''The Girl from Chicago'' is a 1932 American

Pre-Code Pre-Code Hollywood was the brief era in the American film industry between the widespread adoption of sound in film in 1929LaSalle (2002), p. 1. and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code censorship guidelines, popularly known ...

drama film produced and directed by

Oscar Micheaux Oscar Devereaux Micheaux (; January 2, 1884 – March 25, 1951) was an author, film director and independent producer of more than 44 films. Although the short-lived Lincoln Motion Picture Company was the first movie company owned and controlled ...

, with an all-

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...

cast including lead actors Grace Smith and Carl Mahon. The story concerns a federal agent who falls in love while on assignment in

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

. He helps his lover escape a local thug, and the film follows them to Harlem where they become involved in the assassination of a Cuban racketeer, played by

Juano Hernández Juano G. "Juano" Hernández (July 19, 1896 – July 17, 1970) was a Puerto Rican stage and film actor who was a pioneer in the African American film industry. He made his silent picture debut in ''The Life of General Villa'', and talking pi ...

. Produced on a shoestring budget, this independent production featuring a largely non-professional cast, is known as one of the better-quality Micheaux productions. As it is common in Micheaux's films, the story line is padded with several musical numbers, offering a glimpse of African-American musical and dancing talent of the time.

Cast

* Grace Smith * Carl Mahon * Eunice Brooks *Starr Calloway *Edwin Cary * Dorothy Van Engle

Preservation status

*The film is preserved with a copy held in the Library of Congress collection.

DVD release

On May 26, 2009, a

Region 0 DVD region codes are a digital rights management technique introduced in 1997. It is designed to allow rights holders to control the international distribution of a DVD release, including its content, release date, and price, all according to ...

DVD of the movie was released by Alpha Video.''The Girl From Chicago'' DVD info
oldies.com; accessed July 28, 2015.

References

External links

* *
''The Girl from Chicago''
available for free download fro
Internet Archive
1932 films African-American films American black-and-white films Race films 1932 crime drama films Films directed by Oscar Micheaux American crime drama films 1930s English-language films 1930s American films {{1930s-crime-drama-film-stub