''The Black King'' is a comedy-drama 1932 race film chronicling the rise and fall of a fictionalized

charismatic leader Charismatic authority is a concept of leadership developed by the German sociologist Max Weber. It involves a type of organization or a type of leadership in which authority derives from the charisma of the leader. This stands in contrast to two o ...

of a

back-to-Africa movement The back-to-Africa movement was based on the widespread belief among some European Americans in the 18th and 19th century United States that African Americans would want to return to the continent of Africa. In general, the political movement wa ...

, modeled on the life of

Marcus Garvey Marcus Mosiah Garvey Sr. (17 August 188710 June 1940) was a Jamaican political activist, publisher, journalist, entrepreneur, and orator. He was the founder and first President-General of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African ...

. The film was directed by

Bud Pollard Bud Pollard (born John Evelyn Godson; May 12, 1895 – December 17, 1952) was a Canadian-American film director, screenwriter, film producer and actor. Pollard is known for such films as ''It Happened in Harlem ''It Happened in Harlem'' is an ...

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. 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. While Garvey was a primarily a political leader with religious opinions, his counterpart in the film was primarily a preacher and religious leader. The film was intended to resonate with the audience's pre-existing disillusionment with Garvey.

History

''The Black King'' was written as a stage play by

Donald Heywood Donald Heywood (24 October 1896 – 13 January 1967) was a Trinidadian-born American songwriter, composer, writer and director. He is best remembered for composing "I'm Coming Virginia" in 1926, which became a hit for Ethel Waters. He became a pro ...

and plans were publicly announced to produce it on

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

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

in 1932. The film was re-released in the 1940s under the title, ''Harlem Big Shot''.

Cast

* A.B. DeComathiere as Charcoal Johnson * Vivianne Baber as Mary Lou Lawton * Knolly Mitchell as Sug *Dan Micahels as Brother Longtree *Mike Jackson as Brother Lawton * James Dunmore as Nappy * Harry Gray as Deacon Jones * Mary Jane Watkins as Mrs. Bottoms *Freeman Fairley as Mob Leader *Ishmay Andrews as Mrs. Ashfoot *Trixie Smith as Delta *Lorenzo Tucker as Carmichael

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". Kevin Thomas of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...

'' 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... ead actorA. B. Comathiere".

Citations

References

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External links

AllMovie

IMDB

Turner Classic Movies
{{DEFAULTSORT:Black King (film) 1932 films African-American cinema American black-and-white films Race films American comedy-drama films 1932 comedy-drama films 1930s American films 1930s English-language films