4 Responses to “Spencer Williams Collection – 4 Movies”

1. Andre M.
   6:57 am on November 8th, 2010

   Review by Andre M. for Spencer Williams Collection – 4 Movies
   Rating:
   Granted, these films are not in top-notch visual conditon and may require some eyestrain, but Spencer Williams (best remembered as Andy of “Amos and Andy”) was a director, producer, and star who preserved some pretty good slices of Black American life in cinema in the years around WW2.

   “Juke Joint” is a very likeable comedy. Presaging his work with Tim Moore and Alvin Childress of Amos and Andy, Spence teams with July Jones as a couple of goodhearted con men wh help their boarder Mama Lou. The jitterbug contest is the highlight of the film, but unfortunately is shot from a distant and stationary camera. Plus the dialogue skips a bit in the early scenes.

   “Go Down Death” has Spence as the bad guy who tries to frame a crusading preacher. Based loosely on the James Weldon Johnson poem of the same name. The scene where the devil goes after Spence is a sight to behold, albeit with stock footage.

   “Bronze Buckaroo” has Spence back to villainry again, as the bad cowboy to Herb Jeffries’ good guy. Pretty typical western, the fact that it is a black cast being the only distinguishing feature.

   “Blood of Jesus” is a sentimental favorite. My mother and aunts saw this film at their church in 1941 when they were teenagers and I fondly saw it with my mother recently and she joyously remembered it! Basically, a Black Southern fundentalist morality play as Spence plays no-so bad sinner man Razz Jackson (he would rather go hunting on Sunday than to church!-Shame on you Spencer!). He and his wife also have to face the choice between “born again” and beelzebub. This has a low-budget, down home charm that keeps it likeable.

   Overall, these are great period pieces, though not in the best condition. Enjoy.

2. Annie Van Auken
   7:52 am on November 8th, 2010

   Review by Annie Van Auken for Spencer Williams Collection – 4 Movies
   Rating:
   “Race movies,” a genre unique to the United States between 1915 and 1947, were quite popular with black Southern audiences and in Northern industrial cities that had large African American communities. After the successful legal desegregation of the film industry in 1948, this type of movie vanished, literally. Today, only a fifth of the original 500 race films still exist.

   ABOUT THIS DVD:

   Spencer Williams is best remembered as TV’s Andy Brown, of Amos ‘n’ Andy. He appeared on that CBS-TV adaptation of the popular radio sit-com from 1951 to ’53. Williams was originally a sound technician in the early “talkie” era. After scripting and acting in the first “all-black” horror movie (“Son of Ingagi”), Williams was hired by a white distributor to write and direct his own films. This arrangement made Spencer Williams the only black of his generation to create movies for a white-owned company. His 1941 directorial debut, “The Blood of Jesus,” was inducted into the Library of Congress National Film Registry in 1991. The rest of his output are average-quality ‘B’ movies.

   SYNOPSES:

   “The Blood of Jesus” – The spirit of a woman accidentally shot to death by her husband is accompanied by an angel to the Crossroads of Life. Before reaching this destination, she is tempted by the Devil.

   “The Bronze Buckaroo” – A western where not guns but ventriloquism is used to save the day. Rancher Joe Jackson has been abducted by a gang and Bob Blake and friends set out to find him.

   “Go Down Death” – A tavern owner who is feuding with a preacher tries to ruin the man’s reputation with some salacious photographs. In struggling with his mother for the prints, the bar owner accidentally kills her. The preacher’s eulogy for the mother (and a guilty conscience) leads to the schemer’s suicide.

   “Juke Joint” – Two down-and-out con men get involved in the lives of a small-town family they are boarding with. Spencer Williams’ last movie.

   Two more Spencer Williams films may be found on this small collection: Race Movies: Harlem Rides the Range/Moon Over Harlem/Big Timers/Dirty Gertie From Harlem USA.

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   Parenthetical numbers preceding titles are 1 to 10 viewer poll ratings found at a film resource website.

   (5.1) The Blood of Jesus (1941) – Cathryn Caviness/Spencer Williams/Rogenia Goldthwaite/James B. Jones

   (5.5) The Bronze Buckaroo (1939) – Herb Jeffries/Lucius Brooks/Spencer Williams/Artie Young/The Four Tones

   (5.8) Go Down Death (1944) – Spencer Williams/Myra D. Hemmings/Earl Sydnor/Edna May Harris

   (5.2) Juke Joint (1947) – Spencer Williams/July Jones/Inez Newman/Melody Duncan/Katherine Moore

3. Richard A. Nardi
   8:24 am on November 8th, 2010

   Review by Richard A. Nardi for Spencer Williams Collection – 4 Movies
   Rating:
   Black movies by, of and for black people. Much like Alfred Hitchcock, Spencer Williams shows up in the films he directed, usually getting significant screen time. Juke Joint has a young vocalist going to the big city to make her career. Music breaks out in living rooms and stages at the drop of a hat. Some great swing and jitterbug! Go Down Death seems religious, but the sins of Babylon are interesting. Great visions of Dantes Inferno or Hell. Bronze Buckaroo is typical of (Gene Autry) cowboy movies of the era. Singing cowboy, slow witted sidekick, claim jumpers and beautiful girl in peril. Blood of Jesus goes back to the religious theme. Don’t worry, some sinning is going on. Angels, devils and visions of the Pearly Gates are boffo! America populated by black people.

4. M. S. Brown
   9:11 am on November 8th, 2010

   Review by M. S. Brown for Spencer Williams Collection – 4 Movies
   Rating:
   These films were thought to be lost for decades but original prints were then found in an East Texas warehouse in the mid-1980s. They were given to and preserved by SMU in Dallas so over the years these copies emerged and are now readily available. Each one is an artifact of times gone by the way many movies are but the three Spencer Williams films in this set are priceless tributes to a man too long overlooked. They are each dated naturally but well worth the cost to have them together on one disc. They deal with different topics, two being well known for their religious contexts. Both were filmed in San Antonio, Tx. and “Go Down Death” is especially neat for its views of vanishing black neighborhoods, a prominent church since torn down, etc. It also features a young preacher named Samuel H. James who went on to become San Antonio’s first African American city councilman in the mid-1970s. The third is a silly soap opera/comedy set in Dallas, Tx. that some may find offensive due to its stereotypical black portrayals. The movies do suffer a bit in transfer but were never of high quality due to being produced on low budgets so both audio and video were compromised during production. Mr. Williams always used locals or amateur actors so again the movies may seem cheaply done; they were but with lot;s of heart. Knowing how and why these movies were made is important as the nation as changed dramatically from their day. The 4th title was made by a Hollywood studio using the considerable talents of the one and only Herb Jeffries “The Bronze Buckaroo” himself. Again the movie was made on a tight budget but stars a truly talented man who was very popular at the time as an actor and singer. Buckaroo is a typical “horse opera” much like all the Gene Autry or Roy Rogers movies made during the 1930s and early ’40s. The only difference is the all black cast and Herb J, who could sing as good as either of the other singing cowboys, maybe better. His movie was shot in California while the three Spencer Williams films were created in Texas; that’s an interesting story unto itself. If you have any affection or respect for black history then this set is a must have. There are some other Spencer Williams movies also available and I have them all thanks to DVDs like this one. My favorite is the hardest to find and will be featured in a book I’m writing about San Antonio’s historic black community. That other Spencer W movie is titled “Beale Street Mama”, which is probably the most important of Spencer Williams movies but that’s another story.
   
   Enjoy, Mel B

   ps; In a funeral scene near the end of “Go Down Death” my father’s gas station appears just outside the cemetery so I have a personal connection to that film