The Movie Room

1920-40, directed by Oscar Micheaux

Collection Rating: 10/10

Average Film Rating: 7/10

It’s been a long time since I posted, so I’m here with a 14-film pack instead of a single movie. When I first realized this Complete Oscar Micheaux pack was released by Kino Lorber in February, I immediately bought it as I had already seen (and loved) Body and Soul (1925) and was excited to see more of his films. Having now just finished watching all the films contained within, I am super impressed with this collection, even if the movies themselves aren’t all masterpieces.

My average ratings for the 14 films in here is rounded up to 7 out of 10—there are two 5s, six 6s, three 7s, one 8, and two 9s. For the most part, the three silent films are the best of the bunch—Within Our Gates (1920; 9/10), The Symbol of the Unconquered (1920) (7/10), and Body and Soul (9/10)—and then the talkies struggle with the cheapness of the production value and the lack of professional acting abilities. But even with those talkie issues, they still show what a creative genius Micheaux was. I am not a huge fan of 1930s or 40s boxing movies, as they all feel so formulaic and all just remind me of their deconstruction in Barton Fink, but The Notorious Elinor Lee (1940; 6/10) goes down a lot easier for me than a lot of the other films of that genre I have seen because there is a lot less schmaltz—dealing with unfair prison sentences in the African-American community just feels more realistic and pressing of an issue to me than some Jackie Cooper urchin mugging his way into a bed and some food. The best of the sound films for me is Swing! (1938; 8/10) which feels very similar to The Broadway Melody but again it feels less cheap in spirit (though definitely cheaper in budget) and the musical numbers in that film especially are amazing to behold. With all their limitations, these 14 films still remain impressive works of art with important messages and good storytelling.

As a collection, the curatorial work here is outstanding. The way that these old prints have been restored is glorious and if you look at the previous editions compared to what is on these blu-rays, it is clear that the work was done with serious intent and care. This goes a long way to showing these films the respect they deserve and which was sorely lacking when so many of Micheaux’s films were chopped up or went missing. The biggest loss evident on this boxset (besides the fact that “complete” is only comprising 14 films) is in The Symbol of the Unconquered which does a great job building up tension and then is missing 20 minutes of climax, with a title card telling us that this is where the main characters were beating up KKK members with bricks. My biggest cinematic dream used to be for them to find a complete version of Orson Welles’s The Magnificent Ambersons, but that has now been topped by the desire to see a complete The Symbol of the Unconquered with that “lost” (how convenient…) scene intact. Adding to the great work of just assembling these films, each of the discs comes with special features, including trailers for some movies that are otherwise lost, a couple of shorts, and featurettes with Rhea L. Combs, a film curator at the Smithsonian who put in such great work here, where she discusses the impact of Micheaux’s films, how he worked despite everything in his way, how he made the transition from silent to talkie, and how there is hope that someday we will find more than just the 14 films we have in this collection.

Though none of the individual films in this set got a 10/10 from me, the set itself is a massive achievement from Kino Lorber and the Library of Congress. Watching these movies, it is clear that Micheaux is a great American talent and it is fantastic that he is now being recognized as such, after years of his films being lost, incomplete, or unrestored.