User Reviews

In one sense, "A Reckless Rover" is a generic silent slapstick short, including lots of knockabout in a Chinese laundry, a bit of a chase and broad action the equivalent of the Keystone Kops. There's little that's generic in its casting of African Americans on the screen in the early history of cinema, though, which also opens the picture to accusations of perpetuating negative racial stereotypes. Indeed, in its day, the Chicago Defender paper led a boycott against the studio behind this film, the Ebony Film Company, for this very reason--leading to to its closure the subsequent year. It is one thing for Mack Sennett to portray the original, white Keystone Kops as buffoons, for instance, because whiteness was always ubiquitous on screen (and in society at large) and so their portrayal may be seen as nonracial, whereas the caricatures of "A Reckless Rover" may be defined by their race and, thus, become concerning for their representation of African Americans.

Of course, today, this is largely an academic issue, as the film is presented within the context of the "Pioneers of African-American Cinema" set, for which it may be studied for historical interest. One can imagine the case being different in 1918, however, with the void this sort of rather unflattering portrayal filled in the representation of African Americans starring on screen, including the doubled caricatures in the intertitle art. That's not the only politically-incorrect feature of this film, though. The Chinese laundry owner is obviously played by an actor who is not Chinese, and the main character, besides being portrayed as lazy and incompetent at just about everything except making trouble, also forcibly kisses a female customer several times. Even the gag of him smoking opium seems weird instead of amusing.

Also of note here is the severe decomposition of the surviving nitrate print in the beginning of the film, although most of the picture remains in good shape. Another short from the Ebony company in this set, "Mercy, the Mummy Mumbled" (1918) is in worse condition, although, there, with the narrative focus on a preserved corpse, the decomposition seems unintentionally apt. Additionally, there's a poster in one shot of "A Reckless Rover" advertising D.W. Griffith's film "Hearts of the World" (1918) appearing at an Olympic Theatre. It's little wonder the studio soon folded when, coinciding with their attempts to appeal to African-American movie-goers, the filmmaker they decide to casually associate their film with visually is the man behind the racist epic "The Birth of a Nation" (1915). Talk about reckless.

The first couple minutes of "A Reckless Rover" is a mess, as the film has degraded horribly over the years. It was so bad that I started to wonder why the Criterion Channel decided to use this film. However, most films of this era are either gone or badly degraded....and at least the res of the film is in generally good shape. Plus, it is a unique black comedy...something that we should preserve because of its importance historically.

"A Reckless Rover" is unusual because it was made with an all-black cast. Back in the day, many theaters were segregated and black patrons were many times forced to go to black-only theaters. And, it's no surprise that several small film making companies cropped up to cater to this specific audience....with black actors and directors. However, many of these films were a bit rough, as these studios didn't have the money or resources that the traditional studios had. So, because of this, I strongly recommend you keep this in mind when watching the movie. Yes...it is rough but it's also amazingly funny and worth your time.

Sam Robinson stars in this slapstick comedy...a film that would have felt just as right starring Chaplin or his white contemporaries. It has the usual kicking, smacking and shooting in the rear you'd expect from such a movie.

It begins with Sam in bed and his land lady either wants him to leave or at least get out of bed. It's hard to tell, as this portion is a degraded mess. Soon a cop is called and things get pretty funny (just see it to see what I mean). Not surprisingly, it soon results in a chase. What IS surprising is that it takes you to 'Chinatown' and you see a very stereotypical Chinese man (actually, a black man in white face playing a Chinese person...this must be a first!) who runs a laundry. Sam tries to steal some clothes to disguise himself from the cop but ends up working in the place. As I said, the man there is VERY stereotypical and soon opium gets involved and hilarity ensues.

Okay....let's be honest. This film will offend some folks. While being an all-black production, it has a few stereotypes that might offend black viewers today (especially the cartoon intertitle cards). And, it also might offend Chinese viewers...no...it WILL offend them. But the historical importance and genuine humor make it a wonderful film...one in need of further restoration and preservation. Most enjoyable....and I'd love to see more Sam Robinson films....if they still exist.

A Reckless Rover (1918)

** (out of 4)

Sam Robinson plays Rastus Jones who when we first meet him in asleep in bed. A police officer comes to his room to try and arrest him so Rastus runs out and soon takes shelter inside a Chinese shop where more trouble happens.

Sadly, a lot of silent films are now lost. Even sadder is the fact that so many films with black actors are lost. A RECKLESS ROVER isn't a very good movie but at the same time it's still great that it's exists since it does feature an all black cast of actors. The story itself is pretty simple but there's just nothing here that makes the Rastus Jones character all that interesting or entertaining. The story and style is pretty much what you'd expect from a comedy of this era but there's just nothing funny that really happens. Robinson was quite good in his role and he at least held your attention throughout.

Quite a late comedy from the Ebony Film Corporation, a white-owned Chicago based company (originally formed as The Historical Feature Film company in 1914 and which specialised in slapstick comedies with all-black casts. Ebony attracted strong criticism from the local black press (The Chicago Defender)and even found itself subject to a boycott that led to its going out of business in 1919. While it is understandable that many African Americans objected to any kind of racial stereotyping, it would perhaps have been more sensible to concede that this was difficult to avoid entirely in low comedy.

This was however a time when there was a growing split amongst African Americans themselves (broadly North/South and middle class/popular). The populists had lost their champion when Booker T. Washington died in 1915 and the far more severe intellectual tone of E. M. Du Bois or, in Chicago, of Ida Bell Wells-Barnett, was now dominant. And when populism found a new champion it was the controversial and divisive Jamaican polemicist Marcus Garvey.

In fact Ebony was by this time largely black-run (by President and General Manager, Luther J. Pollard) and made a serious effort to avoid the more typical stereotypes which filled white films and to which African Americans particularly objected (none "of that crap shooting, chicken stealing, razor display, water melon eating stuff that the colored people generally have been a little disgusted in seeing."). The point remains moot since Rastus in this film is displayed both a bone idle and light-fingered. But it is for all that an attractive performance by Sam Robinson, younger brother of the great Bojangles, and the most racist element of the film are in fact the intertitle pages with their *blackface" style cartoons.

It was however a positive thing that "race films" should cover the entire spectrum of film-making and that there should be films that were slapstick comedies as well as those that were "dramas". This also allowed Ebony to give work to a large number of talented black vaudeville artists, several of whom were already well known stage performers. The disappearance of Ebony in 1919 (and the highly serious Lincoln Motion Picture Company did not last much longer) was no real service either to African American performers or to African Ameican audiences.