Murder in Harlem
Directed byOscar Micheaux
Clarence Williams (cabaret sequence)[citation needed] (uncredited)
Written byOscar Micheaux (novel The Story of Dorothy Stanfield)
Oscar Micheaux (screenplay)
Clarence Williams (cabaret sequence)[citation needed] (uncredited)
Produced byAlice B. Russell (producer)
Oscar Micheaux (producer)[citation needed] (uncredited)
StarringSee below
CinematographyCharles Levine
Release date
1935
Running time
102 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Murder in Harlem (also released as Lem Hawkins Confession and Brand of Cain) is a 1935 American race film written, produced and directed by Oscar Micheaux, who also appears in the film. He remade his 1921 silent film The Gunsaulus Mystery.

Basing the works on the 1913 trial of Leo Frank for the murder of Mary Phagan,[1] Micheaux used the detective genre to introduce different voices and conflicting accounts by his characters. In July 2021, the film was shown in the Cannes Classics section at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival.[2]

Plot

An African-American man is framed of the murder of a white woman, but a white man is responsible. Author-turned-attorney Henry Glory is hired by the accused man's sister to defend him. Glory pieces the crime together, and the white killer is revealed. The film is loosely based on the real life case of Leo Frank. However, it changes the details of the real case, which was highly prejudicial against Frank due to his being a Jewish man in Georgia. Unlike in the film, Frank's guilt is often viewed with great skepticism due to him never receiving a fair trial.[3][4]

Cast

Soundtrack

See also

References

  1. ^ "Oscar Micheaux and Leo Frank: Cinematic Justice Across the Color Line", Film Quarterly, Summer 2004. Archived April 13, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
  2. ^ "2021 Cannes Classics Lineup Includes Orson Welles, Powell and Pressburger, Tilda Swinton & More". The Film Stage. 23 June 2021. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
  3. ^ "Overview: Lem Hawkins’ Confession", Turner Classic Movies.
  4. ^ J. Ronald Green, Straight Lick: The Cinema of Oscar Micheaux, Indiana University Press, 2000, p. 174.

External links


Films directed by Oscar Micheaux
Categories