Harlem Rides the Range

Routine '30s oater, notable only for having an all-black cast at a time when that was rare. The story is one you've seen a dozen times if you've watched enough B westerns from the period. Cowboys Herb Jeffries and Lucius Brooks stumble into a situation where a rancher is fighting to keep his ranch from being taken away from him by villains after radium or something. They decide to help the rancher, spurred on in no small part by the rancher's daughter one of them falls in love with. It's all very simple but not a bad way to pass an hour. There are a couple of songs, which are enjoyable in their corniness. The stunts are unimpressive and the acting fairly one-note. I will say that it is interesting to see black actors at the time being allowed to act 'normal,' rather than as put-on stereotypes like Willie Best or Mantan Moreland. The closest thing we get to that sort of thing here is Lucius Brooks' comic relief sidekick, but even that is restrained compared to what you would see in a mainstream film at the time.

They weren't supposed to be documentaries. lol So let's forget the "straining credulity" and "logistics" and "plot problems" and just settle down with some popcorn for an old-fashioned good time. This is Saturday matinée. You want something to put a smile on your face that makes you forget the horrors in the world--war, poverty, racism. You want a cinema universe with good music, perhaps some snappy dancing, beautiful gutsy women and handsome gutsy men, and gorgeous horses with streaming mane and tail galloping through exotic scenery in a part of the US most Americans had yet to explore. It's a fantasy land where good always triumphs over evil, mortgages always get paid, people aren't told they can't do something because of their skin color, and wittiness is woven throughout. In short, it isn't reality, which is just the way the audiences wanted it.

When we are introduced to the hero and sidekick I was strongly reminded of Cisco and Pancho in looks and humorous interchange. :) The two funny fellows in the movie play out a scene that might have come from a Charlie Chan, where Number One Son and black friend tear off in a panic. It might also be from an Abbot and Costello monster movie. Or any of the other early comedy acts when a none-too-bright fellow is confronted by something frightening. "Did you think you could run faster than your horse?" "The horse didn't see what I saw." tee hee Or the hero literally picking up the extremely capable heroine at the way station! Those western ladies were game for anything! My mother was a Great Plains lady of that era and she could handle a lot, too.

I'm not a big fan of early westerns, except maybe the Cisco Kid, but I found this series to be entertaining because of the comedy. As with musicals, I don't particularly care about the plot, which seems to be the way the writers felt about it! :)

Like most B picture westerns of the 30's and early 40's this film is slow beyond belief. For example, they spend maybe 2.5 minutes on a bad joke about dog food. The acting is rather bad as well.

And then there's the studio shot scenes with obvious painted backgrounds of the west. At the end of the day this is nothing more than a B picture.

The print I saw was really bad -- like it was a complete shade of grey and the sound was muffled. Can't imagine that's what it was like back in the day, but then who knows?

And one more thing. How is this so historical? It's a movie that was made for blacks like Shaft in the 70's or those dumb Madea movies. Should we say that the non all black cast movies of the same time period are historical because they were made for white people?

Wonder what would have happened if a white guy went into a black theatre back then to see this.

This all-black movie had the usual B-western qualities in both plot and action. There's a singing cowboy (Herbert Jeffrey) and his comic sidekick (Lucius Brooks), a love interest (Artie Young), bad guys (led by Clarence Brooks) trying to steal a radium mine, a frame-up, an all-too-easy escape, etc. I was not too impressed with Jeffrey as a cowboy, but he sings well, accompanied by The Four Tones, a group playing string instruments. But I enjoyed most the comedy of both Lucius Brooks and the ranch cook, F.E. Miller. The best sequence had them investigating a house where a murder may have been committed. Something scares them so badly they run all the way home, leaving their horses back at the house. And when they sit down, their boots are smoking. This funny bit made me laugh and feel guilty that I did so, because their behavior (fear and cowardice) was so stereotypical of some blacks in these early movies. But these so-called "race" films were made by blacks and intended for black audiences. They were very popular, proving that my guilt is really unfounded. When a bit is funny it knows no race boundaries.

Spencer William plays the character of Watson in this movie, but his name didn't mean anything to me. After seeing him in the movie I thought I recognized him from another role that greatly endeared him to me. Checking here at IMDb I wasn't surprised to see that he was none other than Andrew H. Brown, pal to and often the accomplice of George "Kingfish" Stevens of the old Amos 'n' Andy TV series.