Racists learn that the land a negro owns lies over a vast oil field, and threaten his life when he refuses to sell.Racists learn that the land a negro owns lies over a vast oil field, and threaten his life when he refuses to sell.Racists learn that the land a negro owns lies over a vast oil field, and threaten his life when he refuses to sell.
Louis Dean
- August Barr
- (as Louis Déan)
Edward Fraction
- Peter Kaden
- (uncredited)
Edward E. King
- Tom Cutschawl
- (uncredited)
Lena L. Loach
- Christina
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe only surviving print of this film is in the collection of the Cinematheque Royale in Belgium. Its title cards are in French and Flemish. They have been translated back, from French, into English.
- Quotes
Title Card: Jefferson Dirscoll, one of the many mulattos who conceal their origins. Since that cursed moment in which his mother had involuntarily betrayed the secret of this race. Driscoll had developed a ferocious hatred for the black race, from which he was born.
- ConnectionsFeatured in American Experience: Midnight Ramble (1994)
Featured review
Clash of Symbols
'The Symbol of the Unconquered', like most silent westerns, is an easygoing outdoor yarn making good use of attractive sylvan locations; but with the unorthodox racial element one expects from a film by Oscar Micheaux. The villainy is surprisingly not exclusively white in origin, the meanest of the bad guys being a mulatto called Driscoll whose hatred of blacks derives from his own failure to pass for white - in a flashback anticipating 'Imitation of Life' - when his black mother inconveniently shows up while he's courting a nice local white girl. The veteran black actor Leigh Whipper (best known for the role of Crooks in both the original Broadway production and film version of 'Of Mice and Men') makes his film debut rather bizarrely playing the role of a villainous Indian fakir.
After much scheming the bad guys finally make their move on the estate of hero Hugh Van Allen's oil-rich settlement with the help of the local Ku Klux Klan, who saddle up in an impressively shot night sequence, while heroine Eve Mason changes out of her frock into an equally impressive Annie Oakley buckskin cowgirl outfit to ride off herself for help.
Unfortunately, it's at this point that a substantial chunk of the film is tantalisingly missing. But the help duly arrives, since the Klan get their asses kicked and are sent packing by a fusillade of bricks thrown by a brother. When the dust settles, Hugh is now an oil millionaire with a big office, his arm round the comely Eve. The End.
After much scheming the bad guys finally make their move on the estate of hero Hugh Van Allen's oil-rich settlement with the help of the local Ku Klux Klan, who saddle up in an impressively shot night sequence, while heroine Eve Mason changes out of her frock into an equally impressive Annie Oakley buckskin cowgirl outfit to ride off herself for help.
Unfortunately, it's at this point that a substantial chunk of the film is tantalisingly missing. But the help duly arrives, since the Klan get their asses kicked and are sent packing by a fusillade of bricks thrown by a brother. When the dust settles, Hugh is now an oil millionaire with a big office, his arm round the comely Eve. The End.
helpful•40
- richardchatten
- Mar 30, 2017
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- The Symbol of the Unconquered: A Story of the Ku Klux Klan
- Filming locations
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime54 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1
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Top Gap
By what name was The Symbol of the Unconquered (1920) officially released in Canada in English?
Answer