1h 1min | Crime, Music | 21 July 1939
Directors: Leslie Goodwins, Bernard Vorhaus
Writers: Clarence Muse (original story and screenplay), Langston Hughes (original story and screenplay)
Stars: Bobby Breen, Alan Mowbray, Ralph Morgan, Clarence Muse, Matthew 'Stymie' Beard, Willie Best
Watched online, poor copy, avoid. Also available on AmazonPrime. One reviewer said Roan was the best copy to get.
I left the writing credit in for a change, because this was written by 2 prominent, successful black men of the day. Researching them further might be interesting,
One Amazon reviewer was very distressed that descendants of slaves would write and portray ANY slave as loyal to their master and happy to be owned by him. (She even said she wasn't going to return the rental disc she had, but would buy it to take that copy out of circulation, and destroy it.)
The opening has a title card establishing this as 1854 Louisiana. I'm no expert on that time and place, but the film makes the point that Bobby Breen's father, played by Frank Morgan's brother, was a plantation and slave owner who never sold a slave (nor did his father), and seemed to treat them fairly and well. We see the contrast when new management takes over the plantation, and whips a young man for talking with his fiancee. Soon, the new management arranges to sell all the slaves, and at the market the men are separated from the women who are separated from the children. The writers are not ignoring the horrors of antebellum slavery.
That Amazon reviewer was repulsed by seeing slaves happy and singing. But this is only shown while the "Breen family" is in charge of the plantation (and they spend the most time singing when they're elated the sugar cane harvest is complete). Yes, they are still slaves, but knowing how other slaves are treated, and how they were treated for a while, means it's reasonable for them to rejoice in having a kind master who lets them live life, get married and raise a family. While under the tyrannical masters, they are praying and grieving.
During the time that slavery was the law of the land, must all slaves have been miserable? Should they have been miserable and sad when treated well? Was "freedom" as share croppers a better life? I'm not advocating slavery; I'm suggesting the authors might have a point that owners who created a decent life for their workers were better people than those who ran their slaves with cruelty.
I doubt they intended to advocate slavery itself. Whether white audiences could interpret it that way is another problem; when art is released into the world, it's meaning is relinquished to the eye of the beholder. The system of slavery was certainly shown to be a fickle, dangerous life, where a small turn of events can bring horrors to the enslaved, with no legal means of seeking a remedy.
Bobby Breen (b. 1927) spends less time singing than usual, and tries to help one slave (Clarence Muse) targeted by the new managers, until he realizes they are ALL about to be sold, when he tries to help them all. He's shown as a competent well-meaning pre-teen, perhaps even heroic. Only 2 more films remain in his 9-credit filmography; 1 this year, and the last in '42 where he plays himself in a Jane Withers film.
Stymie Beard (b. 1925), formerly of the Little Rascals and Our Gang series, plays the town crier / chief gossip. He had 35 feature film credits, from '27-'47, '53, '74, '77, '78, '80 in addition to his 42 shorts ('30-'37).
Willie Best has a very small but scene-stealing role as a chimney sweep who helps BB and his friend. Alan Mowbry is a very helpful inn keeper/lawyer. Robert Grieg is a bloated, gout-plagued judge.
Much like the Crinoline Choir in A Day at the Races, the Hall Johnson Choir here populate the plantation and provide expert singing.
I look forward to Broken Strings ('42), Clarence Muse's only other writing credit. He has 149 actor credits. Perhaps when I see a better print of Way Down South, I'll elevate this to 7 (recommended), if only for the cultural/historic significance of being written by (and writing credit clearly given to) black artists.
Sol Lesser Productions, dir. Goodwins & Vorhaus; 6+
