Search - Race Movies: Harlem Rides the Range/Moon Over Harlem/Big Timers/Dirty Gertie From Harlem, USA on DVD

Al F. (Librarian2012)
Reviewed on 1/22/2012...

Having purchased this movie several years ago, I finally sat down to watch it last week. With so many technological advances in the film industry, I was slow to view this movie because I knew it would be slow. The plots of the stories are predictable and without much added to the lines the actors/actress do not lend much to the movie. What makes this movie good is seeing the all African American cast and knowing the efforts that must have gone into the producers to make the film. Because budgets were scare during this time period, I applaud the efforts of the cast.

All singing, all dancing, all African American

Annie Van Auken | Planet Earth | 08/18/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

""Race movies," a genre unique to the United States between 1915 and 1947, were quite popular with black Southern audiences and in Northern industrial cities that had large African American communities. After the successful legal desegregation of the film industry in 1948, this type of movie vanished, literally. Today, only a fifth of the original 500 race films still exist.

SYNOPSES:

"Big Timers" - This musical short tells the story of a poor girl and her mother who don't want her well-to-do suitor to know of her humble status.

"Dirty Gertie From Harlem USA" - A Harlem club dancer hides from her backer/boyfriend in the Caribbean, where her seductive stage manner makes her a sensation at a local resort.

"Harlem Rides the Range" - A typical 'B' western with all the standard elements. There's a struggle over a radium mine, a frame-up, an escape, and of course, some music. Singing cowboy Herb Jeffries is accompanied here by the Four Tones and the Four Blackbirds.

"Moon Over Harlem" - Fragments of this movie have been lost, so it suffers a bit from lack of continuity. It's the story of a woman and daughter who fall victim to her new husband, a gangster with no redeeming qualities. While stealing from his bride the man lusts after his step-daughter.

A similar collection is Race Movies: The Girl in Room 20/Son of Ingagi/The Girl From Chicago/Lying Lips.

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Parenthetical numbers preceding titles are 1 to 10 viewer poll ratings found at a film resource website.

(???) Big Timers - Duke Williams/Lou Swartz/Gertrude Saunders/Stepin Fetchit/Tarzana/Moms Mabley (?)

(5.0) Dirty Gertie From Harlem USA (1946) - Francine Everett/Don Wilson/Spencer Williams/July Jones/Piano Frank

(5.7) Harlem Rides the Range (1939) - Herb Jeffries/Spencer Williams/Lucius Brooks/F.E. Miller/Clarence Brooks/The Four Tones

(4.5) Moon Over Harlem (1939) - Buddy Harris/Cora Green/Izinetta Wilcox/Earl Gough"

Race Movies

Richard C. Jones | 09/18/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"These movies won't be found on cable, and the stories are a little hokey, but they stand the test of time because the actors are doing their thing when there was a color split in Hollywood."