369-373 Paul Robeson: Portraits of an Artist

[ando]

Revisiting the entire set over the next week or so. Not many positive comments on The Emperor Jones here and I certainly understand. Thing is, I feel the film works best before the O'Neill play kicks in. It's essentially the classic small town-to-big city story and the options the average black Joe had waiting for him at the turn of the 20th century. Robeson and company make it go. And his Waterboy performance on the rocks with the chain gang tops it all. But we don't really see the strains of a tyrant in the church-going Paul of the first half of the film. And not many of his redeeming qualities seen in the first half surface in the O'Neill story, save his rascal-like charm (though that seems to be more Robeson than Jones). The sea-change conversion of character is not really intended to be realistic, anyway. I've always read his ascent from slave (to Mr. Smithers) to emperor as a fairly tepid allegory on power. And how serious can you take a court with The Marquis and Marchioness of Newark? It's certainly a lot more fun with Paul behind Jones's stolen throne than yet another unfunny blackface performer (as I'm sure certain audiences felt at the time of it's initial run). 1933 NYTimes review

[domino harvey]

The Emperor Jones is getting a Blu-ray from Film Masters

[domino harvey]

Borderline is getting a Blu-ray from Kino