Ten Minutes to Live

Ten Minutes to Live (1932)

** (out of 4)

This Oscar Micheaux film clocks in at just 58-minutes and it pretty much has a little bit of everything in it. There's really no "plot" but it does have a few different story lines going on. One includes a movie producer trying to pick up a woman by offering her a role in his new film. Another subplot has a woman receiving a note saying that she will be dead in ten minutes. We also get a couple comedy acts as well as some musical numbers.

Micheaux was producer and releasing quite a few pictures during this portion of his career and TEN MINUTES TO LIVE isn't nearly the worst but it's also not very good. The film is certainly very uneven but it remains mildly entertaining because the director manages to present a couple interesting acts and it's at least a very good time capsule to black entertainment from this period.

The acts are interesting but I'd argue that none of them are overly good. The comedy bits are pretty weak and there's nothing ground-breaking about the musical numbers but it was just Micheaux's attempt to show black audiences some black talent. The two dramatic story lines aren't the most entertaining that you're going to see but they work well enough for what they are. They're basically two different short subjects mixed together with other shorts dealing with the music.

TEN MINUTES TO LIVE features a couple decent performances scattered around and I'd argue that fans of race movies will at least get some mild entertainment out of it.

Oscar Micheaux turned out four movies in 1932, and Ten Minutes To Live is one of them. It is comprised of two stories stuck together, and even so it doesn't come out to a full hour. In the first half a night club dancer is solicited for a movie role, and for more than that; the second half concerns the aftermath; it's shot wild, with sound effects and occasional voices added.

Parts of it are interesting. There's a fairly long sequence near the beginning set in a night club in which a couple of songs are sung, a couple of comics do a routine that reeks of minstrel shows, and a line of dancers perform. According to the IMDb trivia for this movie, they are the dancers for the Cotton Club, and when they're moving to "Sweet Georgia Brown" and "Digga Digga Do" I can believe it.

The silent segments are actually better than the ones with sound! Even though there are telegrams and letters to substitute for silent titles, at least one is spared the poor line readings of Micheaux's dialogue. Still, I would expect the average movie goer, unversed in silent film techniques, to find it tough going.

Based on two short stories this is a very dated independent early black talky that was done on the cheap. The camera is essentially nailed to the floor to take in various scenes that advance the story which are inter-cut with scenes supposedly happening in and around a black night club (these appear to have been filmed on location with the camera placed in a rather odd angle). As a movie with a story this film is an absolute snoozer. The cast is uneven and the story really doesn't warrant being told. As a filmed record of the singers and dancers, comedians and musicians that perform its invaluable. These were very talented people doing things that are in their way more impressive than what we see on the stages of Broadway today. That said I really can't recommend this film unless you are interested in performers from the era when this film was made, the plot is uninteresting and the acting is often worse.

Laura Bowman had an extremely distinguished career. She was hailed as "the Negro Ethel Barrymore", performed at Buckingham Palace before Edward VII and appeared in theaters all over Europe. In 1916 she joined New York's first black dramatic company, the Lafayette Players in Harlem and appeared in over 500 productions. Although she didn't make many films, she always made an impression - whether as a conjure woman in "Drums O'Voodoo" (1934) or as a mad doctor in "Son of Ingagi" (1939).

She was definitely the most prestigious member in the cast of "Ten Minutes to Live", hence her prominent billing. She played the elderly woman in the very first scene, who tells the lecherous film maker where to find Ida. There are two Idas - I'm not sure which is which but they are both singers in the Libya Club.

First, this all-black 1930's production is admittedly unique. Extended dance sequences, vintage music, vaudeville and some unusual location camera work provide an invaluable look at a time in black history that you probably haven't seen much coverage of before. On the downside, the acting is junior high caliber and the plot is equally half-baked and thin. Certainly forward thinking in treating some blacks in the movie as thoughtful and sensitive beings at a time when some in America weren't on board with the concept.

Unfortunately, it's just not very entertaining and has the look and feel of a silent movie that they dubbed with sound and dialogue sequences later to take advantage of the "talkie craze." If you're a student of black history, probably of minor interest. If you were led to believe this is a noirish black drama (as I was), you're probably better off going with DEVIL WITH A BLUE DRESS, HUSTLE AND FLOW or a Spike Lee joint.