St. Louis Blues (1929)
Set to W. C. Handy's song, this short follows a woman abandoned by her lover in a Harlem rooming house who confronts him again at a speakeasy, where she sings the title blues backed by a chorus.
St. Louis Blues is the only surviving film footage of blues singer Bessie Smith, produced by W. C. Handy from his own composition and shot with a cast and orchestra of Black musicians including pianist James P. Johnson. It entered the National Film Registry in 2006.
Background
Dudley Murphy directed St. Louis Blues, a 1929 short built around W. C. Handy’s song and starring Bessie Smith, one of the leading blues singers of her day. The short follows a woman abandoned by her lover in a Harlem rooming house, who later confronts him at a speakeasy, where she sings the title blues backed by a chorus. Smith was a major recording artist, and this is one of only a few films that preserve her performing. The film was released in 1929 and is an important document of African American performance on early film.
What to watch for
Pay attention to Smith’s singing, which is the centre of the short and carries its emotional weight. The story moves through a few scenes, from the rooming house to the speakeasy, and the staging keeps the focus on her performance. Murphy uses the nightclub setting to give the chorus and musicians room to play. The short’s use of Handy’s song as the structure for its story is worth noticing. The film is brief, but its performance is among the most significant surviving records of the blues on screen.
