The Complete Oscar Micheaux: The Girl from Chicago (1932)
- Sun, Sep 22
Director: Oscar Micheaux Run Time: 71 min. Rating: NR Release Year: 1932
Starring: Carl Mahon, Eunice Brooks, Grace Smith, Juano Hernández, Starr Calloway
Country: United States
Language: English
About the film:
A remake of Micheaux’s now-lost 1926 silent film The Spider’s Web, The Girl from Chicago (1932) is a film that explores the cultural rift between the urban and the rural, set in both Harlem and Batesburg, Mississippi. As had become his forte, Micheaux punctuates the dramatic scenes with musical numbers, set both in domestic parlors and the lively “The Radium Club.”
“Micheaux had the progressive idea of presenting a black man as a Secret Service agent who worked with Scotland Yard—when none existed in real life”
—Sergio Mims, RogerEbert
About the filmmaker:
Oscar Devereaux Micheaux was an author, film writer and director, and independent producer of more than 44 silent films and sound films from 1919—1948. Micheaux was the first African American filmmaker to produce a full feature-length film and is regarded as a prominent producer of race films, and the most successful African American filmmaker of the first half of the 20th century. Micheaux’s work is not only a milestone in African American cinema, but an incredible insight into American history regarding race in society.
Born in 1884 to enslaved parents, Micheaux first left home to work for the railroads in Chicago. He had his sight set higher as a writer and a determined creative. He wrote a series of novels, including his self-published The Homesteader. Not only was Micheaux a pioneer in African American cinema, but also in independent publishing and filmmaking. After turning down offers to produce his novel into a film, he later found his own path to producing the 1919 film. Micheaux serves as a symbol of triumphing over the circumstances at hand to bring his vision to reality. The groundbreaking auteur’s features include The Symbol of the Unconquered (1920), Body and Soul (1925), Within Our Gates (1920) and Birthright (1938).
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