St Louis Blues (1929) with Bessie Smith

This is a complete 16minute short film directed by Dudley Murphy (who later directed Paul Robeson in The Emperor Jones ) featuring the great blues singer Bessie Smith in her only film appearance. There s a bit of drama early on as she finds her boyfriend Jimmy (played by Jimmy Mordecai) cheating on her with a highyaller woman, and proceeds to throttle the poor girl and send her fleeing. Jimmy then shoves Bessie to the floor and runs off, prompting her to go to a bar alone and sing the title song, openi