Am I Guilty? is a 1940 American film directed by Samuel Neufeld for the Supreme Pictures Corporation. The film's producer A. W. Hackel, [1] who had founded Supreme Pictures, planned a series of films featuring black casts, but Am I Guilty? was the only one to be released. [2] The screenplay was cowritten by Earle Snell and George Wallace Sayre based on a story by Sherman Lowe.
Toddy Pictures rereleased the film as Racket Doctor in 1945. [3] [4] Advertisements for the film, including a lobby card, remain in existence, [5] and a poster was appraised on an episode of the PBS show Antiques Roadshow .
The Pittsburgh Courier described a gala opening at the Apollo Theater in Harlem. [6]
Extraordinary measures are taken to help the poor [7] as a young doctor opens a free clinic in Harlem. [1]
Irving Lahrheim, known professionally as Bert Lahr, was an American stage and screen actor and comedian. He was best known for his role as the Cowardly Lion, as well as his counterpart Kansas farmworker "Zeke", in the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer adaptation of The Wizard of Oz (1939). He was well known for his quick-witted humor and his work in burlesque and vaudeville and on Broadway.
Marcellas Reynolds is an American actor, author, documentarian, and television host. His notable television appearances include GMA3, Access Hollywood, E! Live from the Red Carpet, The Bold and the Beautiful, Supreme Models, and Yes, Dear. Reynolds began his television career in 2002 on CBS's hit television series Big Brother season three, becoming the first openly gay black man cast on a major network reality series. His writing has appeared in Chicago magazine, Essence, The Guardian, and L.A. Style Magazine. Reynolds is the author of Supreme Models: Iconic Black Women Who Revolutionized Fashion and Supreme Actresses: Iconic Black Women Who Revolutionized Hollywood, Supreme Sirens: Iconic Black Women Who Revolutionized Music, and the executive producer of Supreme Models, the documentary.
Rudy Franchi was an American writer and editor on film theory and film criticism and an antiques and collectibles expert. He helped to introduce the French critical protocol the "auteur theory" to the United States. For several decades, Franchi also operated galleries that specialized in pop culture collectibles. In 1995, he began appearing as an appraiser on the PBS series, Antiques Roadshow, specializing in pop culture memorabilia.
Harlem on the Prairie (1937) is American race movie, billed as the first "all-colored" Western musical. The movie reminded audiences that there were black cowboys and corrected a popular Hollywood image of an all-white Old West.
Ralph Cooper, was an American actor, screenwriter, dancer and choreographer. Cooper is best known as the original master of ceremonies and founder of amateur night at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York City, in 1935. He wrote, produced, directed and acted in ten motion pictures. Titles include The Duke Is Tops, Dark Manhattan, Gangsters on the Loose and Gang War. Because of his debonair good looks, he was known as "dark Gable" in the 1930s.
Jess Lee Brooks, also known as Jesse Brooks, was an American bass-baritone concert artist, and a film and stage actor. He played an African-American church preacher in the motion picture Sullivan's Travels, where he leads his congregation in singing "Go Down Moses".
Antiques Roadshow is an American television program broadcast on Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) Public television stations. The program features local antiques owners who bring in items to be appraised by experts. Provenance, history, and value of the items are discussed. Based on the original British Antiques Roadshow, which premiered in 1979, the American version first aired in 1997. When taping locations are decided, they are announced on the program's website raising the profile of various small to mid-size cities, such as Billings, Montana; Biloxi, Mississippi; Bismarck, North Dakota; Chattanooga, Tennessee; Hot Springs, Arkansas; and Rapid City, South Dakota. Antiques Roadshow has been nominated 22 times for a Primetime Emmy.
Michael J. Deas is an American realist painter and illustrator whose work is known for both its technical skill and "a growing sense of grace and serenity". He is cited in Roger and Walt Reed's definitive history of illustration, The Illustrator in America. He works primarily in oils and graphite. Deas began creating illustrations while studying fine art in New York during the 1970s. He has since gone on to paint six covers for Time magazine and 25 stamps for the US Postal Service, including likenesses of Tennessee Williams (1995), Marilyn Monroe (1995), F. Scott Fitzgerald (1996), Meriwether Lewis (2004), George H. W. Bush (2019) and Ruth Bader Ginsburg (2023). Other notable works include the US poster for Werner Herzog's film, Aguirre, the Wrath of God, and the cover art for the 20th-anniversary edition of Anne Rice's book, Interview with the Vampire. His most recognizable work is his luminous redesign of the Columbia Pictures logo, painted [with oils] in 1991 and in continuous use since that time.
Supreme Pictures Corporation was a film production company in the United States. It produced dozens of Western genre films. It was run by Sam Katzman and A. W. Hackel.
Sybil Lewis was an actress in the United States. An African American, she appeared in several films including musicals during the 1940s. She appeared in African American films and Hollywood pictures. She had starring roles in several African American films including Lucky Gamblers and Am I Guilty? and portrayed smaller roles including as a maid in Hollywood films. She also had a leading role in Broken Strings (film) in 1940.
Dark Manhattan is a black and white American film produced in 1937 by a partnership of African Americans Ralph Cooper and George Randol. Harry Fraser directed the film, which was written by Randol who was also the executive producer. The film was the only one made by Randol-Cooper Productions.
Alfred N. Sack was an American businessperson, newspaper publisher and the proprietor of film distribution, production, and the theater-owning business Sack Amusements in the United States.. He collaborated with Spencer Williams to make films with Black casts. Sack Amusement Enterprises was the leading distributor of this type of film between 1920 and 1950.
One Dark Night is an American film released in 1939. Also known as Night Club Girl. It was directed by Leo C. Popkin. It was produced by Harry M. Popkin. The film features an African American cast including Mantan Moreland in a dramatic role.
Million Dollar Productions was a movie studio in the United States active from 1937 until 1940. It was established to produce films with African American casts. It was a partnership between Harry M. Popkin, Leo C. Popkin and Ralph Cooper.
Bargain with Bullets is a 1937 American film. The first film produced by Million Dollar Productions, it features an African American cast of actors and performers. The gangster film is about the Harlem underworld. It was described as the first Hollywood "all-Negro" film. The film features several musical performances.
Toddy Pictures Company was a film distribution and production company. It was founded in 1941 by Ted Toddy (1900-1983) in a consolidation of his film businesses under the new name. The film company specialized in African-American films.
I Demand Payment is a 1938 American drama film directed by Clifford Sanforth and starring Betty Burgess, Jack La Rue and Matty Kemp. It is based on Rob Eden's 1932 novel Second Choice. Sherman L. Lowe wrote the screenplay. It was produced by Poverty Row company Imperial Pictures.
Gang Smashers, also released as Gun Moll, is an American film released in 1938. It features an African American cast. Leo C. Popkin directed the Million Dollar Productions film from a screenplay by Ralph Cooper. The University of South Carolina libraries have an 8-page pressbook for the film. Nina Mae McKinney stars in the film a thriller about the Harlem underworld and racketeering.
Jack Goldberg was a vaudeville performer who became a producer of films for African American audiences. He ran Hollywood Pictures Corporation in New York City and produced at least two dozen films. His brother Bert Goldberg ran Harlemwood Pictures in Dallas, Texas. Goldberg was white. He married Mamie Smith.
Harlem Hotshots is an American short film from 1940 produced by Sack Amusements. The 20 minute film is a musical. One poster for the film includes a skyline of buildings and street sign for Lenox Avenue and 125th Street. The film was reissued in 1986 as part of Jazz Classics, No. 110; Harlem Harmonies Volume 1, 1940–1945.
Tuesday night we ran out to one of the Hollywood process laboratories to see a preview of Ralph Cooper's 'Am I Guilty?' [...] The cast and members of the press sat in on the preview, and perhaps Jess Lee Brooks, who has a brief but creditable role, sums it up best in: 'The photography is the best I've seen in this type of picture.'