Eleven P.M. (1928)
** (out of 4)
Extremely bizarre race film has street violinist Sundaisy (Richard Maurice) agreeing to take in a young girl to protect her from the streets. When the girl grows up she soon finds herself preyed upon by a local gangster.
There's really not too much known about this film or its director/star Maurice. What is known is that the movie was shot in Detroit and that's pretty much it, which is too bad because while this film isn't that good it's certainly very strange and it makes one want to know more about its filmmaker. As far as race films go, there are certainly much better ones out there but this one here is interesting enough in a few ways to where fans of the genre will want to check it out.
I will start off talking about the biggest flaw and that's the fact that it's nearly impossible to follow the story. There are all sorts of characters who just pop up and I must admit that at times I got lost as to what was going on. I think Maurice really struggled to tell a coherent story but perhaps this was due to how much weirdness was also thrown in.
When I talk about the weirdness there are some strange scenes at the end where characters are coming back to life as animals. These scenes are beyond weird and really add a surreal nature to the picture. The effects are pretty poor considering they probably weren't working with much money but at the same time they're interesting. The twist also was quite good. The performances are on the so-so side and that includes Maurice is his lead role.