Author Archive: Retro

Oscar Micheaux’s all colored cast including Bee Freeman, Sol Johnson, Oscar Polk, “Slick” Chester

Gangster finds his business failing after an enthusiastic preacher comes to town. He takes compromising pictures of the preacher with some girls, with tragic results. Written by Spencer Williams, from a poem by James Weldon Johnson. Dir. Spencer Williams

Zou Zou tries to help her childhood friend prove his innocence after he’s accused of murder.

Old-time musical star Schyler Jarvis, now wealthy, is dying. His last act is a visionary plan for the future happiness of his son, swing bandleader Louis Jarvis, and Honey Carter, daughter of his long-lost love. But crooked lawyer Talbot has a nefarious scheme to get his hands on the Jarvis money. Plenty of swing from Louis Jordan’s Tympany Five.

Big city fellow travels to the wild West to clear himself of a murder charge.

An intimate look at life in the ghetto: Johnny Williams is a house painter who moonlights as a poet, struggling to financially and emotionally support his cancer-ridden wife Mattie. But times are tough and the poverty-troubled streets are even tougher, and it takes every ounce of Johnny’s love and courage for the couple to make it through their strife, finding redemption in the River Niger.

Louis Jordan and his Tympani Five play a gig at his alma mater, and ends up having to save the school from bankruptcy.

First film shot in South Africa. Stolen ‘magic money’ has strange effects on those who come in contact with it.

Songwriter finds sudden success and abandons his current life for high society.