One Third of a Nation
The negligent owner of a tenement slum becomes romantically involved with one of the building’s residents. Future film director Sidney Lumet plays a key supporting role in this social-consciousness drama…
The Night Is Young
Young Austrian Archduke Paul “Gustl” Gustave is in an arranged engagement but his uncle, the emperor, decides to let Gustl carry on a fling with ballet dancer Lisl Gluck.
The Emperor Jones
Unscrupulously ambitious, Brutus Jones escapes from jail after killing a guard and through bluff and bravado he finds himself the emperor of a Caribbean island.
Ballet Mécanique
Ballet Mécanique (1923-4) is a Dadaist post-Cubist art film conceived, written, and co-directed by the artist Fernand Léger in collaboration with the filmmaker Dudley Murphy (with cinematographic input from Man…
St. Louis Blues
In this all-black cast short, legendary blues singer Bessie Smith finds her gambler lover Jimmy messin’ with a pretty, younger woman; he leaves and she sings the blues, with chorus…
Black and Tan
Duke Ellington plays hot jazz in a fictional story that finds him down on his luck; he tries in vain to dissuade his friend, dancer Fredi Washington, from working with…