The House Behind The Cedars

Release Date:  12/6/1924
Genre:  Drama
Director:  Oscar Micheaux
Studio(s):  Micheaux Film Corp.
Running Time:  Unknown
Silent
Black & White

Cast:  Shingzie Howard (Rena Walden), Andrew Bishop (George Tryon), Lawrence Chenault (John Walden), Alma Sewell, William Crowell, Douglas Griffin, Oliver Hill.

Story:  Rena, a beautiful, mixed-race woman who “passes” as white, receives a proposal from an aristocratic white millionaire who has fallen in love with her. Rena accepts without revealing the secret of her racial background. Unhappy, she returns to her former lover, Frank Fowler, a black man who has risen to power “despite his color”.  She tells him that although she has fooled the public, she has not fooled herself.

Details:  The House Behind the Cedars, was adapted by Oscar Micheaux from the novel of the same name by Charles Chestnutt, published by installments in the Chicago Defender. Although the film was based on Chestnutt’s novel, Micheaux capitalized on a timely news story by adding a top line to the billing which read, “The Rhinelander Case.” This referred to the 1925 Rhinelander v. Rhinelander trial, which involved a light-skinned, mixed-race woman named Alice Jones, who had married a wealthy white man named Kip Rhinelander. Rhinelander attempted to annul their marriage after his disapproving parents threatened to disinherit him; Micheaux took advantage of the similarities between the news story and his film to boost ticket sales, as noted in the December 2, 1925 issue of Variety, which announced that a new short film called The Rhinelander Case was soon to be released by the Bejack Film Co.

This film is considered lost.

Source:  AFI Catalog (catalog.afi.com).