User Reviews

This movie is not only extraordinary for he 1930's it is extraordinary now. If this movie was made today it would be in the guise of either quasi elite character or a radical angry sounding African American that would be treated as a someone on the fringe who hates white folks. A character that automatically would be dismissed as some white hating, American hating person...in reality a racist or a villain themselves. It is amazing that we as African Americans have the dubious distinction of being villains or crazy if we want to go to Africa or have strong feelings for the place. Treatment one never sees if a Jewish person wants to migrate to Isreal or a Irish person wants to go to Ireland to get in touch of their roots. This film shows that a black person doesn't have to hate their country or white people to love Africa or wanting to go back to their roots. Being conditioned by present day American films I was waiting for the white villain or black companion telling the Paul Robeson character to stop talking about Africa all of the time and that he was nuts. Thankfully none of those characters showed up. Paul Robeson works as a stevedore in London ( I think). He gets along just fine with his white co workers. They even socialize and have a few drinks after work. He has a very supportive wife who listens and tries to understand his pull to Africa. He talks to her about needing to go there. He even has a map of Africa. There is no question that she will go with him without protest if and when he goes. I love this because in movies made now the wife is usually not supportive of such a "crazy thing". Which is crazy considering she had to know how her husband would feel before marrying him.

Paul Robeson of course has numerous chances to show off his voice. One day he is discovered by this man, a white man. He starts giving concerts and one day a man is in the audience recognizes a song he is singing. This song Robeson tells his wife is a song he has no idea of learning but it was always in him. The man in the audience tells him it is a song that only the Chief of this African tribe would sing. I must mention that neither the white man who manages him or the white man in the audience are bad evil money grubbing folks. Eureka!! He now has a connection to Africa. He always wondered what part of Africa his family was from, now he knows. Well him and his wife and his helper/friend all pack up and leave England for Africa. They do not have the welcome they expected. Which I thought was very realistic. Robeson and his wife are like fish out of water. There is a very angry medicine man who challenges Robeson and there is a ally named Mandingo a elder that helps Robeson out. Mandingo does not become a enemy of his tribe because he doesn't show blind allegiance and he respects the tribal traditions and warns Robeson about them. Of course Robeson thinks he is going to go over like a charm but he doesn't. One night while the tribe is doing a ritual Robeson intervenes while warned not to. But even worse his wife shows up. Both of them are arrested and she is sentenced to death. Right before the are ready to execute her he starts singing that song. All of a sudden everyone stops what they are doing and realizes he really is he Chief. The next scene is a a billboard advertising a show back in London. Well it seems that every year he goes back to England does a few concerts and goes back to Africa to with the proceeds to help his tribe. This we find out from his manager who tells us that he is a nice and great man. I loves this movie because for once we have a Black man who is shown to love his African roots without hating . I am not a defender of the white man. But I feel it puts me as a black woman in a terrible unfortunate position to be looked upon with suspect eyes every time one talks about their African roots. Or even crazy by confused Black people. The way it is always shown in present day movies. I feel most of us don't even think of hating white folks and that is why we want to go to Africa. They are not even in the equation. We want to go to Africa for the same reason a American born Irish person wants to go to Ireland. Just to see what is like and get next to our roots. That's all and this movie shows how it is done. BTW Ozzie Davis died the other day and it turns out that he was one of few people who stuck by Paul Robeson's when he blacklisted for his pro Soviet views. Another brave man, like Robeson who would not be compromised.

SONG OF FREEDOM is something of an unusual little film, a vehicle for singing sensation Paul Robeson, who doesn't appear to be the world's greatest actor. However, he does have a wonderfully deep singing voice and he spends most of the film in song, which is a real asset. The film features Robeson as a down-at-heel dock worker whose voice is discovered, which leads to him becoming a new musical sensation. He soon discovers that he's king of a made-up African nation and goes back to sort things out in the corrupt kingdom. This was an early feature from Hammer Films and I found it too heavily dated to be enjoyable, although it's a must for fans of the singer.

Hammer's third film, it is the earliest to exist in its entirety as "The Public Life of Henry the Ninth" is lost and, much like the Nixon tapes, 18 minutes of "The Mystery of the Marie Celeste" are missing. The film stars the legendary singer and actor Paul Robeson, an early champion of civil rights whose very left-wing views were a major source of controversy, as a London dockworker Johnny Zinga, a black Briton (with an American accent!) who seeks to reconnect with his ancestral roots in Africa. He has a beautiful singing voice, which eventually leads to him being hired by the opera composer Gabriel Danizetti. In the process, he discovers that he is descended from the ancient kings of the African island of Casanga, which has been ruled by witch doctors since his ancestor disappeared in 1700.

While the plot is certainly far-fetched, it is an interesting and important, if obscure, film when it comes to the development of the depiction of black people on screen. Robeson, who may have been the first actor to be given final approval of the editing of a film which he didn't direct himself, sought to "give a true picture of many aspects of the life of the coloured man in the West. Hitherto on the screen, he has been characterised or presented only as a comedy character. This film shows him as a real man." When it comes to the character of Johnny Zinga, I think that Robeson was largely successful as he does indeed across as a real person in spite of the storyline's unlikely developments. He was not only a wonderful singer but a very good actor too with a speaking voice almost as good as his singing voice.

Elizabeth Welch is good as his wife Ruth who, unlike most black women in 1930s and later films, is likewise treated like a real person rather than a Mammy figure. Other than Robeson, the best actor in the film is Ecco Homo Toto in his first of sadly only two film appearances as the wise Casangan Mandingo. When it comes to the supporting characters, however, most of them - both black and white - are unfortunately stereotypes with Johnny's friend and later servant Monty being the worst example of that. The scenes in Africa are rather cringeworthy by modern standards but the film's heart was in the right place and they were still far better than depictions of Africa in most other films and film serials of the era. In spite of the fact that the witch doctors in control of Casanga have deliberately cut the island off from European influence, both Mandingo and Endomo, the current witch doctor, speak fluent English. Endomo is quite fond of using the word "palaver," which is of Portuguese origin.

Overall, this is not exactly "Roots" but it was hugely progressive for its time in its depiction of Johnny and Ruth as people who happened to be black rather than as insulting or at least embarrassing caricatures of black people. It is also notable as one of the few films then or now to explore or even depict the black British population of the 1930s. The film is perhaps a little too idealistic for its own good but it still makes for a very entertaining watch.

***SPOILERS*** London dock worker Johnny Zinga, Paul Roberson, always longed to find out his roots ever since he was born into slavery on a slave boat, docked in the London pier,back in 1833. It wasn't until five years later that slavery was abolished in England making Johnny a free man as well as his fellow blacks in the country. Now all grown up with a good job and happily married to his wife Ruth, Elisabeth Welch, Johnny beside his excellent work on the London docks had developed a tremendous baritone voice that turns heads from anyone who's within range of hearing it.

Johnny for his part doesn't think much of his talents as a singer but Gabe Donozetti, Esme Prcy, an opera lover who after dis-barking from a Trans-Atlantic cruse ship on the London docks just happened to hear Johnny sing and is astounded that a talent like Johnny's has never been discovered! Since he's always out on the docks singing while he works for everyone to hear! Making Johnny an offer that he can't refuse Donozetti gets him to quit his job on the docks, that Johnny in fact loves very much,to become an opera singer making the kind of money that blue collar workers like himself, who's not all that crazy about cash, could only dream about!

We get to see a very reluctant at first Johhny get the hang of being a world renowned and beloved opera singer and making tons of money but his feelings for his people back in Africa, on the off coast African island of Casanga, becomes more pronounced in that now with his both fame and money he can finally do something to better their lives. Johnny also had in his possession an ancient African medallion that indicated that he in fact comes from royal African blood making it even more sure that his'presences in far off Casanga Is needed in that he's the islands rightful and long lost king!

***SPOILERS from this point on*** Making the ultimate sacrifice by leaving western civilization for the backward Dark Continent of Africa Johnny at first isn't accepted by the Casanga natives feeling that he's just an out of town, or island, interloper trying to exploit them for his own greedy and selfish purposes. It's also the island witch doctor Endobo, Arthur Williams, who by feeling threatened in Johnny making a fool out of him and his quack medicine, which has already cost the lives of dozens of islanders, who got it in for Johnny and tried to get his fellow Casangaens to run him as his wife Ruth and good friend Monty,Robert Adams, out of Casanga or even go so far as kill them!

The final showdown between Johnny and witch doctor Endobo comes when Johnny's about to give up his life to save his wife Ruth from being sacrificed to the ancient Casanga Gods that he starts to sing, or better yet belt out, the Casanga national anthem that only members of the Cosanga royal family would know! This song of freedom was always in Johnny's heart and soul, since birth, but he never was able to remember it until now! Just when his beloved and precious wife was about to be done it by the Casangan natives spurred on by the evil and soon to be discredited, in his fake and useless medical practices, medicine man Endobo!

Now back in England and singing up a storm in all he opera houses in both Europe and America Johnny can use the millions he makes singing to help his people, in bringing them into what was then the 19th century, better their lives and throw off the ancient practices, like witch doctors, which held them back in the suffering and poverty that they lived under for so many years!

The City University of New York or CUNY TV is offering a summer program of 1930s British film. Many have not withstood the hands of time. And among thee films 'Song of Freedom' with the towering talent that was Paul Robeson.Contrary to his own country America, with an exception or two, the British had a very soft spot for Robeson. And he appeared as hero and strong roles in UK cinema. 'Song of Freedom is no exception. The scenario, however, is replete, for audiences today, with racial stereotypes of the Africans or Blacks who are less than noble savages, but base savages, superstitious and living in a world that is lost in the shadows of long gone past. The conceit fits colonial and imperialist thinking of the times. Robeson is Paul Zanga, born in the UK,; his parents have fled their homeland lest they be killed by a cabal headed by a witch doctor and elders, wedded tp traditions that defy the modern (read European) mind,yet obviously bacdwards. What makes this film of interesting is the full acceptance of Robeson and his wife as as equals; there's friendship and one might add love;. He works on the docks, proud he is of his working class roots. And he has a talent for singing. 'Discovered' by an Italian impresario, Fame shines on Paul Zanga as stage actor and serious musician. And yet on the edge of fame, the Metropolitan Opera, the itch of discovery his roots is offered by a British lord. Robeson gives up all to return to his people as their king. Hostilely received,, he expresses a will to bring to his benighted people the blessings of modern civilisation...medicine, education and so on. Rebuffed to the point of being wounded, he prevails by recalling a song that proves he's the her to the throne. The film is not with its buffoons: one a black valet and an Italian, shameful souvenirs of ethnic stereotypes found in US cinema of the times. In a way Robeson wouldn't have taken the role if he didn't, methinks, it had a positive character full of dignity and racial pride. Still, viewing it today, the discomfit if not embarrassment overwhelms. Technically, the film is well shot, but history has made it an example of what not to make.