More Spencer Williams

GIRL IN ROOM 20-1946-Daisy Mae Walker (Geraldine Brock) leaves her sleepy little town of Perryville to find a career as a singer in the city, also leaving behind her parents, little sister Mabel and boyfriend Dunbar. She almost has trouble at the start when she accidentally visits a whorehouse run by Mamie but is helped out of the jam by a taxi driver (director Spenser Williams). Daisy gets molested by a guy named Richardson but Dunbar arrives and beats him up. Richardson's wife shoots Daisy but she survives to sing another song. A white producer faints when he can't have Daisy for his new production because she’s marrying Dunbar and going back to Texas. Not as enjoyable as some of Spenser Williams’s other stories. Too much talk.

Thanks for reading!

Happy Fourth of July!

OF ONE BLOOD-1944-This fable/melodrama starts off in “the hall of records” where a white haired old man with a long white beard relates the story of Zeke Ellis, his wife and three sons. They leave their home for higher ground after a flood warning but don't make it. They get hit by the flood and Zeke and his wife are killed. Two brothers Zebedee and Zion swim to safely separated from third brother Zachariah who also swims safely to the shore. They are taken in by The Red Cross but an older boy Wesley convinces them to hop a freight with him. The older boy gets left behind at a stop and the duo wonders if they will ever see their brother again. 

Years pass and the boys are now men. After shining shoes for a while Zeb becomes a cop while Zion studies to be a lawyer. A woman named Zelma tries to dissuade him. “Hard work is for mules and fools”. In 1941 a big band plays and two women do a tap dance. Newspaper publisher Jordan, Zelma's father runs a campaign against a bootlegger in a derby hat who bosses a bunch of dumb henchman. Then two community leaders give very good speeches about race and violence and inequality. After Zelma has a riding accident coincidentally near the bootleggers hideout, the worker the gang refers to as “The Dummy” (writer/director Spencer Williams) hides Zelma and calls the police. Lawyer Zion and policeman Zebedee go the hideout to get Zelma. When the boss is about to shoot Zeb “the dummy” hits him over the head with a bottle killing him but not before he reveals to Zeb that he is actually their long lost bro Zachariah and “the dummy” is their long lost friend Wesley, now an FBI agent! It may be the only movie I’ve ever seen where a glass bottle didn't break when hit over someone’s head! Couldn't afford a fake one?

 Interesting story hampered of course by bad editing, acting and effects. But still enjoyable! Like most of Spencer Williams directorial out (THE BLOOD OF JESUS, GO DOWN, DEATH), OF ONE BLOOD was thought to be a lost film until being rediscovered in 1983.

Thanks for reading!

Religious

THE BLOOD OF JESUS-1941-After a baptism ceremony Martha (Cathryn Caviness), a devout religious woman is accidentally shot by her “heathen” husband Razz (Spencer Williams). It's believed she won't survive and everyone prays for her. After she appears to die she is visited by an angel and her spirit leaves her body. The angel takes her on a tour of the spirit world where hooded figures walk around graves. The angel tells her to go to the crossroads to find her fate and almost immediately the devil (who laughs like a lunatic) sends a dapper guy named Judas to tempt her (“Ok Judas. Do your stuff”) and lead her off the road of righteousness with a nice dress and fancy shoes. He takes her to a nightclub in the city that features singers and some weird dancers. Unfortunately she becomes a prostitute but later runs away chased by some guys who think she stole a wallet. At the crossroads (a sign has “To Hell” pointing one way and “To Zion” pointing another) there's a flat bed truck with a jazz combo (the devil is the driver). Just when the men are about to stone Martha the Lord's thundering voice sends them running. A heavenly choir and the blood of Christ bring her back to the living and everyone sings (for some reason one guy faints). 

This “race film” was the brainchild of actor/director/writer Spencer Williams (who'd provided the screenplay for the notorious SON OF INGAGI a few years before). Said to have been made on a budget of $5,000 and I wouldn't doubt it as BLOOD's special effects are crude and the actors (most were amateurs) deliver their lines with little emotion. Yet there is something that makes this movie click (at least for me). Perhaps it's Williams' belief in his subject matter. Whatever the case it's a low budget winner in my book! 

 Williams directed 10 more films after this (at least one is lost) and after leaving the film business for a while played Andy TV's “The Amos and Andy Show” from 1951-1955. He died in 1969.

Final note: IMDB lists no date for death for one of the actors in BLOOD, that of Juanita Riley who plays one of Martha's friends. If still alive she'd be 99 at the time of this writing!

Thanks for reading!