Race Movies: The Duke Is Tops/The Black King/Spirit Of Youth/The Glove
Four classic urban films: The Duke is Tops, The Black King, Spirit of Youth, and The Glove.
Rating: 
(out of 5 reviews)
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Review by MeMyselfandI for Race Movies: The Duke Is Tops/The Black King/Spirit Of Youth/The Glove
Rating:
I love race films. Race films gives me a chance to discover unknown black acting talents who may have been overlooked. Race films are the only films that blacks were able to play people from all walks of life and be versatile and not be stereotypes.
You get four movies for the price of one really. All the films are about an hour long. Their all worth while watching, the quality is pretty good compared to whats out there.
The Duke Is Tops – Lena Horne’s debut movie. I liked the entertainment in this film. It was truly great black entertainment. The acting didn’t do much for me.
Spirit of Youth – This film is very enjoyable, its worth an hour to watch. Its basically about a seductress, a vamp played excellently by Mae Turner who is trying to ruin Joe Louis boxing career. Everyone in this movie gives effective performances, Mae Turner stood out the most to me. She was an excellent black actress, who was a pro at playing cold, evil women you love to hate (move out the way Bette Davis). She never had a career in Hollywood movies but in race films she was a familar face, only in race films was where she able to display her art. The entertainment in the film is tops. If you don’t like the acting in race films, then you’ll love the entertainment, black entertainment was know as being the best of all entertainment back then.
The Black King – A preacher and activist who is both crooked and inspiring convinces his people to leave America and go back home to Africa where they can be powerful and free. He becomes a leader of his people but at the same times takes advantage of their trust. Vivian Baber is a wonderful, becoming, graceful actress, she reminds me of Bette Davis in her early years. A.B. Comathiere gives a humourous, colorful performance as he always does.
I didn’t watch the other film on the collection. Why was a 70′s movie added, why not add another race film? I think anyone who buys this collection will enjoy it.
Review by Annie Van Auken for Race Movies: The Duke Is Tops/The Black King/Spirit Of Youth/The Glove
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.
SYNOPSES:
“The Black King” – A Baptist minister starts a “Back to Africa” movement, but is accused of swindling money from his followers. This movie, made by a white-owned company, was billed as a satire on the life of Marcus Garvey, an early black separatist. (After a fraud conviction, Garvey was deported to Jamaica in 1925– he is now recognized as a hero of that island nation.)
“The Duke is Tops” – In order to further her career, Duke Davis convinces his girlfriend Ethel to leave his management, become a “single” and employ a talent scout. Ethel flops in her new show and so does Duke’s latest production, now that Ethel is gone. Duke finds renewed success with a colorful travelling medicine show, then creates a venue for Ethel that’s based on the medicine show concept.
“The Glove” – Cult film from the late 1970s. A down-on-his-luck former baseball player turned bounty hunter pursues a violent giant who beats his chosen victims with a formidable and frightening police riot glove. (This movie is an anomaly in this series.)
“Spirit Of Youth” – Biography of a fictional boxer that parallels in part the life of its star, Joe Louis. After he has a run-in with the gambling element, friends help heavyweight fighter Joe Thomas get his career back on track.
A similar 4-movie set is the SPENCER WILLIAMS COLLECTION.
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Parenthetical numbers preceding titles are 1 to 10 viewer poll ratings found at a film resource website.
(3.7) The Black King (1932) – A.B. DeComathiere/Vivianne Baber/Knolly Mitchell
(5.1) The Duke is Tops (1938) – Ralph Cooper/Lena Horne/Laurence Criner/Rubberneck Holmes/Basin Street Boys/Cats and the Fiddle
(4.9) The Glove (1979) – John Saxon/Roosevelt Grier/Joanna Cassidy/Joan Blondell/Jack Carter/Aldo Ray/Keenan Wynn
(6.0) Spirit Of Youth (1938) – Joe Louis/Edna Mae Harris/Clarence Muse/Mae Turner
Review by Andre M. for Race Movies: The Duke Is Tops/The Black King/Spirit Of Youth/The Glove
Rating:
Race movies are sometimes interesting to watch, but the low budgets and bad acting as well as the poor condition of most of the surviving films make them more of a curiosity than anything else.
The Black King is a lampoon of Marcus Garvey’s Back to Africa movement. Here, a 1930s version of Al Sharpton bamboozles his gullible followers into supporting the above-mentioned scheme. Interestingly, some actual scenes from Marcus garvey’s parades are used in this film. It appears that some of the film is missing as there are some curious gaps in the story (particularly the love triange aspect). Black nationalists would be outraged at this picture, historians will find it a conversation piece. Others?
The Duke Is Tops is famous largely for being the screen debut of Lena Horne, who was then 21 years old. Mighty dull stuff here. Even Lena’s songs are too draggy for modern tastes. However, there are three interesitng segments. Proto-doo-woppers the Cats and the Fiddle pep things up with their classic “Killing Jive” (a coded ode to marijuana) and The Basin Street Boys (somewhat of a ghetto version of the Mills Brothers) do an enjoyable “Thursday Evening Swing.” There is a nice and incredibly sexy (for this era) pseudo-African dance scene near the end, but these performances are all that’s worth seeing here.
“The Spirit of Youth” is a really bad film with a wooden Joe Louis playing himself as a boxer who gets sidetracked by gangsters and loose wimmin. Horrible acting, but bugeyed wonder Mantan Moreland lightens things up with his usual brand of clowning. The Glove is a really bad 70s blaxploitation tripe that is out of place here and not really worth it to watch all the way through. This film would embarrass Rosey Grier today and I doubt if he’d put it in his resume.
With that said, this collection is at least worthy of a look.
Review by Lawrence J. David for Race Movies: The Duke Is Tops/The Black King/Spirit Of Youth/The Glove
Rating:
WOW WE WERE EASILY AMUSED.FOR HISTORY SAKE OF THE STRUGGLE FOR BLACK MOVIES, IT HAS EVOLVED A LONG WAY,
Review by Willie M. Bynes for Race Movies: The Duke Is Tops/The Black King/Spirit Of Youth/The Glove
Rating:
The quality of the picture was sacrificed by the condition of the original master. There are a lo of scratches here and there so don’t expect exceptional picture quality. It did hold my attention.
Overall I would say it is O.K.