Watchingwell                                                             Curated classic films

           

In honor of Black History Month, let’s not watch Gone with the Wind (1939, Selznick International, MGM), with its happy and loyal slaves -- except to recognize Hattie McDanielfor her Academy

Award winning accomplishment. 





But in recognizing her for winning a part of that epic film, let’s recognize some of the other black actresses who were relegated to playing maids in not-so-epic films.

Lillian Yarbo

Therese Harris

      Lillian Randolph                                  and her sister, Amanda Randolph

                             

Butterfly McQueen                      
                         
                          Louise Beavers

 and some of the black actors who were similarly restricted in their roles

Stepin Fetchit 

                                                 

                           

                              Fred "Snowflake" Toones

                                         

                                               

                                                                                             

                 Dooley Wilson

Mantan Moreland

                                                                 Willie Best

      

To see the variety of talent that is widely known only in modern times, take a look at these two musicals, both from 1943.

                                                                 

                                 

   

Also, appearing uncredited in nearly a dozen films, in scenes like this one, which was credited, in Down Argentine Way (1940, Twentieth Century-Fox).

The Nicholas Brothers

But for more serious viewing, there are a couple of films that have credited African-American actors but are not too well-known.  One is an unusual film from 1949 called Intruder in the Dust (Metro Goldwyn Mayer). 

It stars David Brian as a lawyer in a small southern town who is enlisted to defend a black man, played by Juano Hernandez, who plays a proud man who refuses to defend himself against a charge of murder. From a novel by William Faulkner, it pre-dates some of the themes of “To Kill a Mockingbird”, with Brian playing a southern lawyer with integrity, a kind of Atticus Finch, with supporting roles by the teen-aged Claude Jarmin Jr. whose character first approaches his uncle, the lawyer, to defend the man to whom he owes a debt, and a fine performance by Elizabeth Patterson as a woman of iron will and principle.

The other film is from 1990, a gem called To Sleep with Anger (SVS Films).  

If you only know Danny Glover from the Lethal Weapon films, you need to see this because his performance is nothing short of creepy in its subtlety.  The film was masterfully written and directed by Charles Burnett and all the performances in the film are excellent in this drama about the effects on a Los Angeles family when a mysterious acquaintance from their Southern hometown drops in for an unannounced visit.  It has the unique characteristic of being exclusively about this group of people relating to each other and not about them and the outside world.