Murder in Harlem

A mostly black cast, and made by an early black author, writer, director, producer. With frequent use of typed cards to move the story both forward and backward. Writer student henry glory falls for a girl while selling his book door to door. Later, when a dead body is found, the coppers are brought in to solve the mystery. And the girl's brother, a watchman, has been accused of the murder. Stars clarence brooks, andrew bishop, alec lovejoy. Written and directed by the team of micheaux and williams. Based on micheaux's own book, this describes an actual murder from 1913. Some really interesting information in the imdb trivia section. Gotta give this one high marks for script and production. Micheaux knew some of the acting wasn't top notch, and the picture quality is pretty bad, but we're lucky to have this around at all, for such an oldie film by a black writer director producer. Hopefully it can get a restoration, even if just for historical value. He was the first black producer of sound films, acc to several sources. Currently showing on roku streaming channel. Hopefully there is a better copy out there somewhere for a future restoration! For more information on micheaux, check out his entry in wikipedia dot org, or watch "oscar micheaux: the superhero of black filmmaking". Interesting guy! He really accomplished a lot, in spite of the conditions at the time.

This film was the inspiration for Micheaux to write 'The Story of Dorothy Stanfield' eleven years later. The story is actually about her husband, Nathan Stanfield, who is living in hard times as a black medical doctor. It touches some very sensitive issues.

Before watching this film and certainly before judging it, there are things you should bear in mind. First, the quality of the actual celluloid leaves much to be desired, and the film jumps in places. Secondly, although by 1935 blacks had already made an enormous impact on American popular culture, this was primarily through music. Oscar Micheaux, who made this, was a rarity, so although by 2015 standards this low budget monochrome leaves much to be desired, it was not a bad effort for the son of a slave, even if he had been making films for more than a decade.

Yes, the script is a bit wooden, and the extended absurd cameo at the beginning about the book salesman is superfluously irrelevant and then some, but this was based on Micheaux's own experience. The film itself is a thinly veiled reworking of the murder of Mary Phagan by Leo Frank. Although there have been repeated attempts over the past hundred years to absolve Frank of this crime and put the blame on his Negro sidekick, the complete documentation from the case has now been placed on-line, and it is difficult to conclude otherwise than that fanciful as Jim Conley's story may sound, he was telling the truth.

That being said, certain agenda-driven special interest groups continue to beat the drum of anti-Semitism, with the absurd implication that in 1913 a low class Negro was higher up the food chain than a white, college educated businessman. Those same mischief-makers were very active when this film was made, so it is possible that the twist in the end of the story was formulated by Micheaux to avoid problems with distribution.

The script is not tight, as there are unnecessary long parts and it is sometimes confusing. However, the general crime story is amusing and quite important, as it addresses serious issues together the parallel (and underdevelopped) love story: structural racism that make the black and the poor as being seen as suspucious and not owners of civil rights. Oscar Micheaux was a black pioneer in cinema in the United States, and his cinegraphy does matter. I may add that this particular film by him is much more interesting than most of the early mainstream white-made flicks produced in Hollywood under authoritarian Hays Code then and through subsequent years. The casting (mostly but not entirely black, what was interesting and unusual those years) has an acceptable, but not very skilled, performance. Sometimes, they seemed artificial and mechanic while saying their lines, and that includes the actors and actress in the leading roles: Clarence Brooks, Dorothy Van Engle and Andrew Bishop. There is, however, a great exception: Alec Lovejoy did a great job, with a very expressive and convincing performance, mostly as a comic relief but als with drama moments.

I believe that Oscar Micheaux is one of the most prolific and uncredited Director of our time. Today, many do not know about this African American Director who became the First Independent African American Movie Director. Oscar Micheaux had his own marketing machine when it came to production of his movies. Beginning in the 1920s, Oscar Micheaux began to create a new market, the African American movie goer.

Not only did he make "Murder in Harlem" on a shoestring budget, he also made movies that dealt with the era. Oscar Micheaux singlehandedly got African-American movie goers into the movie houses. Oscar Micheaux taught the new cinema goer what they should expect from a movie. Micheaux addressed African American life in his movies and gave the viewer something to be proud of. Yes, in some of his movies we saw characters such as Lincoln Perry (the lazy servant character), but we also saw strong professional characters such as: Robert Earl Jones (Father of Actor James Earl Jones),William Graves (The Attorney Actor), Lorenzo Tucker (Movie Heartthrob) and Francine Everett(Our African American Beauty).

Too some viewers, "Murder in Harlem" isn't one of Micheaux' best efforts, however, to me, Micheaux played to the themes of life in Harlem. Affluence and Poverty, Professional Life and the Underworld. Good vs. Evil. See this movie when you get a chance!!!