''Slaves'' is a 1969 American

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super- ...

directed by

Herbert Biberman Herbert J. Biberman (March 4, 1900 – June 30, 1971) was an American screenwriter and film director. He was one of the Hollywood Ten and directed '' Salt of the Earth'' (1954), a film barely released in the United States, about a zinc miners' st ...

. The film stars

Dionne Warwick Marie Dionne Warwick (; born December 12, 1940) is an American singer, actress, and television host. Warwick ranks among the 40 biggest U.S. hit makers between 1955 and 1999, based on her chart history on ''Billboards Hot 100 pop singles ch ...

(in her screen acting debut),

Ossie Davis Raiford Chatman "Ossie" Davis (December 18, 1917 – February 4, 2005) was an American actor, director, writer, and activist. He was married to Ruby Dee, with whom he frequently performed, until his death. He and his wife were named to the NAACP ...

, and

Stephen Boyd Stephen Boyd (born William Millar; 4 July 1931 – 2 June 1977) was a Northern Irish actor. He appeared in some 60 films, most notably as the villainous Messala in '' Ben-Hur'' (1959), a role that earned him the Golden Globe Award for Bes ...

Plot

Set in the 1850s South, the film follows Cassy and Luke, two black slaves who are sold to the sadistic plantation owner MacKay. He wants labor from the men and sex from the women. On this, he is determined to exploit both Cassy and Luke.

Cast

as Cassy *

as Luke *

as MacKay * Marilyn Clark as Mrs. Bennett * Nancy Coleman as Mrs. Stillwell *

Julius Harris Julius W. Harris (August 17, 1923 – October 17, 2004) was an American actor who appeared in more than 70 movies and numerous television series in a career that spanned four decades. Harris is best known for his roles in 1970s films such as '' ...

as Shadrach * James Heath as Luther *

David Huddleston David William Huddleston (September 17, 1930 – August 2, 2016) was an American actor. An Emmy Award nominee, Huddleston had a prolific television career, and appeared in many films including:'' Rio Lobo'', ''Blazing Saddles'', '' Crime Buste ...

as Holland *

Eva Jessye Eva Jessye (January 20, 1895 – February 21, 1992) was an American conductor who was the first black woman to receive international distinction as a professional choral conductor. She is notable as a choral conductor during the Harlem Renaissan ...

as Julie * Oscar Paul Jones as Zacharious * Aldine King as Emmeline *

Robert Kya-Hill Robert Kya-Hill ( Robert Hill; born December 4, 1930, Whitakers, North Carolina) is an American actor, director, playwright, musician, composer, and educator. He also performed under the name "Bob Hill". On learning that there was an actor with th ...

as Jericho * Gale Sondergaard as New Orleans Lady *

Shepperd Strudwick Shepperd Strudwick (September 22, 1907 – January 15, 1983) was an American actor of film, television, and stage. He was also billed as John Shepperd for some of his films and for his acting on stage in New York. Early years Strudwick was ...

as Mr. Stillwell *

Barbara Ann Teer Barbara Ann Teer (June 18, 1937 – July 21, 2008) was an American writer, producer, teacher, actress and social visionary. In 1968, she founded Harlem's National Black Theatre, the first revenue-generating black theater arts complex in the U.S. ...

as Esther

Release

The film opened at the

Hippodrome Theatre The Hippodrome Theatre, also called the New York Hippodrome, was a theater in New York City from 1905 to 1939, located on Sixth Avenue (Manhattan), Sixth Avenue between 43rd Street (Manhattan), West 43rd and 44th Street (Manhattan), West 44th St ...

in Baltimore on May 6, 1969. It was also entered into the

1969 Cannes Film Festival The 22nd Cannes Film Festival was held from 8 to 23 May 1969. At this festival a new non-competitive section called Directors' Fortnight was added, in response to the cancellation of the 1968 festival. The Grand Prix du Festival International d ...

Reception

It received negative reviews, but was one of

Continental Distributing ''Walter Reade'' was the name of a father and son who had an extensive career in the United States motion picture industry. Walter Reade Sr. Walter Reade, Sr. (1884–1952) was the man behind a chain of theatres which grew from a single theatre ...

's highest-grossing films. Lou Cedrone of the ''

Baltimore Evening Sun ''The Baltimore Sun'' is the largest general-circulation daily newspaper based in the U.S. state of Maryland and provides coverage of local and regional news, events, issues, people, and industries. Founded in 1837, it is currently owned by Tri ...

'', believed that "'Slaves,' ..is a strong film, one likely to inflame and maybe even enlighten. But it is also a very badly done film, and that's a pity because slavery, as it 'really was' in this country, is a story that should be told, but with much more finesse than is evident here". Cedrone added that the film "at times looks as though it might have been made during the

silent era A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, when ...

, so backward are the cutting, direction and framing." Clifford Terry of the ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...

'' dubbed the film "a kind of '

Uncle Tom's Cabin ''Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly'' is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in two volumes in 1852, the novel had a profound effect on attitudes toward African Americans and slavery in the U ...

Revisted'", opening his review by calling it "a horrendous box-office exploitation of a horrendous historical exploitation" and remarking that "everyone involved with the creation of this pitiful production deserves, at the minimum, a good, sound whupping." His successor,

Gene Siskel Eugene Kal Siskel (January 26, 1946 – February 20, 1999) was an American film critic and journalist for the '' Chicago Tribune''. Along with colleague Roger Ebert, he hosted a series of movie review programs on television from 1975 until his ...

, named the film as one of the worst to be released in 1969.

Bruce Vilanch Bruce Gerald Vilanch (born November 23, 1948) is an American comedy writer, songwriter and actor. He is a two-time Emmy Award-winner. Vilanch is best known to the public for his four-year stint on ''Hollywood Squares'', as a celebrity participan ...

of the ''

Detroit Free Press The ''Detroit Free Press'' is the largest daily newspaper in Detroit, Michigan, US. The Sunday edition is titled the ''Sunday Free Press''. It is sometimes referred to as the Freep (reflected in the paper's web address, www.freep.com). It primar ...

'' called the film "a cheap, poorly-executed, thinly-veiled plea for black militancy", noting that "in Hollywood's former days it would have been called a 'heavy meller,' or melodrama gone sour, but in 1969 it is just a shade above sheer exploitation." He added: Vilanch did, however, praise the performances of Davis and Warwick, the latter of whom was deemed "a very stylized singer who shows that her talents may not be confined to

Burt Bacharach Burt Freeman Bacharach ( ; born May 12, 1928) is an American composer, songwriter, record producer and pianist who composed hundreds of pop songs from the late 1950s through the 1980s, many in collaboration with lyricist Hal David. A six-time Gr ...

's arrangements."Vilanch, Bruce (July 4, 1969),
Dionne Warwick's Acting Debut in 'Slaves'
, ''Detroit Free Press'', p. 2-B. Kathleen Carroll's review of the film in the ''

New York Daily News The New York ''Daily News'', officially titled the ''Daily News'', is an American newspaper based in Jersey City, NJ. It was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson as the ''Illustrated Daily News''. It was the first U.S. daily printed in ...

'' contained simply five paragraphs: in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'',

Vincent Canby Vincent Canby (July 27, 1924 – October 15, 2000) was an American film and theatre critic who served as the chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' from 1969 until the early 1990s, then its chief theatre critic from 1994 until his death in ...

described the film as "a kind of cinematic carpetbagging project in which some contemporary movie-makers have raided the antebellum South and attempted to impose on it their own attitudes that will explain 1969 black militancy. The result, which opened here yesterday at the DeMille and neighborhood theaters, is a pre-fab 'Uncle Tom's Cabin,' set in an 1850 Mississippi where everybody—masters and slaves alike—talks as if he had been weaned, at best, on the Group Theater, and, at worst, on silent-movie titles." He added:

References

External links