The Melancholy Dame

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The film

The Melancholy Dame is a 1929 American comedy short film with an African-American cast. [1] Al Christie based it on the Octavus Roy Cohen comedy series called "Darktown Birmingham", published in the Saturday Evening Post . Arvid Gillstrom directed it and Evelyn Preer played the title role.

Contents

The Melacholy Dame was produced and released by Paramount Pictures and includes racial caricatures. [2] It has been described as the first African-American talkie [3] and features a vision of high society [4] and comic dialogue [5] in a Birmingham restaurant with a piano and dance show. The Los Angeles Times summarized the plot: "A cabaret owner's wife demands that her husband fire the sexy star attraction (if he doesn't, she warns, 'there's going to be a quick call for an undertaker'). Little does she (or the singer's husband) know that the singer and the club owner were once married." [2]

Once a two-reel film, the video is now digitized for YouTube along with others from the series.

Cast

References

  1. ↑ "Evelyn Preer The Melancholy Dame". 20's Jazz.
  2. 1 2 Liebenson, Donald (October 12, 1997). "Amos Shelved, but Not Andy". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved March 21, 2025.
  3. ↑ "Film legend and pioneer, Spencer Williams Jr". amsterdamnews.com.
  4. ↑ Cripps, Thomas (February 3, 1977). Slow Fade to Black. Oxford University Press. ISBN   9780199727872 – via Google Books.
  5. ↑ Donald, James; Friedberg, Anne; Marcus, Laura (January 1, 1998). Close Up: Cinema And Modernism. A&C Black. ISBN   9780304335169 – via Google Books.


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