Review of St. Louis Blues

In continuing to review the film accomplishments of African-Americans on film in chronological order for Black History Month, we're now at the start of the talkies. St. Louis Blues is the only film appearance of the legendary singer Bessie Smith. As an excuse to warble the classic W. C. Handy-composed song that's the title of this short, Ms. Smith gets two-timed and then rejected by Jimmy Mordecai. The other woman is the light-skinned Isabel Washington, sister of Fredi Washington who's in the next short I'm reviewing, Black and Tan. Anyway, when she sings, Bessie is in a class by herself though I wish the recording on the soundtrack (which was presumably live) had sounded sharper. Mordecai later returns for some tap-dancing before coming back to Ms. Smith only to reject her again when he gets her money from her leg garter. Then she reprises before "The End" flashes on the screen. This interesting curio also had the Hall Johnson Choir doing the chorus with James P. Johnson playing the piano. One more interesting fact: The distributor was Sack Amusement Enterprises which later handled later race movies like Spencer Williams' The Blood of Jesus and Go Down Death.