#370: MURPHY, Dudley: The Emperor Jones (1933) / TURELL, Saul J.: Paul Robeson: Tribute To An Artist (1979)
PAUL ROBESON: PORTRAITS OF THE ARTIST {Spine #369}
The Emperor Jones [1933]
TURELL, Saul J. (United States)
Paul Robeson: Tribute To An Artist [1979]
TURELL, Saul J. (United States)
Paul Robeson: Tribute To An Artist [1979]
Spine #370
DVD
DVD
Of all Paul Roseson's eleven starring film performances, by far his most iconic was his breakthrough in the big-screen adaptation of Eugene O'Neill's The Emperor Jones. He was already a legend for his stage incarnation of Brutus Jones, a Pullman porter who powers his way to rule of a Caribbean island, but with this, his first sound-era film, his regal image was married to his booming voice for eternity. With The Emperor Jones, Robeson became the first African-American leading man in mainstream movies and, he said, gained a deeper understanding of cinema's potential to change racial misconceptions. Previously censored, The Emperor Jones is presented here in its most complete form. Also included is Saul J. Turell's Academy Award-winning documentary short Paul Robeson: Tribute to an Artist, narrated by Sidney Poitier, which traces his career through his activism and his socially charged performances of his signature song, "Ol' Man River."
The Emperor Jones
76 minutes
Black & White
Black & White
Paul Robeson: Tribute To An Artist
29 minutes
Color/Black & White
Monaural
1:33:1 aspect ratio
Criterion Release 2007
Director/Writers
Murphy
The Emperor Jones
Based on the play by Eugene O’Neill.
Screenplay by DuBose Heyward.
The Film
One can see how astonished the movie-going public (both Black and White) must have been to finally hear Paul Robeson speak and sing. His voice and manner are commanding throughout.
The film is well-made; we watch Jones’s transformation from a devoted husband, a God-fearing Baptist, an eager-to-learn railway porter to something much more malevolent. It is unsettling and the frequent use of the N-word is disconcerting to this White reviewer, although in Black popular music, the word is thrown around with great casualness and frequency …
Especially effect is the last act, when Murphy used the old silent-film trick of tinting the film blue to give it a nighttime feeling. Robeson’s increasingly unsettled performance underpins the film’s climax.
Dudley Digges is excellent as the toadying Smithers, and Frank Wilson and Fredi Washington are good in minor roles.
More surprising is to see Rex Ingram (the genie in The Thief of Bagdad [1940] {Spine #431}) with only a one-liner.
**
Like much of 30’s cinema, Murphy uses wipes as filmic punctuation (an art perfected decades later by the great Akira Kurosawa!) … my favorite one here occurs at 0:17:07 — a downward circular vertical wipe which imitates the shape of the tray the waiter is carrying …
The Extras
The Booklet
76-page booklet:
Commentary
The Booklet
76-page booklet:
- A Modern Man, by Clement Alexander Price
- A Master of Disguise: Paul Robeson and The Emperor Jones, by Hilton Als
- Cast and Credits
- About the Transfers
Als:
“As we can see (and hear) in Dudley Murphy’s 1933 film version of The Emperor Jones, Robeson stands somewhere to the left of O’Neill’s white idea of black speech, not to mention black male life. In a number of scenes, the actor with the legendary basso profundo voice, large chest, and liquid eyes struggles with O’Neill’s fantastical, overwrought language as though it were an ill-fitting mask.”
Commentary
By historian Jeffrey C. Stewart.
Insightful and revelatory. He informs us that the N-word was cut from prints shown at Black theatres. And apparently Black audiences laughed at Robeson’s hysterics in the last reel. “There ain’t no ghosts there man, whatch’you afraid of?” … Murphy’s double exposures were the best one could do in 1933, but it does look hokey — apparently even to audiences at the time.
Paul Robeson: Tribute to an Artist
Director/Writer
Turell
Saul J. Turell was 58 when he wrote and directed Paul Robeson: Tribute to an Artist.
The Film
A fabulous half-hour doc on the man. Sidney Poitier narrates.
From his ground breaking long-running performances as Othello, to the lyric changes over the years in Ol’ Man River (particularly fantastic renditions in Spain, Poland and Australia), this look at his career underscores the racist stupidity of the stance of the U.S. — particularly in the 50’s. The scene of the Peekskill riots was typical of the ugliness he faced for decades.
Film Rating (0-60):
The Booklet
76-page booklet:
54
The ExtrasThe Booklet
76-page booklet:
- A Modern Man, by Clement Alexander Price
- I Take My Stand by Robeson.
Commentary
None.
Video tribute
None.
Video tribute
With actors Ruby Dee, James Earl Jones and filmmaker William Greaves.
“Paul was a man and a half, and we have no category, even now, to hold the size of him.” — Ossie Davis
A wonderful tribute by those who were heavily influenced by his being; not necessarily his voice or his acting, but who he was as a human …
Robeson on Robeson
After Robeson’s death on January 23, 1976, his son Paul Jr. turned his own life’s work to preserving his father’s. Here, Robeson Jr. — author of The Undiscovered Paul Robeson and cofounder of the Paul Robeson Foundation, briefly discusses his father’s approach to film, and specifically his role in Emperor Jones — and how he had no problem with showing the flaws and rawness of the character — but was more interested in its effect on the Black viewer who would see the dignity of a Black character, flaws and all.
[paraphrasing]:
Junior asks Dad who was his big influence. Dad hems and haws and finally says, “Jesus of Nazareth.”
“Why dad,” Junior pleads.
“Well,” dad replies. “Jesus said ‘I am the Way.’ That means that to be like that is to inhabit the divine. Nothing better than that.”
Extras Rating (0-40):
Extras Rating (0-40):
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