Product Details

• Actors: Spencer Williams, Stepin Fetchit, Moms Mabley, Herb Jeffries, Tarzana
• Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, Dolby, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Studio: Echo Bridge Home Entertainment
• DVD Release Date: January 1, 2004
• Run Time: 231 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00062IYYQ
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #35,933 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

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  Movies & TV > African American Cinema > Drama

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Four urban films: Harlem Rides the Range, Moon Over Harlem, The Big Timers, and Dirty Gertie from Harlem USA.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars All singing, all dancing, all African American, August 17, 2007

By	Annie Van Auken (Planet Earth) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

"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.

SYNOPSES:

"Big Timers" - This musical short tells the story of a poor girl and her mother who don't want her well-to-do suitor to know of her humble status.

"Dirty Gertie From Harlem USA" - A Harlem club dancer hides from her backer/boyfriend in the Caribbean, where her seductive stage manner makes her a sensation at a local resort.

"Harlem Rides the Range" - A typical 'B' western with all the standard elements. There's a struggle over a radium mine, a frame-up, an escape, and of course, some music. Singing cowboy Herb Jeffries is accompanied here by the Four Tones and the Four Blackbirds.

"Moon Over Harlem" - Fragments of this movie have been lost, so it suffers a bit from lack of continuity. It's the story of a woman and daughter who fall victim to her new husband, a gangster with no redeeming qualities. While stealing from his bride the man lusts after his step-daughter.

A similar collection is Race Movies: The Girl in Room 20/Son of Ingagi/The Girl From Chicago/Lying Lips.

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

(???) Big Timers - Duke Williams/Lou Swartz/Gertrude Saunders/Stepin Fetchit/Tarzana/Moms Mabley (?)

(5.0) Dirty Gertie From Harlem USA (1946) - Francine Everett/Don Wilson/Spencer Williams/July Jones/Piano Frank

(5.7) Harlem Rides the Range (1939) - Herb Jeffries/Spencer Williams/Lucius Brooks/F.E. Miller/Clarence Brooks/The Four Tones

(4.5) Moon Over Harlem (1939) - Buddy Harris/Cora Green/Izinetta Wilcox/Earl Gough

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Race Movies, September 18, 2008

By	Richard C. Jones - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

These movies won't be found on cable, and the stories are a little hokey, but they stand the test of time because the actors are doing their thing when there was a color split in Hollywood.