The Black King (film)

The Black King chronicles the rise and fall of a fictionalized charismatic leader of a back-to-Africa movement, satirizing the life of Marcus Garvey.[4][5] The film explores numerous critiques of Garvey's movement, including the lack of knowledge about Africa, the presumptuousness in making plans for future development and government in Africa without consultation of people already there, and conflicts between lighter skinned and darker skinned African Americans.[5] While Garvey was a primarily a political leader with religious opinions, his counterpart in the film was primarily a preacher and religious leader.[6][5] The film was intended to resonate with the audience's pre-existing disillusionment with Garvey.[4]

The Black King was written as a stage play by Donald Heywood and plans were publicly announced to produce it on Broadway directed by Russian choreographer Léonide Massine. This never took place. Instead, Heywood's story was adapted by Morris M. Levinson and it was produced as a film by Southland Pictures under white director Bud Pollard in 1932.[7] The film was re-released in the 1940s under the title, Harlem Big Shot.[5]

Daniel J. Leab, a 1975 commentator, rates it well as entertainment, saying it has "a more carefully plotted storyline than most other black genre films of its time".[5] Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times wrote in 1988 that despite the film's small budget, the film has "considerable scope and energy ... largely due to a dynamic, brutally comic burlesque of ... [lead actor] A. B. Comathiere".[4]

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