Plot
In Chicago, Edith Duval has become powerful in the African-American community, mostly because she came into possession of a South Chicago mansion where she was once a servant; the white family that owned the mansion abandoned it when blacks started moving into the neighborhood. She is in love with Jean Baptiste, but she rejects his idealism and he is at odds with her cynicism. Edith wants to convert the mansion into a speakeasy and nightclub.
Baptiste buys land in South Dakota and becomes a successful rancher. Five years into his time there, he falls in love with young Agnes Stewart. He considers the situation hopeless because Agnes is white and although she accepts him, he feels as though they won't work together as a couple. After he leaves the area, Agnes's father reveals to her that her late mother, who is deceased, was of Ethiopian ancestry and thus, Agnes is part black.
Fleeing back to Chicago to escape the relationship, which he believes is doomed, the former teetotaler Baptiste returns to Edith's club, her liquor and her charms. They plan to marry, but her former lover, an Ethiopian named Jango, appears, sneaks into Edith's room and complains of how she has ruined him. After he threatens suicide, she hands him a gun as a gesture of contempt. Instead of killing himself, he kills her. Baptiste is initially suspected of the murder but is cleared when a witness comes forward and confirms overhearing Jango and Edith arguing.
Back in South Dakota, Agnes reads in the newspaper on Baptiste being accused of murder and goes out of her way to Chicago to help him. She arrives at City Hall just as he is cleared by the district attorney. After being reunited, they return to South Dakota.
The Poor Little Rich Girl is a 1917 American comedy-drama film directed by Maurice Tourneur. Adapted by Frances Marion from the 1913 play by Eleanor Gates. The Broadway play actually starred future screen actress Viola Dana. The film stars Mary Pickford, Madlaine Traverse, Charles Wellesley, Gladys Fairbanks and Frank McGlynn Sr.
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.
Lewis J. Selznick was an American producer in the early years of the film industry. After initial involvement with World Film at Fort Lee, New Jersey, he established Selznick Pictures in California.
Anita Stewart was an American actress and film producer of the early silent film era.
Dixie Lee was an American actress, dancer, and singer. She was the first wife of singer Bing Crosby.
Darktown Revue (1931) is an 18-minute American Pre-Code short film by Oscar Micheaux, his first short venture into sound film. The dances and ensembles were co-directed by Leonard Harper and the picture was shot along with their feature-length all-black talkie, The Exile. As in many early talkies, the camera-work is extremely static. The film included choral singing and several vaudeville acts, including the comedy duo of Tim Moore and Andrew Tribble doing a routine about a haunted house.
The New York Hat is a silent short film which was released in 1912, directed by D. W. Griffith from a screenplay by Anita Loos, and starring Mary Pickford, Lionel Barrymore, and Lillian Gish.
Camille is a 1917 American silent film based on the play adaptation of La Dame aux Camélias by Alexandre Dumas, fils, first published in French as a novel in 1848 and as a play in 1852. Adapted for the screen by Adrian Johnson, Camille was directed by J. Gordon Edwards and starred Theda Bara as Camille and Albert Roscoe as her lover, Armand.
The Homesteader (1919) is a lost black-and-white silent film by African-American author and filmmaker Oscar Micheaux. The film is based on his novel inspired by his experiences.
Merry-Go-Round is a 1923 American feature film directed by Erich von Stroheim (uncredited) and Rupert Julian, starring Norman Kerry and Mary Philbin, and released by Universal Pictures. A copy of the film is held in a collection and it has been released on DVD.
Herbert Blaché, born Herbert Reginald Gaston Blaché-Bolton was a British-born American film director, producer and screenwriter, born of a French father. He directed more than 50 films between 1912 and 1929.
The Venus Model is a 1918 American silent romantic comedy film starring Mabel Normand and directed by Clarence G. Badger. The film was made at the beginning of the 20th century when Goldwyn Pictures and many early film studios in America's first motion picture industry were based in Fort Lee, New Jersey. It is not known whether the film currently survives, and it may be a lost film.
To Save Her Soul is a 1909 American short silent drama film directed by D. W. Griffith and starring Mary Pickford. The film was shot in Fort Lee, New Jersey when many of the early film studios in America's first motion picture industry were based there at the beginning of the 20th century.
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.
A Daughter of the Congo is a 1930 race film directed, written and produced by Oscar Micheaux. The film is loosely based on the novel The American Cavalryman (1917), by African-American novelist and playwright Henry Francis Downing. It is considered a lost film.
The Fall of the Romanoffs is a 1917 silent American historical drama film directed by Herbert Brenon. It was released only seven months after the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II in February 1917. This film is notable for starring Rasputin's rival, the monk Iliodor, as himself. Costars Nance O'Neil and Alfred Hickman were married from 1916 to Hickman's death in 1931. The film was shot in North Bergen, New Jersey, nearby Fort Lee, New Jersey, where many early film studios in America's first motion picture industry were based at the beginning of the 20th century.
The Black Viper is a 1908 film directed by D. W. Griffith. The film was made by the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company when it and many other early film studios in America's first motion picture industry were based in Fort Lee, New Jersey at the beginning of the 20th century.
Ethel Moses was an American stage and film actress, and dancer. She was billed as "the black Jean Harlow". Moses is best known for working in films by Oscar Micheaux.
Lester Lang was an American cinematographer known for lensing several of Oscar Micheaux's films in the 1930s.
Carl Mahon was an actor in the United States. An African American, he had several film roles including a starring role in the 1932 film The Girl from Chicago
