First of all, this IS NOT a murder mystery, despite the title. There is a murder committed, but it happens in the last minute or two of the film, and it's no mystery who did it as it's shown on screen. Black-cast films of the 30s and 40s are usually interesting to watch, even though they are usually on a technical level about one or two rungs below PRC or Monogram at their most threadbare. This one is no exception. There's some good swing music (and some bad syrupy numbers from a young lady singer), some good performances by Mamie Smith and whoever played the bartender (the scene where he makes a "brown bomber" drink is hilarious!), and interesting plot elements involving the small merchants of Harlem banding together against exploitation. However, the film is not well-paced, too much time is spent talking rather than acting, and some of the younger actors are a bit wooden. The great blues-vaudeville vocalist Mamie Smith, the true Mother of the Blues, is fantastic in her few songs (the one on the street when she is selling her pies, near the beginning of the film, is moving and bluesy) and in her acting. How great it would have been to see her performing on stage! Much of the crew and the cast of this film made another one called Sunday SINNERS the year before, which also features some exciting scenes with Mamie Smith. Speaking of PRC, director Arthur Dreifuss actually moved UP to PRC after making this film, directing some entertaining things such as THE PAYOFF with Lee Tracy and BOSS OF BIG TOWN with John Litel, and BABY FACE MORGAN with Richard Cromwell and Robert Armstrong. He then moved up to Columbia's B unit and did two good entries in the Boston Blackie series. He wound up working for Sam Katzman in the sixties doing Riot on Sunset Strip, The Love-Ins, and the Young Runaways. Co-screenwriter Vincent Valentini also scripted such exploitation classics as SEX MADNESS (a personal favorite of mine) and BOY WHAT A GIRL, starring Tim "Kingfish" Moore. MURDER ON LENOX AVENUE doesn't seem to be going anywhere, although the supporting characters are colorful (the hunchback assistant to the crooked Mr. Marshall) and Black-cast films are of historical and cultural worth. Mamie Smith fans, however, will not want to miss her in her final years--she was still in fine form and had a power and maturity to her performance. Since (to my knowledge) we have no actual performance footage of Ms. Smith, a film like this one is the best we can do today.
Review of Murder on Lenox Avenue
