Public Domain Movies
Running Time: 87 mins Color
Starring: Richard Pryor, Fred Williamson, James Brown
A cowboy's crimes are blamed on another man.
Running Time: ## mins Black & White
Today's views on the subject of Amos 'n Andy.
Running Time: 89 mins Color
Starring: Calvin Lockhart, Richard Lynch, Charles McGregory, Joan Blondell, Gail Strickland, Raymond St. Jacques, Marlene Clark, Leonard Jackson, Samm Williams, George Faley, Beverly Johnson
Black actor tries to make his own movie with an all-black cast, but to make it he's forced to borrow money from the Mafia. Complications ensue.
Running Time: ## mins Black & White
Two Episodes! Both shows with Louise Beavers, Ernest Williams, Ruby Dandridge and Arthur Q. Bryan.
Running Time: 57 mins Black & White
Starring: Louis Jordan, Valerie Black, Frank Wilson.
Louis Jordan and his Tympani Five play a gig at his alma mater, and ends up having to save the school from bankruptcy.
Running Time: 90 mins Color
Starring: Richard Pryor, Stephen Boyd
A redneck officer is put in charge of a squad of black troops charged with taking an important bridge from the Nazis.
Running Time: 72 mins Black & White
Starring: A.B. Comathiere, Vivian Baber, Knolly Mitchell.
Comedy drama concerning a conman leading a bogus back-to-Africa movement who takes advantage of other blacks who think of him as their savior. Based on the life of Marcus Garvey.
Running Time: 87 mins Black & White
Starring: Dusty Fletcher, Jackie Moms Mabley.
Troubled theatrical boardinghouse serves as the backdrop for this musical revue.
Running Time: 69 mins Black & White
Starring: Tim Kingfish Moore, Gene Krupa (cameo).
Moore plays a producer who dons women's clothing to ensure that the show will go on! Can you picture Kingfish in drag??? Don't miss it!
Running Time: 60 mins Black & White
Starring: Clarence Muse, Sybil Lewis, William Washington.
After an accident limits the use of his left hand, a concert violinist becomes a music teacher and constantly clashes with his swing-loving son.
Running Time: ## mins Black & White
All-black burlesque feature starting the great Pigmeat Markham and a bevy of stripper, dancers and music from the great old days of Harlem.
Running Time: 78 mins Black & White
Starring: Amos And Andy, Freedman Gosden, Charles Correll
Typical Amos 'n Andy storyline has the boys trying to make ago of their "open-air" taxi business while they get caught up in asociety hassle, involving driving musicians to a fancy party. Allthe regular characters are here (or mentioned), including thefamous Mystic Knights of the Sea. The only film appearance of radio's long-running characters.
Running Time: 60 mins Black & White
Starring: Nina Mae McKinney, Jack Carter, Ida James.
Comedy-drama set in Jamaica as a voodoo high priestess clashes with her innocent half-sister over their late father's plantation.
Running Time: 60 mins Black & White
Starring: Francine Everette, Spencer Williams.
Gertie goes to Trinidad to hide out from her jilted boyfriend. An all-black Caribbean island resort welcomes flashy dancer Gertie La Rue, forced to perform in this remote spot becauseshe two-timed Al, her Harlem lover and backer, once too often.As Gertie amuses herself by dazzling the local men with her sexappeal, sanctimonious Mr. Christian (shades of 'Rain') schemesto either reform her or have her thrown off the island. On opening night, her sensuous performance exceeds Christian's worst fears...but more serious trouble awaits. Based on the W. Somerset Maugham novel, "Rain".
Black & White
Starring: Don Wilson, Francine Everett
Gertie flees New York City, running from an old boyfriend, and finds herself on the island of Trinidad.
Running Time: 60 mins Black & White
Starring: Monte Hawley, Jeni Le Gon, Freddie Jackson.
Shifty hood robs a jewelry store and tries to pin the crime on his rival.
Running Time: 72 mins Black & White
Starring: Paul Robeson
Rise and fall of a railroad poerter whose exploits take him from a life sentence on a chain gang to self-declared Emperor of Haiti.
Running Time: 65 mins Black & White
Starring: Ralph Cooper, Gladys Snyder, Monte Hawley.
Two gangs fight for the control of profits from New York's jukebox business. Dir. Bill Karn.
Running Time: 70 mins Black & White
Starring: Carl Mahon, Star Calloway, Eunice Brooks.
Secret service agent falls in love while on assignment in Mississippi, but must clear his lover's name when she is arrested for the murder of a numbers racketeer.
Running Time: 63 mins Black & White
Starring: Geraldine Brock, Judy Jones, Spencer Williams, R. Jore
A rural girl comes to the big city to pursue a singing career, and is befriended by paternal cab drivers and down-and-out show troupers, and preyed upon by an adulterous pimp.
Running Time: 60 mins Black & White
Starring: Spencer Williams, Myra D. Hemmings, Samuel H. James, Eddy L. Houston, Amos Droughan.
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
Running Time: 65 mins Black & White
Starring: Alice B. Russell, Jacqueline Lewis, Ethel Moses.
Controversial story about a light-skinned black woman whose resentment of her heritage leads to tragedy. Dir. Anthony Mann.
Running Time: 58 mins Black & White
Starring: Herbert Jeffrey, Spencer Williams, jr., Artie Young.
Exciting western saga of singing cowboy who outsmarts the outlaws who stole the deed to a uranium mine. Dir. Otto Brower.
Running Time: ## mins Black & White
Starring: Duke Ellington, Nipsey Russell, Herb Jeffries, Nat King Cole, Mantan Moreland, Lionel Hamptom and more
Showtime at the Apollo
Running Time: 72 mins Black & White
Starring: Cab Calloway, Ida James, Jeni Le Gon, William Campbell, Virginia Girvin, Augustus Smith.
Cab Calloway plays himself in a plot about jealousy, night clubs, and gangsters. Ends with a series of musical numbers. All-black cast. Must see for this genre. Lots of jazz numbers highlight this story of a bandleader who is caught between his resourceful lady manager and his jealous girlfriend who's put out a gangland hit on him. Songs include: "Minnie's a Hepcat Now", "Hey Now!", "Bop Bop", "At Dawn Time", "Don't Falter at the Altar" & more. Dir. Josh Binney
Running Time: 77 mins Black & White
Starring: Jackie Robinson
Biography of Jackie Robinson, first black man to play major league baseball. he U.C.L.A. athlete who became the "Most Valuable Player" in the National League. Good Documentary.
Running Time: 56 mins Black & White
Starring: Cab Calloway, Rudy Valle, Red Nichols, Duke Ellington, Mills Brothers, Louis Armstrong, Peggy Lee, Ina Rae Hutton, Russ Morgan, Louis Prima, Bob Crosby, Betty Hutton
Art Gilmore narrates an assemblage of jazz greats
Running Time: 88 mins Black & White
Starring: Paul Stewart
Biography of famed boxer Joe Louis who rose from depression era poverty to a world champion. "The Brown Bomber" from the early 1930s to his comeback fight in 1951. Dir. Robert Gordon
Running Time: 90 mins Color
Starring: Fred Williamson, Calvin Bartlet
A black soldier returns from fighting for the Union in the Civil War only to find out that his mother has been murdered by a gang of white thugs. He becomes a bounty hunter, determined to track down and kill the men who killed his mother.
Black & White
Starring: Spencer Williams
Hitch-hiking conmen Bad News Johnson and July Jones arrive in a Midwestern small town with a capital of 25 cents. Taking a room with Mama Lou, whose daughter is entered in a local beauty contest, they pose as Hollywood actors who can train Honey Dew in stagecraft. Meanwhile, Mama's other daughter Florida prepares to elope to Chicago with Johnny, owner of the Juke Joint...where, after a jitterbug contest, Mama herself takes a hand.
Running Time: 70 mins Black & White
Starring: Bob Howard, Pigmeat Markham, Wyatt Clark, Noble Sissie.
Rollicking entertainment with great dancing, plenty of laughs, and hot music.
Running Time: 70 mins Black & White
Starring: King Cole Trio, Dusty Fletcher, Jackie Moms Mabley, Butterfly McQueen, Moms Mabley, King Cole Trio, Andy Kirk.
Topnotch variety show with a superior all-star cast. Dir. Lewis D. Collins.
Running Time: 80 mins Black & White
Starring: Paul Robeson
Fortune hunter Patrick O'Brien has left his daughter Kathy and guide Umbopa to trek across the desert in hopes of finding the fabled diamond mines of Solomon. This first version of H. Rider Haggard's 1884 novel has a wonderful cast (Paul Robeson, Cedric Hardwicke, Anna Lee, Roland Young and John Loder) and excellent production values.
Running Time: 64 mins Black & White
Starring: Louis Jordon, Monte Hawley, Suzette Harbin.
Two Gun Jordan saves a dude ranch from foreclosure.
Running Time: 70 mins Black & White
Starring: Edna Mae Harris, Carmen Newsome, Earl Jones.
Young nightclub singer Harris is framed for murder, and inexperienced detective Newsome must clear her name. Dir. Harry Fraser.
Running Time: 63 mins Black & White
Starring: Tommy Machaka, Harriet Qubeka.
First film shot in South Africa. Stolen 'magic money' has strange effects on those who come in contact with it.
Running Time: ## mins Black & White
Starring: Georgia Kelly, Hugo Martin - Written & Directed by Spencer Williams
Running Time: 85 mins Color
Starring: Sidney Poitier
The man called Obam (Sidney Poitier) struggles with the increasingly hostile forces facing each other in a colonial African country. The African natives want their land and lives back from the British colonists. Obam's motives are questioned by his own people, in particular his brother Kanda (Clifton Macklin). With the help of his wife Renee (Eartha Kitt) and missionary Bruce Craig (John McIntire), will he be able to get things under control before the country self-destructs?
Running Time: ## mins Black & White
Starring: Frances Redd
Running Time: 70 mins Black & White
Starring: Stepin Fetchit, Sheila Guyse.
When a gang tries to take over a candy shop and their leader is killed, evidence points to the shop owner's daughter.
Running Time: 60 mins Black & White
Starring: Nelle Hill, George Oliver, Skippy Williams and his Jazz Band.
Thriller about a murder that takes place in a nightclub which may have connections to a singer's boyfriend, an escaped con.
Running Time: 75 mins Black & White
Starring: Bud Harris, Nora Green, Izinetta Wilcox.
Tragic story of a widow who marries a fast-talking, morally bankrupt gangster.
Running Time: 102 mins Black & White
Starring: Clarence Brooks, Laura Bowman
A black night watchman at a chemical factory finds the body of a murdered white woman. After he reports it, he finds himself accused of the murder.
Running Time: 57 mins Black & White
Starring: Bob Howard.
Crime drama where a reporter tries to get the story on a notorious gangster.
Running Time: 85 mins Black & White
Starring: Mamie Smith, Frank Wilson.
A look at the life of black entertainers before WWII. Dir. Joseph Kane.
Running Time: 67 mins Black & White
Starring: Louis Jordan And His Band
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.
Running Time: 105 mins Color
Starring: James Earl Jones, Lou Gossett
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.
Running Time: 98 mins Black & White
Starring: Paul Robeson, Leslie Banks, Nina May McKinny
African chief helps a British Commissioner to put down a rebellion, leading to him being crowned a king. Features actualy native rituals performed by genuine tribesman. Robeson even sings in this.
Running Time: 67 mins Black & White
Starring: Sheila Guyse, Ruble Blakey.
Songwriter finds sudden success and abandons his current life for high society.
Running Time: 65 mins Black & White
Starring: Zack Williams, Laura Bowman, Spencer Williams.
Lonely ape-man kidnaps a woman in an attempt to find love. Dir. G.M. Anderson and Jesse J. Robbins.
Running Time: 64 mins Color
Starring: Savannah Churchill, Jimmy Wright, Billie Allen
Unsuccessful gambler 'Dollar Bill' Burton lives in a crummy New York basement room with old friend Bob and a new roommate, friendly blues singer 'Alabama' Lee. But, tired of being broke, Dollar Bill gets more steady employment...doing illegal errands for gangster Bad Boy George. The now prosperous Bill ignores pretty, adoring Etta and takes up with sultry singer Regina. Will Bill's way of life catch up with him? Will his upright friends be more successful in the end? All-black cast.
Starring: Lena Horne
Running Time: 65 mins Black & White
Starring: Mamie Smith, Frank Wilson.
Minister's son wants to clean up the mean streets of the city and is framed for murder in the process. Dir. Raymond K. Johnson.
Running Time: 70 mins Black & White
Starring: Cora Green, Hazel Diaz, Larry Seymour.
Musical love story that follows the relationship of philandering husband and his naive wife.
Running Time: 60 mins Black & White
Starring: Paul Robeson
A profile of Paul Robeson (1898-1976), the controversial actor, singer, athlete and author who was as well-known for his politics as he was for his performances.
Running Time: 60 mins Black & White
Starring: Laurence Chenault, A.B. Comathiere, Laura Bowman.
Two suspense stories that deal with trouble and treachery in the world of Harlem after dark.
Running Time: 60 mins Black & White
Starring: Herbert Jeffrey, Mary Whitten, Mantan Moreland, Spencer Williams, jr.
Big city fellow travels to the wild West to clear himself of a murder charge.
Running Time: ## mins Black & White
Oscar Micheaux's all colored cast including Bee Freeman, Sol Johnson, Oscar Polk, "Slick" Chester
Running Time: ## mins Black & White
Lorenzo Tucker, known as the black Valentino