Written and Directed by Oscar Micheaux
Starring Lorenzo Tucker and Laura Bowman
USA, 1932
The concept of “passing” moves off the back burner and into the forefront for this next Oscar Micheaux film, in which a light-skinned Black layer, successfully passing as white, introduces his little sister to white society as well, even going so far as to set her up with Black servants. The drama here doesn’t come from the threat of being found out or whether or not this is any kind of betrayal, but from the fact that the sister is already in love with a darker-skinned Black man, and has to choose whether to return to him or marry herself off to a rich white guy.
Like many of Micheaux’s films, this one only exists in a truncated form, but it is again notable for giving itself over to singing and dancing when it runs out of plot, thus preserving some performances we wouldn’t have under other circumstances. In this case, at the climax of the movie, rather than focusing on plot, the movie is taken over by the afore-mentioned Black servants who put on a ten-minute show, which is by far the best part of the movie.
No comments:
Post a Comment