the movies didn't have access to better writers, actors, directors and budgets. The only very positive thing I noticed in this film was the music. Otherwise, the acting seemed amateurish and the direction seemed lacking (at best). Not 100% terrible...but pretty bad.

Despite saying all this, I am very glad this and other race films still exist, as they are important historical and cultural documents. After all, how could we remember this cottage industry unless we watch and preserve these pictures?

Considering that it was made in 1941 without any major studio backing, don't expect very much in the way of professional Hollywood production standards. It would appear that many of the cast members had never been in front of a movie camera. On several occasions members of the cast can be seen breaking the "fourth wall" by looking into the camera. It also looks like several of the cast are reading from cue cards off camera. What was a point of interest was the dialog that called for a 'rallying around the race' as a point of pride. Not one of better "race movies" but worth the time to understand what it was like to be a black actor in 1941.

The direction is abysmal with little continuity of the plot line.

Murder on Lenox Avenue (1941)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

I'd be the biggest liar in the world if I told you that I knew what this movie was about. There seems to be at least four different story lines going on as well as various musical numbers. One subplot deals with a couple men fighting after who knows what. There's another subplot about a girl torn between two men and of course her father wants her to marry the one she doesn't love. Then there's some union propaganda going on to close things out.

MURDER ON LENOX AVENUE has the title and the poster of some sort of crime film but the crime doesn't happen until the closing seconds so I'm pretty sure people in 1941 were probably just as confused by this film as those watching it today would be. Basically this is another extremely low-budget race film that doesn't have too much going for it outside the fact that it might appeal to those who are interested in watching these types of movies.

The biggest problem with this one is that it has all the bad things that most of these movies have. That's the fact that there simply wasn't any sort of budget and very little talent involved. Not only that but you've also got a story-line that makes very little sense and there's no question that it's all over the place in regards to what it's trying to be about. There are a couple interesting music numbers and I'd also say it was interesting seeing the style of clothing that was being worn but outside of that there's not much here.