Oscar Micheaux, the go-to guy for film text-books needing an example on early independent Black cinema: the first Black to produce a silent feature; first to produce a Talkie; first to tackle race issues. (He also takes it on the chin for using light-skinned Blacks as romantic leads and darker ones for laborers and villains.*) Lots of cultural/political/social issues tied to this one-stop source. Less discussed is whether Micheaux was any good as a filmmaker. Of course, between lost titles and subfusc surviving film elements, it can be hard to tell. But even a tight budget needn’t mean stiff, formal dialogue. Letting characters come to dumb conclusions. Or choosing bad camera placements. Often, the best things on film are free. Edna Mae Harris stars as a nightclub singer who refuses to play after-hours good-time-gal to fat-cat friends of the owners, instead going home to find her Aunt murdered and herself set up for arrest. Yikes! It’s really an insurance scam and Edna, in spite of her protective lawyer/fiancé and top inner-city detective Robert Earl Jones (best thing in the film/father to you know who) stick to her side and eventually clear up the mystery. Odd how the after-hours plot disappears. But structure not Micheaux’s long suit. Instead, piece by piece, the story lands and you can just make out what gave Micheaux a long career and made him, at least historically, important.
SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: *It’s supposedly what got restauranteur Paula Dean in trouble with The Food Network execs: Light-skinned Blacks assigned to work ‘front of the house’; darker-skinned assigned to kitchen duty.
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