A Fool and His Money

Six years after Alice Guy made The Birth, the Life, and the Death of Christ at Gaumont in France, she'd be settling in America with hubby Herbert Blache where they'd eventually form their own studio called Solax in Fort Lee, New Jersey where many of the American movie studios were also settled at during this period. Among the films made there was this-perhaps one of the earliest pictures to feature an all-Black cast (notice though how the female lead is light-skinned and could possibly pass for White if she desired). The story concerns Sam Jones (James Russell) who's rejected by a lady named Lindy until Sam finds some money far outside her home on a sidewalk. So he spends that money for new clothes and jewelry to impress her which indeed happens. I'll stop there and just say that this was quite funny concerning the "tables turned" scenario and despite the make-up of the cast, there's nothing really racial concerning story and characterization (though it's possible some could argue otherwise concerning a later card game). For years, this was a lost film until 2000. Having just watched this on YouTube, I now say A Fool and His Money is worth seeing.

One of the earliest films to feature an all-African-American cast (the two-hander, under-a-minute "Something Good - N---o Kiss" (c.1898) would be the earliest that I've seen (note IMDb censors are ridiculous)), the one-reeler "A Fool and His Money," directed by the world's first woman director, Alice Guy, and for her Solax studio, was considered lost until it was rediscovered in a footlocker in 2000, at which point it was brought to the attention of Alison McMahan's (foremost Guy expert and author of the book "Alice Guy Blaché: Lost Visionary of the Cinema"), who hadn't even been aware that the picture was part of a genre of "race films" starring, as well as sometimes directed and produced by, and for African-American audiences in America's segregated cinemas. Nor can McMahan say definitively that the film was directed by Guy personally, although she's identified the automobile and home in the picture as Guy's real property.

Such a recent find gives one hope that, among other such titles, "The Railroad Porter" (1912/1913), which was also produced by African Americans, may turn up someday. Indeed, "Lime Kiln Club Field Day" (1913/1914) already has, and I hope to see it eventually. These are among the earliest-known race films that would be made outside what became the Hollywood system. Probably the best and most famous exemplar of the movement was Oscar Micheaux, director of "Within Our Gates," "The Symbol of the Unconquered" (both 1920) and "Body and Soul" (1925), among many others. It's interesting, too, that around the same time as this Guy production was witnessing other women, like Lois Weber, who once worked with her predecessor, entering the field of film writing, directing and producing. Female filmmakers and race films were becoming not quite the anomalies they had been in the 19th century of Guy's work at Gaumont and the "Something Good" film.

As for "A Fool and His Money," it's commendable that race doesn't really matter within the film and that it isn't reduced to offensive stereotypes. Thankfully, we don't get any of the usual white writers pretending supposed black speech in the intertitles, except for maybe a bit of illiterate writing. In other words, the same scenario would've worked as well had it featured white or actors of any other ethnicity in it. As McMahan's research demonstrates, the same can't be said for the picture's publicity, including an advertisement from The Moving Picture World that claims it "a satiric comedy" of "pretentious" characters who "ape and imitate their white brothers." Such does suggest, however, that "A Fool and His Money" was also exhibited to white audiences, and McMahan suggests its comedy on social mobility could've also worked particularly well for the immigrant classes that are reputed to have made up a large share of nickelodeon audiences, with such a Solax production as "Making an American Citizen" (1912) specifically representing immigrants. It seems to me, too, like a precursory parody of a later melodramatic uplift race film such as "The Scar of Shame" (1927 or 1929), as well as numerous mainstream films that deal with similar class issues.

In this one, the titular fool, Sam Jones, discovers a wad of cash on a sidewalk and decides to spend it--on fancy clothes and a nice car--to win his sweetheart's affections in the picture's love triangle, or rectangle rather. In the end, though, he loses the rest of his money and the car to his card-cheating rival suitors--and the girl with it. The most fun part of the picture is just watching Sam enjoying spending the money in the fantasy of his brief rags-to-riches tale. Also noteworthy is how much better acted and paced Solax productions had become within a short period of time, as the first ones from only a year prior were of poor quality--long and slow shot-scenes and broad, gesticulating acting by comparison.

Of course, the acting here remains exaggerated in comedic fashion, but it's no worse and sometimes more restrained than what may be seen in later Solax comedies ("A House Divided" and "Matrimony's Speed Limit" (both 1913), e.g.), let alone contemporary slapstick made at Keystone and other studios. As commendable as "A Fool and His Money" may be, though, it may've been just as unique a production as it seems to be given that no other such Solax productions seem be known, and Guy could be just as conservative in her pictures' representation of race as her filmmaking late in her career has been reputed to be by some critics, as evidenced by the racist gag in "Matrimony's Speed Limit" or her offensive depiction of Mexicans in some of her Westerns. Her husband and co-owner of Solax, Herbert Blaché, employed a white actor in blackface for an awful role in his "Secrets of the Night" (1924), as well.

Alice Guy -- she is usually called Alice Guy-Blaché, even though her career pre- and post-dated her marriage to Herbert Blaché -- was, arguably, the first movie director, even if no one thought to call it that for a dozen years after she first took the job. She came to the US about 1910 to open an American branch, stayed to direct for her own company and prospered for a few years until her career petered out. This wasn't because she was a woman, but simply that technique continued to advance so rapidly that no one could stand the pace for more than about twenty years, until the Studio system made the job more manageable.

Along the way she directed this comedy, arguably the first with an all-Black (or Afro-American or whatever phrase you wish to use) cast. It is a well-performed comedy for the era. As all of Alice Guy's movies are, it is subtly played, although being a comedy, there are a few ridiculous touches -- the men wear boutonnières the size of sunflowers. It concerns the profligate ways of Sam Jones, played by James Russell, who finds a billfold with a lot of money, and runs through it in short order.

A nicely done effort for the era. If all you have seen from this period is D.W. Griffith, give this a try and see if it is interesting.