User Reviews

This movie, Swing!, is one of two directed by Oscar Micheaux that's included in the 3-DVD set called Black Entertainment in Film. It starts as a melodrama about a woman whose husband is cheating on her with another woman whose own husband threatens to kill any man she's with. After the fight that results, two months pass and the woman that was cheated on comes to Harlem to visit and live with a young former neighbor woman who gets her a job as a seamstress in a show produced by her boyfriend. The temperamental leading lady singer-who resembles the woman that stole the other lady's husband-is constantly late and almost sabotages the show when she breaks her leg while drunk. But all is saved when the cheated woman replaces her...There's other details of the plot but never mind since much of the dialogue is pretty stilted with many of the performances adequate. There are two, though, that stand out: Alec Lovejoy-who I've previously seen in the shorts St. Louis Blues and Black and Tan and in Edgar G. Ullmer's Moon Over Harlem-playing two roles. One as that jealous husband and the other as that man who hits his temperamental star wife after she gets out of hand. And Amanda Randolph (credited here as Mandy) who tells the cheated woman about who she saw with her husband in an attitude that seems to imply "Watch out, sucker!" Both became veterans on film. Of the women I alluded in the plot line, both Cora Green as Mandy Jenkins and Hazel Diaz in her double role of Eloise Jackson and Cora Smith are not much as actresses but they both can warble a tune. In fact, it's mainly the musical performances that make Swing! get a little lively after the first 15 minutes. Among those highlights: teen trumpeter Doli Armena blowing hot on two numbers, Miss Harris doing her sexy dance, The Tyler Twins-one on piano and another singing and tap dancing, two more dance numbers by a group of women, Diaz' one number, and Green's two, one of which I recognized as "Bei Mir Bist di Schon". Add Dorothy Van Engle as Mandy's young former neighbor friend Lena Powell and Carman Newsome as her producer boyfriend Ted Gregory and you've got Oscar Micheaux's feature of Swing! that's long enough filler for an hour of the black audience's entertainment time. No great shakes, this movie is enjoyable enough on a historical level concerning both black filmmakers and the entertainers making a rare film appearance here.

Story of a producer trying to get an all black show on Broadway has some great music. The rest of the movie isn't bad but suffers from being filmed (as many of the films that were little more than filmed performance films) from point and shoot perspective. they had one set up and that was it and they used it for every scene. Its okay if you under stand the limitations. Even with the limitations the music is what shines here and its the music that should be the reason you see this film. The version of Bei Mir Bist Du Schön kicks serious behind, or would if it had been seen in a night club or on stage. Here the non- moving camera and need to cram everyone in the frame works against the wonderful musical performance. Still the music is good enough to warrant a viewing should you ever get the chance to see this.

This film reminds me of 42nd Street starring Bebe Daniels and Ruby Keeler. When I watch this film a lot of it reminded me of 42nd Street, especially the character Eloise who's a temperamental star and she ends up falling and breaks her ankle, like Bebe Daniels did in 42nd Street and another performer gets the part and become a star. This film, like most race films, keeps people watching because of the great entertainment. Race films always showed Black Entertainment as it truly was that was popular in that time era. The Dancing Styles, The Music, Dressing Styles, You'll Love It. This movie could of been big if it was made in Hollywood, it would of had better scenery, better filming, and more money which would make any movie better. But its worth watching because it is good and Micheaux does good with the little he has. I have to say out of all Micheaux's films, Swing is the best! The movie features singers, dancers, actresses, and actors who were popular but forgotten today. Doli Armena, a awesome female trumpet player who can blow the horn so good that you think Gabriel is blowing a horn in the sky. The sexy, hot female dancer Consuela Harris would put Ann Miller and Gyspy Rose Lee to shame.

Adding further info... Popular blues singer of the 20's and 30's Cora Green is the focus of the film, she's Mandy, a good, hard working woman with a no good man who takes her money and spend it on other women. A nosy neighbor played by Amanda Randolph tells Mandy what she seen and heard and Mandy goes down to the club and catches her man with an attractive, curvy woman by the name of Eloise (played Hazel Diaz, a Hot-Cha entertainer in the 30's) and a fight breaks out. Then Mandy goes to Harlem where she reunites with a somewhat guardian angel Lena played by one of the most beautiful women in movies Dorothy Van Engle. Lena provides Mandy with a home, a job, and helps her become a star when temperamental Cora Smith (played by Hazel, I guess she's playing two parts or maybe she changed her stage name) tries to ruin the show with her bad behavior. When Cora gets drunk and breaks her leg, Lena convinces everyone that Mandy is right for the job and Lena is right and a star is born in Mandy. Tall, long, lanky, but handsome Carman Newsome is the cool aspiring producer who Lena looks out for as well. Pretty boy Larry Seymour plays the no good man but after Lena threatens him, he might shape up. There are a few highlights but the one that sticks out to me is the part where Cora Smith (Hazel Diaz) struts in late for rehearsal and goes off on everyone and then her man comes in and punches her in the jaw but that's not enough, she almost gets into a fight with Mandy again. In between there's great entertainment by chorus girls, tap dancers, shake dancers, swing music, and blues singing. There's even white people watching the entertainment, I wonder where Micheaux found them, there's even a scene where there's blacks and whites sitting together at the club, Micheaux frequently integrated blacks and whites in his films, he should be commended for such a bold move.

This movie was the first race film I really enjoyed and it helped introduced me to Oscar Micheaux. This movie is one of the best of the race film genre, its a behind the scenes story about the ups and downs of show business.

No these early race films may not be the best, can't be compared with Hallelujah, Green Pastures, Stormy Weather, Cabin In The Sky, Carmen Jones, or any other Hollywood films but their great to watch because their early signs of black film-making and plus these films provide a glimpse into black life and black entertainment through a black person's eyes. These films gave blacks a chance to play people from all walks of life, be beautiful, classy, and elegant, and not just be stereotypes or how whites felt blacks should be portrayed like in Hollywood. Most of the actors and actresses of these race films weren't the best, but they were the only ones that could be afforded at the time, Micheaux and Spencer Williams couldn't afford Nina Mae McKinney, Josephine Baker, Ethel Waters, Fredi Washington, Paul Robeson, Rex Ingram, and more of the bigger stars, so Micheaux and other black and white race film-makers would use nightclub performers in their movies, some were good, some weren't great actors and actresses, but I think Micheaux and others knew most weren't good actors and actresses but they were used more as apart of an experiment than for true talent, they just wanted their stories told, and in return many black performers got to perform their true talents in the films. For some true actors/actresses race films were the only type of films they could get work, especially if they didn't want to play Hollywood stereotypes, so I think you'll be able to spot the true actors/actresses from the nightclub performers. These race films are very historic, they could have been lost forever, many are lost, maybe race films aren't the greatest example of cinema but even Hollywood films didn't start out great in the beginning. I think if the race film genre continued, it would have better. If your looking for great acting, most race films aren't the ones, but if your looking for a real example of black entertainment and how blacks should have been portrayed in films, than watch race films. There are some entertaining race films with a good acting cast, Moon Over Harlem, Body and Soul, Paradise In Harlem, Keep Punching, Sunday Sinners, Dark Manhattan, Broken Strings, Boy! What A Girl, Mystery In Swing, Miracle In Harlem, and Sepia Cinderella, that not only has good entertainment but good acting.