What's available of this Oscar Micheaux racial drama really makes an impact even though the two reels missing seem to be very important to the narrative. This remake of Micheaux's 1924 lost silent deals with the intelligent Carman Newsome who graduated from Harvard and returns to his home town to find out that an education doesn't change things for him.

There's a Greek chorus of older white men, speaking casually about the rise of blacks in education, insinuating that they are like actors who can learn the lines but not really understand them. These conversations go from calm in the beginning to angry later on, especially after Newsome is taken in by an older white man who wants his assistance in research.

His black cook is angry over the fact she has to serve another black man, and later on, the older man offers advice on the quality of woman whom Newsome is keeping company with. This is obviously step one of many for white men of means to see the black man on equal terms, and the harder step for a black servant to accept change in a world she couldn't imagine for herself. Micheaux opens up lots of conversation, perhaps a bit melodramatically, but it was just a start. Far from perfect as a film, but thoughtful and profound, especially in acknowledging self prejudices among the older generations of African Americans of the time period.

"An educated Negro is a dangerous thing to have around."

Subtitled "A Story of the Negro and the South," this is Oscar Micheaux's take on systemic racism in the Jim Crow south, and a remake of a silent film that was lost. A Harvard graduate (Carman Newsome) attempts to start a school for blacks, but is swindled by an unscrupulous white banker, a ruse his buddy (Alec Lovejoy) uncovers in the "stopper clause" of his deed, one that forbids blacks from doing anything on the property. It's notable that his buddy is a WWI war hero and yet faces life as a second class citizen, something that would resonate even harder in America seven years later after WWII, though not enough was done with this in the film.

There are several white characters in positions of power who want to keep black people down, spewing among other things the quote I started this review with. Even the "good" white guy, the benefactor, cautions the young black man against marrying the "Negress" (which he uses synonymously with "Thief") and having children, in what seems like a eugenics inspired speech. How I wish the black man had responded to that in some way. In general, there is too much filler in the dialogue, and not enough bite. One of the intertitles from the silent film that was cut by New York and Chicago censors at the time read "Legal - hell - anything a white man wants to pull over on a nigger is legal" and I wish there had been more of this kind of thing here. Also, the ease with which the Harvard graduate is duped undercut the message of the film, at least to some extent. As for the rest, it's marred by many of the problems Micheaux's other sound films have - weak dialogue, poor acting, and a stumbling manner in telling the story.

However, I must confess, when that dancer burst out into the nightclub at the 14:10 point, swaying her hips sinuously in essentially a modern bikini, I thought to myself, well, regardless of what happens from here on out, this film has guaranteed itself a certain minimum rating. I mean, god damn, Josephine Baker had nothing on this woman, and I only wish I could identify her (anyone who knows, I'm all ears). Did this little interlude have anything to do with the plot? Not really, but it was a five-star couple of minutes for sure. There is another number performed by Hazel Diaz (playing the sister, Ida May) and eight chorus dancers at the 58:21 point that also had a lot of life to it as well. Micheaux really allowed his performers to let loose here, and I only wish that freedom and naturalness was felt everywhere else.

I had wanted to see this film-- and many others by Micheaux-- for decades, and was relieved to see that TCM presented it as part of a restoration project (DVDs are also being released).

There's no doubt that Micheaux occupies a significant and often mercurial place in American film history. He directed films from the silent era well beyond the conversion to sound, confronting concerns about African Americans' experiences through a wide range of stories, and yet many of his works have been lost forever.

In this case of this film, the first two reels are missing, but the restoration has preserved that part of the story with script notes and stills that introduce the action. Thereafter, the tale of a Harvard-educated black man, who returns to his southern town to face racist attitudes and family strife, conveys sincere and articulate statements about relevant political issues of that period that still resonate today.

You will quickly recognize hallmarks of low-budget conditions, such as insert shots that often break continuity, but the film remains a vital testament to racial conditions in the 1930s as the culture was overcoming the Depression and about to head into another major war. Micheaux also has a prescient sense for the civil rights movement that would energize the next generation.

I hope that further work is done to locate and preserve these historical artifacts, which help us to understand our past beyond the dominant Hollywood tradition that has otherwise absorbed all the attention.