Home | Movies By Year | Movies from 1939
Birthright (1939 film)
Buy Birthright (1939 film) now from AmazonFirst, read the Wikipedia article. Then, scroll down to see what other TopShelfReviews readers thought about the movie. And once you've experienced the movie, tell everyone what you thought about it.
Wikipedia article
'Birthright' is a 1939 American film directed, co-produced and co-written by Oscar Micheaux. Carman Newsome stars in the 1939 film as a black Harvard graduate facing racism and discrimination after he returns to his small hometown in Tennessee, where he hoped to develop a school similar to Tuskegee Institute or Hampton Institute, both historically black colleges.Larry Langman, David Ebner. 'Hollywood's Image of the South: A Century of Southern Films' (2001), p. 95 . "Birthright (1939), Micheaux. Dir. Oscar Micheaux; Sc. Oscar Micheaux; Cast includes: Carman Newsome, Alec Lovejoy, Ethel Moses. Advertised as "A story of the Negro and the South," Oscar Micheaux's drama is based on the novel by T. S. Stribling."
This is a talkie remake of Micheaux's 1924 silent film 'Birthright'; both were adapted from white author Thomas S. Stribling's 1922 novel of the same title. Starring J. Homer Tutt, Micheaux's 1924 film was criticized for its graphic depiction of racism. The film is now considered lost.
Production
The'Birthright' remake was first scheduled for release in 1937,but in January 1938 it was reported that filming was still taking place in Ridgefield, New Jersey. The crew was estimated to number 15 members.
Release
The exact date of the film's theatrical release is unclear, though it most likely occurred at some point in 1938. By mid-March 1939, the film was playing in theaters in Oakland, California. Black patrons of Oakland's Lincoln Theater threatened to boycott all black films (also known as race films) after having seen 'Birthright' and Micheaux's 1935 film 'Temptation,' as they accused the films of stereotyping blacks in the same manner as did mainstream Hollywood productions.
Legacy
Although Micheaux's 1924 version of 'Birthright' is considered a lost film, the portion of the 1939 version that survives was restored under Library of Congress supervision and has been preserved in its AFI Collection.
References
Buy Birthright (1939 film) now from Amazon
<-- Return to movies from 1939