| Swing! | |
|---|---|
 Film poster | |
| Directed by | Oscar Micheaux |
| Written by | Oscar Micheaux (screenplay) Oscar Micheaux (story "Mandy") |
| Produced by | Oscar Micheaux (producer) |
| Starring | Cora Green Hazel Diaz Dorothy Van Engle |
| Cinematography | Lester Lang |
| Edited by | Patricia Rooney |
| Distributed by | Micheaux Film Corporation |
Release date |
|
Running time | 69 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Swing! is a 1938 American race film directed, produced and written by Oscar Micheaux.
Mandy Jenkins (Cora Green), an African American cook for a wealthy white family in Birmingham, Alabama, discovers her husband Cornell is having an affair with Eloise Jackson (Hazel Diaz). When she confronts her husband and Eloise at a nightclub, a violent fight ensues. Eloise leaves Birmingham and relocates to the Harlem section of New York City, where she gets a job as a cabaret vocalist under the false name of Cora Smith. She is followed to Harlem by her husband, Lem, who becomes mixed up in the local crime scene. Mandy also arrives in New York, having left Cornell. She gets a job as the wardrobe mistress at the cabaret where Eloise is performing. When Eloise breaks her leg during a drunken fall, Mandy is recruited as the last-minute substitute and becomes a musical star as the revue is transferred to Broadway. Cornell, who is now destitute, reunites with Mandy and agrees never to cheat on her again. [1]
Green performs the Yiddish tune Bei Mir Bistu Shein for her star-making musical sequence. [2]
Actress Dorothy Van Engle, who had a supporting role as an assistant producer, is credited for inventing a key scene in Swing!, where her character and Mandy are sewing together. Van Engle, who was also a seamstress, created her own clothing for the film. [3]
Elvera Sanchez Davis, the mother of entertainer Sammy Davis, Jr., had a small role in Swing! as a tap dancer. [4]
Swing!, which is a public domain title, has been frequently shown in film festivals and retrospective series celebrating the creative output of Oscar Micheaux, a pioneering African-American filmmaker, [5] and it has also been broadcast on U.S. television in programming devoted to the history of African-American cinema. [6]
Oscar Devereaux Micheaux (; was an American author, film director and independent producer of more than 44 films. Although the short-lived Lincoln Motion Picture Company was the first movie company owned and controlled by black filmmakers, Micheaux is regarded as the first major African-American feature filmmaker, a prominent producer of race films, and has been described as "the most successful African-American filmmaker of the first half of the 20th century". He produced both silent films and sound films.
Elvera "Baby" Sanchez Davis was an American dancer and the mother of Sammy Davis Jr.
Body and Soul is a 1925 race film produced, written, directed, and distributed by Oscar Micheaux and starring Paul Robeson in his motion picture debut. In 2019, the film was selected by the Library of Congress for inclusion in the National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Evelyn Preer, was a pioneering American stage and screen actress and jazz and blues singer of the 1910s through the early 1930s. Preer was known within the black community as "The First Lady of the Screen."
Lying Lips is a 1939 American melodrama race film written and directed by Oscar Micheaux who co-produced the film with aviator Hubert Fauntlenroy Julian, starring Edna Mae Harris, and Robert Earl Jones. Lying Lips was the thirty-seventh film of Micheaux. The film was shot at the Biograph Studios in New York City.
The race film or race movie was a genre of film produced in the United States between about 1915 and the early 1950s, consisting of films produced for black audiences, and featuring black casts. Approximately five hundred race films were produced. Of these, fewer than one hundred remain. Because race films were produced outside the Hollywood studio system, they were largely forgotten by mainstream film historians until they resurfaced in the 1980s on the BET cable network. In their day, race films were very popular among African-American theatergoers. Their influence continues to be felt in cinema and television marketed to African Americans.
The Girl from Chicago is a 1932 American Pre-Code drama film produced and directed by Oscar Micheaux, with an all-African-American cast including lead actors Grace Smith and Carl Mahon. The story concerns a federal agent who falls in love while on assignment in Mississippi. He helps his lover escape a local thug, and the film follows them to Harlem where they become involved in the assassination of a Cuban racketeer, played by Juano Hernández.
That's Black Entertainment is a 1989 documentary film starring African-American performers and featuring clips from black films from 1929–1957, narrated and directed by William Greaves. The clips are from the Black Cinema Collection of the Southwest Film/Video Archives at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. It is 60 minutes long and was distributed by Video Communications of Tulsa, Oklahoma.
The Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame, Inc. (BFHFI), was founded in 1974, in Oakland, California. It supported and promoted black filmmaking, and preserved the contributions by African-American artists both before and behind the camera. It also sponsored advance screenings of films by and about people of African descent and hosted the Oscar Micheaux Awards Ceremony, held each February, from 1974 to 1993, in Oakland.
God's Step Children is a 1938 American drama film directed by Oscar Micheaux and starring Jacqueline Lewis. The film is inspired by a combination of elements shared from two previously released Hollywood productions, Imitation of Life and These Three.
The Betrayal is a 1948 race film written, produced, and directed by Oscar Micheaux. He adapted it from his 1943 novel The Wind From Nowhere.
The Gunsaulus Mystery is a 1921 American silent race film directed, produced, and written by Oscar Micheaux. The film was inspired by events and figures in the 1913-1915 trial of Leo Frank for the murder of Mary Phagan. The film is now believed to be lost. Micheaux remade the film 1935 as Murder in Harlem.
Murder in Harlem is a 1935 American race film written, produced and directed by Oscar Micheaux, who also appears in the film. He remade his 1921 silent film The Gunsaulus Mystery.
The Dark at the Top of the Stairs is a 1960 American drama film directed by Delbert Mann and starring Robert Preston and Dorothy McGuire. Shirley Knight garnered an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress and Lee Kinsolving was nominated for a Golden Globe Award as Best Supporting Actor. Knight was also nominated for two Golden Globes. Mann's direction was nominated for a Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing in a Feature Film. The film was based on the Tony Award-nominated 1957 play of the same name by William Inge.
Harlem After Midnight (1934) is a black-and-white silent film directed by author and director Oscar Micheaux. A drama film, it featured an "all-colored cast". As in most of the films created by Micheaux there is an all-black casting for the drama film. It is a lost film.
The Spider's Web is a 1926 Oscar Micheaux film starring Evelyn Preer. It was remade in 1932 as The Girl from Chicago.
Tempation is a 1935 American crime film written, produced and directed by Oscar Micheaux. The storyline depicts the corrupting influence of carnal desires. It is considered a lost film.
Cora Green was an American actress, singer, and dancer, billed as "The Famous Creole Singer".
Carman Newsome was an African-American actor, musician and band conductor in the United States. His work includes leading roles in five Oscar Micheaux films.
Dorothy Van Engle was an American actress who performed throughout the 1930s. She starred in Oscar Micheaux films, including Murder in Harlem and Swing!.