One Dark Night | |
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Directed by | Leo C. Popkin |
Produced by | Harry M. Popkin |
Starring | Mantan Moreland |
Production company | |
Release date |
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Country | USA |
Language | English |
One Dark Night is an American film released in 1939. [1] [2] [3] Also known as Night Club Girl. [4] It was directed by Leo C. Popkin. It was produced by Harry M. Popkin. The film features an African American cast [5] including Mantan Moreland in a dramatic role.
Hattie McDaniel reportedly turned down the role played by Bette Treadville. [6] The film was made by Million Dollar Productions and distributed by Sack Amusement Enterprises. It was produced by Clifford Sanforth. The film drew various black celebrities to a showing. [7] Josephine Edwards performs two songs in the lost film. [8]
The film was re-released as Night Club Girl in 1944. It is categorized as a race film, [9] and is now lost. [10] [11] The Yale University Library has a lobby card for the film. [12]
Bette Treadville was an American singer and actress, based in Los Angeles, California.
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.
Leo C. Popkin (1914–2011) was a film director and producer in the United States. His brother Harry M. Popkin was the executive producer of Million Dollar Productions, a partnership that included Ralph Cooper.
George Randol (1895–1973) was an actor, screenwriter, director, and producer of films in the United States. In 1938 he was honored as an influential film executive in a newspaper writeup of the "Negro" film industry.
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.
Edward Thompson (1898–1960) was an actor in the United States. He appeared in several films with African American casts. He worked on films with his wife Evelyn Preer, Spencer Williams, and other prominent African American actors including in Al Christie productions. He played in various theater productions as an actor, including in a musical dancing role in Darktown Follies.
Absent is a 1928 American silent drama film starring Clarence Brooks. It was directed by Harry Gant. The film is about a veteran with memory loss who finds employment at a mining camp, aids his hosts, and finds new purpose. It was produced by Rosebud Film Corporation. It was followed on by Brooks in Georgia Rose.
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.
Take My Life is an American film released in 1942. It featured a group of young actors known as the Harlem Tuff Kids. In this film they join the U.S. Army. The group also appeared in the 1939 film Reform School. Both were produced by Million Dollar Productions. Oakton Community College has a poster for the film in its collection. The poster includes the taglines Harlem Goes to War! and Thrill to the Brown Bombers in Action.
When True Love Wins is a 1915 American film. It was produced by Birmingham, Alabama based Southern Motion Picture Company and adapted from Isaac Fisher's screenplay about prejudice based on pigmentation.
The Highest Tradition is a 1946 documentary film from the U.S. about African American war heroes. It was written and produced by William D. Alexander. It is a World War II era war propaganda film. Fredric March narrates. The film begins with stock footage of the Pearl Harbor it then transitions into profiles of African American war heroes.
Charles H. Turpin was a constable filmmaker, theater owner, and judge in St. Louis, Missouri. In 1910, he became the first African American elected to city-wide office in St. Louis. A legal dispute contested his estate.
Historical Feature Films was a film production company in the United States. It was established in 1915 and produced at least 4 films. The company's films featured African American casts and included bigoted tropes and stereotypes that demeaned the characters. The studio's films were re-released by Ebony Film Corporation.
Money Talks Downtown is a 1916 American short comedy film with an African American cast. It stars Jimmy Marshall and Florence McCain. It includes derogatory racial stereotypes and a storyline about a woman seeking money and a man lightening his skin color to try and make himself more appealing. It was produced by Historical Feature Films and distributed by Ebony Film Company.
She's Too Mean for Me is a 1948 American film starring comedian Mantan Moreland. It was one of two Goldmax productions. It is a comedy. In the movie, the character portraying Moreland's on-screen wife is after him in the film. It and Come On, Cowboy! were the last two films Ted Toddy produced. Irving Hartley was the cinematographer.
Scandal of 1933, also known as Gig and Saddle and Scandal, is an American film featuring musical performances. The 60-minute feature film includes performances of songs written by Irving Mills, Duke Ellington, Sam M. Lewis, Joe Young, Harry Akst, Roger Graham, Dave Peyton, Spencer Williams, Leo Robin, Ralph Rainger, Mort Dixon, Harry Warren, Lucky Millinder and his Orchestra, and Putney Dandridge. Jack Goldberg produced it and featured an all-African American cast. A poster for the film advertises it as a musical jamboree.
Midnight Menace is a short American musical film released in 1946. It was produced by All-American News and Al Sack. Josh Binney directed. The plot involves a Voodoo practitioner making dead bodies appear around Lollypop Jones. The film features songs by Fats Waller and Andy Razaf. An alternative description of the plot says the film is about a Voodoo practitioner hypnotizing a man's wife and using her in his stage show.
Milton Woods was an actor. He was in several films. In 1946, Newsweek described him as the "colored Basil Rathbone". In 1951, Jet reported that he directed of the American Negro Repertory Theater, touring the country in a trailer.
Edward Lewis was a photographer and filmmaker who documented prominent African Americans and their activities in his documentary film series. He worked as a photographer for the Daily News before becoming a filmmaker.
Artie Belle McGinty (1892–1963) was an American actor in theater, films, and radio in the United States from the 1910s through the 1940s. She performed as a singer, dancer, and comedienne. She was a member of the Negro Actors Guild and an appointed member of the organization's dance committee.