Murder in Harlem (1935)
When a night watchman is falsely accused of murdering a white woman in an office building, an attorney digs beneath the police's rush to judgment to expose who really committed the crime.
One of Oscar Micheaux’s many independently financed “race films” made for segregated Black theater circuits, Murder in Harlem reworked his own 1921 silent picture The Gunsaulus Mystery, itself inspired by the real Leo Frank case.
Background
Murder in Harlem is one of Oscar Micheaux’s independently financed race films, made for Black audiences and the segregated theater circuits that served them. It reworks his own 1921 silent The Gunsaulus Mystery, which was itself inspired by the 1913 murder case involving Leo Frank in Atlanta. Micheaux wrote and directed the film, and Clarence Brooks leads the cast. Micheaux was among the most prolific Black filmmakers of his era, working outside the major studios to make pictures for audiences those studios largely ignored.
What to watch for
The story begins with a night watchman falsely accused of murdering a white woman in an office building, and the film shows how quickly the police settle on a suspect. An attorney investigates beneath the surface of the case, and the courtroom and detective scenes carry the plot forward. Watch how the film treats the racial dynamics of the accusation directly, since the wrongful charge against a Black man is its engine. The mix of melodrama and detective structure is typical of Micheaux’s work, and the dialogue scenes staged in confined interiors reflect the practical limits of low-budget independent production.
