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Post by marshamae on Jan 22, 2021 14:38:27 GMT
A key moment in the history of African Americans in cinema was in IN THE HEAT IF THE NIGHT, when Larry Gates slaps Sidney Poitier and Poitier slaps him back.
i am watching ANY NUMBER CAN PLAY a 1949 Clark Gable film with Caleb Peterson as a houseman in a gambling palace. His jobs are serving and cleaning, but he seems to be on equal terms with the other employees, the dealers, pit bosses and accountants. They all have a fierce loyalty to Gable. Peterson speaks in a natural Black accented voice rather than a step n fetch it comic dialect. The most impressive moment of push back comes when two villains insist on calling him George, a leftover from the days when White men called all train porters George, as though they did not have personal names . Peterson protests, at first calmly, then more firmly. When the two villains are overcome and thrown out of the club, Peterson yells “ Good Night , GEORGE “ after them. It’s a surprisingly natural performance , with the Black character, despite his subservient position, refusing to accept humiliating insults.
i am wondering about other Pre 1967 moments when Black characters are shown pushing back at ill treatment, speaking in natural voices, having a life of their own away from the white characters.
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Post by mattgarth on Jan 22, 2021 15:03:01 GMT
Not certain if it fits the challenge completely, but here goes:
THE OX-BOW INCIDENT: reluctant posse member 'Sparks' (Leigh Whipper) stands alone in the voting of whether to hang or not hang.
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Post by marshamae on Jan 22, 2021 15:28:33 GMT
Perfect example! I really am not going for films where the Black character is destroyed for standing up. Nor an I especially interested in the sassy nanny type characters so often played by Louise Beavers and Hattie McDaniel. Wonderful as they are, it is another stereotype, even though these characters took some risks to speak their mind.
One I am wondering about is the character of Perry in In This Our Life. He spoke standard English, he hoped to become a lawyer at a time when you read law and clerked until you were ready to take the bar exam. He spoke white English ( not happy with the term standard English) at a time when to do so in the South could be construed as uppity and might get you lynched. He is never treated as an equal and even after the real killer’s confession, it seems unlikely that he will go free. Perry seems like the classic Black victim, whose story arc can only go down , no matter how promising it is at tge start. But he is still a brave , hopeful figure, a rarity for black men in film, not just there to throw a few jokes.
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Post by Isapop on Jan 22, 2021 17:10:48 GMT
i am wondering about other Pre 1967 moments when Black characters are shown pushing back at ill treatment, speaking in natural voices, having a life of their own away from the white characters. I've never seen Home Of The Brave (1949), have you?
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Post by mattgarth on Jan 22, 2021 17:38:47 GMT
Yep ... seen it -- and a good choice there, Isapop.
And yet -- actor Edwards wound up playing George C. Scott's dresser in PATTON.
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Post by Isapop on Jan 22, 2021 18:15:57 GMT
Yep ... seen it -- and a good choice there, Isapop. And yet -- actor Edwards wound up playing George C. Scott's dresser in PATTON. That's it! I knew I recognized him!
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Post by kijii on Jan 22, 2021 18:51:15 GMT
A key moment in the history of African Americans in cinema was in IN THE HEAT IF THE NUGHT, when Larry Gates slaps Sidney Poitier and Poitier slaps him back. i am watching ANY NUMBER CAN PLAY a 1949 Clark Gable film with Caleb Peterson as a houseman in a gambling palace. His jobs are serving and cleaning, but he seems to be on equal terms with the other employees, the dealers, put bosses and accountants. They all have a fierce loyalty to Gable. Peterson speaks in a natural Black accented voice rather than a step n fetch it comic dialect. The most impressive moment of push back comes when two villains insist on calling him George, a leftover from the days when White men called all train porters George, as though they did not have personal names . Peterson protests, at first calmly, then more firmly. When the two villains are overcome and thrown out of the club, Peterson yells “ Good Night , GEORGE “ after them. It’s a surprisingly natural performance , with the Black character, despite his subservient position, refusing to accept humiliating insults. i am wondering about other Pre 1967 moments when Black characters are shown pushing back at ill treatment, speaking in natural voices, having a life of their own away from the white characters. I just saw ANY NUMBER CAN PLAY, again, this morning on TCM. I think it is a very good movie that doesn't get enough mentioned. Most of the cast members seem to be MGM regulars (although I identify Mary Astor as a Warner Broth performer). I was surprised to see that this story is based on a novel rather than a play since its has that "play-like feeling about it--all characters "essentially" in one room (Clark Gable's casino).
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Post by kijii on Jan 22, 2021 19:17:17 GMT
Not exactly a "pushing back" moment, but Juano Hernandez stands "very TALL," and with his own voice, in Intruder in the Dust (1949) / Clarence Brown based on a William Faulkner novel.
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Post by mattgarth on Jan 22, 2021 19:56:32 GMT
Adding the 1955 Glenn Ford film TRIAL to Hernandez as the sitting judge.
But then the following year he turns up as Ford's butler in RANSOM!
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Post by mikef6 on Jan 22, 2021 22:26:11 GMT
Not exactly a "pushing back" moment, but Juano Hernandez stands "very TALL," and with his own voice, in Intruder in the Dust (1949) / Clarence Brown based on a William Faulkner novel. That was going to be my choice. An excellent performance by Hernandez.
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Post by mikef6 on Jan 22, 2021 22:30:57 GMT
Yep ... seen it -- and a good choice there, Isapop. And yet -- actor Edwards wound up playing George C. Scott's dresser in PATTON. fans will recognize Edwards from Kubrick's "The Killing" (1956) and "The Phenix City Story" (1955) as the man whose six or seven year old daughter is murdered by the gangster/racists. That scene shocked me. This must be a very early film to show a close-in shot of a dead child. Edwards gets to bring one of the killers to justice but holds back from killing him, although he wants to.
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Post by marshamae on Jan 22, 2021 23:15:45 GMT
JAMES Edwards is one of the first actors to come to mind. No one has mentioned his turn in MANCHURIAN candidate as one of the men on the patrol who reports horrid dreams taking place at a small hotel with a meeting of the Women’s garden club. There is the brilliant presentation of the same Russian and Chinese officials presented in Edwards dream as Black Women having a meeting. It was a revelation to me. Of course in his dream the women would be Black but it never before occurred to me. They spoke like Black working women, not Harvard graduates or comic aunt jemimas.
Edwards has another nice bit at the very beginning when LAWRENCE Harvey busts into the bordello to cut short their night of relaxation. It is Edwards who leads the complaints, directed forcefully at Harvey. Edwards is a corporal so he had more authority than the other men, unusual in films before the mid 50’s.
Finally, when Frank Sinatra gets the attention of his superiors, the psychiatrist who advises the committee on brain washing, is played by Joe Adams, an LA DJ , actor and manager of Ray Charles. A Tuskegee airman, he was charming and erudite, with Broadway and film credits. He was considered the hottest radio personality in Southern California. Here not only did he handle the psychological dialogue smoothly, he had a very interesting on screen relationship with Sinatra, taunting him a bit, well informed and supportive without in any way being subservient. Sinatra’s performance was completely relaxed as though they were friends, which they probably were in real life.
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Post by mattgarth on Jan 22, 2021 23:35:09 GMT
Also including Canada Lee:
The stoker on LIFEBOAT
Garfield's trainer in BODY AND SOUL
The Reverant in CRY THE BELOVED COUNTRY
A victim of the Blacklist of the 1950s
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Post by marshamae on Jan 22, 2021 23:36:51 GMT
It is a sad fact in the industry that Black actors , despite break out performances in major films could end up back playing slaves, servants, gangsters and hookers, the roles they are trying to get away from. Even Sidney Poitier, after appearing in Edge of the City and The defiant ones, was forced into Porgy and Bess when he was told if he turned Sam Goldwyn down, his film career was probably over.
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Post by mattgarth on Jan 22, 2021 23:52:28 GMT
Harry Belafonte had a limited film career.
But he did shine in two films in the 1950s:
ISLAND IN THE SUN (1957)
ODDS AGAINST TOMORROW (1959)
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Post by bravomailer on Jan 23, 2021 1:45:08 GMT
Yep ... seen it -- and a good choice there, Isapop. And yet -- actor Edwards wound up playing George C. Scott's dresser in PATTON. Edwards played GIs quite often, including Pork Chop Hill. And Sidney Poitier played a black NCO during the Korean War in All the Young Men (1960). The issue of race is there but I've never seen it. Woody Strode (also in Pork Chop Hill) plays a black NCO in Sergeant Rutledge (also 1960) who is put on trial for rape.
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Post by teleadm on Jan 23, 2021 21:53:38 GMT
Rex Ingram, he had already played De Lawd and Genie in the Lamp and would later play Lucifer. As I watched the very entertaining The Talk of the Town 1942, though the situation at hand makes his character look perplexed and confused as Ronald Colman's personal butler, he appears as a thinking and intelligent man, with a dignified voice, and far from the rolling'eyes screaming and yelling stereo types I've seen before, and it was a revelation.
The Walking Hills 1949, at the wrong side of the Mexican border, Josh White sings in a bar with a guitar. Once the story get's rolling and moves into the Death Valley sand dunes, there is so much tension among the "caucasians" as it is, exept for maybe once his skin color is mentioned, and is treated as an equal as they dig dig dig in the sands that might have been just an elusive dream.
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Post by mattgarth on Jan 24, 2021 1:27:13 GMT
Ingram also excellent in SAHARA (1943).
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Post by BATouttaheck on Jan 24, 2021 1:38:29 GMT
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Post by BATouttaheck on Jan 24, 2021 1:43:04 GMT
Also including Canada Lee: The stoker on LIFEBOAT
Garfield's trainer in BODY AND SOUL The Reverant in CRY THE BELOVED COUNTRY
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