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| Lawrence Chenault and Charles Gilpin in Ten Nights in a Barroom |
Timothy Shay Arthur's 1854 novel Ten Nights in a Bar-Room and What I Saw There is sometimes called the Uncle Tom's Cabin of the Temperance movement, especially after it was turned into a play in 1858 by William W. Pratt and began touring the country. Not surprisingly, it was made into a movie as early as 1901, and at least four remakes preceded this all-Black film, credited to director Roy Calnek and the Colored Players of Philadelphia. The failure of Prohibition tarnished the property a bit, and the last known version, the only talkie, was made by William A. O'Connor in 1931. The 1926 film holds up well for many reasons, including the performance of Charles Gilpin as Joe Morgan, who turns to drink after he's cheated out of the mill he owns by Simon Slade (Lawrence Chenault, a character actor mainstay of Black film in the era). Gilpin, who founded his own theatrical company in Harlem, was the creator of the title role of Eugene O'Neill's The Emperor Jones, but was fired from the play for too many conflicts with O'Neill over the racial epithets the play forced him to utter. (He was replaced by Paul Robeson, who became famous for the part.) Gilpin gives a natural, untheatrical performance as Morgan, whose downfall leads to the death of his young daughter -- a very effective young performer who is unidentified in the credits and in any other source I've found. There's also some skillfully directed and edited action at the climax of the film, when a mob burns down Slade's barroom, with the evil gambler Harvey Green (William A. Clayton Jr.) trapped inside, and Morgan pursues Slade in a rowboat chase on the river. Though the didacticism and melodrama, along with some unfortunate attempts at humor featuring Arline Mickey as the dime-novel addict Mehitable Carwright and Edgar Moore as a drunk called Sample Swichel, slow things down a bit, Ten Nights in a Barroom stays watchable today.
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