Midnight Shadow (1939)

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

A mysterious showman/charlatan arrives at a small town and immediately starts courting a girl whose father owns a valuable deed for land in an oil field. The father is murdered in the night by an unknown assassin and two bungling detectives get on the trail of the murderer.Midnight Shadow is entirely negligible as a mystery film. It's not very involving and it displays the usual deficiencies that these old poverty row films tend to like an abundance of stupid and unnecessary comedy relief. While its resolution was particularly poor and abrupt (it didn't really explain very clearly why the guilty party was actually guilty). The acting is also below par, even for these types of movies, with at least one actor appearing to be reading his lines off cue cards. However, this movie is best appreciated for reasons beyond all of the above. It's interesting as one of the films of the 30's made specifically for the black movie theatres. Hence the all-black cast. It also explains the strange opening text that tells audiences of lands in the American Deep South that are self-governed entirely by and for black people! This of course goes some way to explaining to audiences why everybody is black, including law enforcers, lawyers and detectives. Naturally, this is completely historically inaccurate! But what the hey – it's the movies, right?Overall, this is not a good film but it's quite interesting historically and it has a very short running time so its deficiencies aren't really that painful to bear.

This isn't as bad a film as some of the reviewers imply. "Race" movie productions had budgets that made Monogram look like MGM. Considering many of the players weren't professional actors - half the cast of "Midnight Shadow" only appeared in one or two movies at the most and those that did appear in more main stream movies, were mostly in uncredited, demeaning roles. Many of the cast seemed to handle their roles in a natural manner (ie Ollie Ann Robinson and Jess Lee Brooks) although a couple looked like a deer caught in the headlights (Frances Redd, who was a model and not an actress anyway.) There was no need for a musical interlude in this film as it was just a regular "who done it" and moved along briskly. These films were made for black audiences and tried to depict stories about everyday situations (not always about witch doctors and voodoo etc).When a well respected business man turns up dead, suspicion falls on his daughter's two suitors. They happen to be in the house when Margaret's father brings out his oil well deeds and both act suspiciously. The first suitor calls himself "The Great Prince Alihabad" and impresses Margaret's mother (Ollie Ann Robinson) as being shifty. The second is Buster (Edward Brandon) who has a very "hang dog" expression - Margaret (Frances Redd) is very fickle and is giving him the run around. In the synopsis that accompanied this DVD it said "Margaret decides to track down the killer herself with the aid of two bumbling private eyes". That is completely false. Margaret wasn't in it much to begin with and almost disappeared during the last half of the movie. The bumbling private eyes were in it however. Lightfoot and Junior Lingley (who is allowed to help out at his mother's (Ruby Dandridge) insistence). There was a funny exchange between them - "I let you get the dope on this case" "I didn't know it was a dope case" "Not that type of dope"!!! They do crack the case at the end - it is not who anyone would think!!! and they do have some interesting scenes with Sgt. Ramsey (an outstanding Jess Lee Brooks) at the end.These films were important. At a time when most white audiences thought Stepin Fetchit was a very real portrait of the Afro American character, "race" movies attempted to show black people as they really were.

The only thing that keeps this movie watchable is the handsome Edward Brandon who played Buster Barnett. Edward Brandon isn't the star of this movie or anything, his scenes are few but steals every scene he's in and basically steals the movie. Edward was a fine actor, he only appeared in one other film "Harlem on the Prairie" and that seems to be lost. I'm surprised nothing came of Edward Brandon, I've seen a lot of Black actors and a lot of "black cast films" but Edward stands out, I haven't seen many have such a strong screen presence and talent. I wish he could of did more films. Edward plays Buster, a soft, push-around kind of man, who's girl is leaving him for manly Prince, Buster spies on them and then becomes a suspect in the murder of his girlfriend's father. The scene that Edward Brandon steals the movie is when the Detective drills him, Buster breaks down and pleads for his life, you've never seen much great acting and emotion in a black cast film, and you never seen men have as much emotion in Hollywood. Edward becomes a stronger man by the end of the film. Edward Brandon to me is a very fine actor, his emotions, gestures, good timing, becoming his character full fledged, knowing the right mood makes him exceptionally the best. He did more in his few scenes than the stars. I'm surprised no one discovered him or made him more of a bigger star. It's obvious he learned acting from somewhere but Black Cinema was so few and between for black actors especially but I am grateful for what he did do. Would love to know more about this actor. If it wasn't for Hollywood's ignorance and the world's, Edward could of been a big success in Hollywood, he could of been up there with one of the greatest actors and one of the most handsome. Why not? But, if your not homely and uncle tomish you can't succeed in Hollywood in those days. I haven't seen an Hollywood film yet that an actor showed such emotion and moved me, and make my jaw-drop like Edward. Did I mention Edward Brandon was handsome and a melting heart smile? Frances Redd is pretty and graceful. Buck Woods and Richard Bates are good as a comedy team. Jess Lee Brooks is great as always as Detective Ramsey. Ollie Ann Robinson and Clinton Rosemond are good as the parents. George Randol wrote and directed this movie, he was a pioneer in Black Cinema involved with some great movies. I admit there should of been some nightclub scene or music, Black Cinema never goes wrong there. It took me a few times to watch this movie, now that I understand it more I like it. Most Black Cinema movies didn't have a lot to work with but they did good with the little they had. This isn't the best but watchable if you want to see unsung talents.

1st watched 9/15/2001 - 4 out of 10(Dir-George Randol): Mostly badly acted mystery involving the murder of a man in a black community. Besides the antics of a couple of funny detectives this is otherwise a very uninteresting film. It does have some merit because it was a complete black production from an age where blacks were only given small and very predictable characters in the white-owned film world of the day. This film wouldn't have broken the barrier even if it was made by a big budget film maker because of the very simple story. I am glad that this has been put to video just for a historical reason if for nothing else and to give us a different perspective on this culture in these times.