The Black King

In the 1920s to the mid-1950s, there were quite a few small film production companies which made movies for specifically black audiences. Considering many theaters in the States were NOT integrated, this made sense, as black-owned theaters needed to show SOMTHING...and just showing white Hollywood productions didn't make much sense. The problem, however, with most of these films is that the production quality was generally very low...and acting was often rather poor. This is certainly understandable as the budgets were small and the companies simply couldn't afford to make higher quality movies. Because of this, you should remember this as you watch "The Black King"...it lacks stars and the sound quality is poor (though it DOES have closed captions...and I recommend you use them). But that does NOT mean you shouldn't watch it, as it is interesting from a cultural and historical perspective.

"The Black King" must have been inspired by the work of Marcus Garvey during the 1920s. He pushed for black pride, black-owned businesses and talked about a 'Back to Africa Movement'...and his Black Star Line ships were supposed to take black Americans to visit or settle in Africa...something which never came to be.

In "The Black King", a Baptist church realizes their preacher is elderly and well past his peak, so they hire a fiery young preacher. The new preacher champions a Back to Africa Movement...but ultimately he turns out to be a crook*. His plan, however, definitely smacks of Garveyism...including buying ships to return black Americans to their ancestral roots

This film turned out to be what I expected...mildly interesting with low production values. But as a former history teacher, I like these sorts of movies as they give insight into the times. But most WON'T be as interested and it would be nice if someone would make a better quality film about the same subject matter. Plus, I would hope in a remake that they'd choose some more sensitive names, as this movie has a character named 'Charcoal Johnson' and another named 'Nappy'....yikes!

*Garvey was accused by the federal government of essentially creating a Ponzi Scheme to sell his Black Star Line and he was jailed and then soon expelled from the USA...returning to the country of his birth, Jamaica. Some considered him a crook...some just a bad businessman with good intentions. To find out more about him and his organization, try watching the "American Experience" documentary "Marcus Garvey: Look for Me in the Whirlwind".

This was one of those "race" movies I just stumbled into on Prime Video. It's about a loud-mouthed con man who gets himself to become a deacon of a church which leads him to bigger things. I'll just stop there and just say that while the soundtrack was quite ragged considering its age, I did see some of the charisma of A. B. DeComathiere that seemed to contribute to why the people on the screen seemed to follow his every word of whom among those people would be including was leading lady Vivienne Baber whose character is torn between him and her morally good (and good-looking) other boyfriend Lorenzo Tucker who plays an attorney who's the opposite of DeComathiere. In summary, The Black King was pretty entertaining if not always easy to understand because of the not-always-clear soundtrack.

The movie is fair. What kept my attention mostly was Vivienne Baber and her exotic attractiveness, sleek presence, and her pleasing, natural dramatic acting. She's classy and glamorous. She plays Mary Lou...caught between good and evil. She seems perfect for the screen, she never overacts but is moving without being over-dramatic, wish she could of did more movies in Black Cinema but she was a popular actress on stage appearing in many Broadway plays. Black Cinema needed more true actresses such as Vivienne Baker. A.B. Comethiere is perfect as Deacon Charcoal Jackson who is a hypocritical preacher but at the same time trying to influence his people to go back to Africa where they can have power and freedom. But ego and backstabbing comes back on him and ruins the faith the people had in him and his name. The character Charcoal is supposedly is a portrayal of Marcus Garvey. A.B is funny, he eats the screen up, when he's present he overshadows everyone with his dramatic and comedic abilities. A.B. was one of the early greats of theater and race films. The cast includes some of the more well-known black actors and actresses of theater and screen, A.B. Comathiere, Vivienne Baber, and The Black Valentino Lorenzo Tucker, one of the most handsome men in movies, as the cool, smooth attorney, because of these three the film is substantial and worth watching.