The Black King (film)

The Black King is a comedy-drama[1] 1932 race film chronicling the rise and fall of a fictionalized charismatic leader of a back-to-Africa movement, modeled on the life of Marcus Garvey. The film was directed by Bud Pollard.

This article is about the 1932 film. For the 2020 film, see Black Is King.
The Black King
Directed byBud Pollard
Written byMorris M. Levinson & Donald Heywood[1]
Starring
Edited byDal Clawson
Distributed bySouthland Pictures
Release date
  • July 1932 (1932-07)
[1]
Running time
72 minutes[1][3]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Themes

The Black King chronicles the rise and fall of a fictionalized charismatic leader of a back-to-Africa movement, satirizing the life of Marcus Garvey.[4][5] The film explores numerous critiques of Garvey's movement, including the lack of knowledge about Africa, the presumptuousness in making plans for future development and government in Africa without consultation of people already there, and conflicts between lighter skinned and darker skinned African Americans.[5] While Garvey was a primarily a political leader with religious opinions, his counterpart in the film was primarily a preacher and religious leader.[6][5] The film was intended to resonate with the audience's pre-existing disillusionment with Garvey.[4]

History

The Black King was written as a stage play by Donald Heywood and plans were publicly announced to produce it on Broadway directed by Russian choreographer Léonide Massine. This never took place. Instead, Heywood's story was adapted by Morris M. Levinson and it was produced as a film by Southland Pictures under white director Bud Pollard in 1932.[7] The film was re-released in the 1940s under the title, Harlem Big Shot.[5]

Reception

Daniel J. Leab, a 1975 commentator, rates it well as entertainment, saying it has "a more carefully plotted storyline than most other black genre films of its time".[5] Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times wrote in 1988 that despite the film's small budget, the film has "considerable scope and energy ... largely due to a dynamic, brutally comic burlesque of ... [lead actor] A. B. Comathiere".[4]

Citations
  1. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0022692/
  2. https://www.allmovie.com/movie/the-black-king-v5889/cast-crew
  3. "Collection: Films by Title: "B"". The Black Film Center/Archive. Indiana University Bloomington. Retrieved 6 May 2020.
  4. Thomas 1988.
  5. Leab 1975.
  6. Weisenfeld 2007, p. 138f.
  7. Weisenfeld 2007, p. 138.
gollark: Well, less time at work → more time for children. logic™.
gollark: Some jobs basically require that someone be there to do things at whatever times, rather than that someone perform some limited-in-scope task (say, retail).
gollark: Not all, though.
gollark: In many cases people would work *better* with less time, mostly in knowledge-work jobs.
gollark: I think it's more of a problem of our political/economic systems being oriented towards "we need jobs/working hours regardless of actual productivity".

References

Further reading
  • Gue, Randy (1996). "'It Seems That Everything Looks Good Nowadays, as Long as It Is in the Flesh & Brownskin': The Assertion of Cultural Difference at Atlanta's 81 Theatre, 1934–1937". Film History. 8 (2): 209–218. JSTOR 3815335.
  • Larson, Charles R. (1992). "The Black King Forgotten "Black?" Classic". Journal of Popular Film and Television. Informa UK Limited. 20 (2): 17–25. doi:10.1080/01956051.1992.9943965. ISSN 0195-6051.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
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