The Secret Sorrow

Details

Release Date:   10/1/1921
Genre:  Drama
Rating:  N/A
Studio:  Reol Productions Corp.
Writer:  S. C. Brown
Black & White
Silent

Cast

George Edward Brown, Percy Verwayen, Edna Morton, Lawrence Chenault, Inez Clough, Ida Anderson

Synopsis

Anne Morgan, a poverty-stricken woman decides to give up one of her two sons to a prominent doctor willing to adopt him. The doctor names the child Arthur and sends him to law school, after which he becomes the assistant district attorney of New York.  Meanwhile, the other brother, Joe, raised by his mother, grows up to be a notorious gangster.  Joe works for Sam Dungan, a crooked politician and owner of several notorious dives.

When Joe is falsely accused of murder, Arthur is assigned to the case as the prosecuting attorney.  During the trial, Arthur calls Anne to the stand, not realizing that she is his own mother, and accuses her of moral degeneracy as he tries to paint an evil portrait of Joe. Dungan’s daughter Grace, who is Arthur’s sweetheart, discovers the truth about the brothers, and after finding the real murderer, sees that the mother and her sons are reunited. She then joins the happy family as Arthur’s bride.

This film is considered lost.  Sources:  Daarac.org; TCM.

 

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Salt-N-Pepa

Release Date:  1/23/21; Lifetime
Genre:  Biography
Rating:  NR
Director:  Mario VanPeebles
Studio(s):  Lifetime

Cast:   G. G. Townson, Laila Odom, Monique Paul, Jermel Howard, Cleveland Berto.

Story:  Salt-N-Pepa details the journey of Queensborough Community College students Cheryl “Salt” James and Sandra “Pepa” Denton as they enter the world of rap and hip hop, after recording a song for their friend Hurby Azor. Salt-N-Pepa made a huge impact as one of the first all-female rap groups, changing the look of hip hop and being unafraid to talk about sex and share their thoughts on men. The movie follows the group as they become the first female rap act to go platinum and experience ground-breaking success with multiple awards, including a Grammy award – paving the way for all female rappers to follow. The film will feature performances of Salt-N-Pepa’s greatest hits, including: “Let’s Talk About Sex”, “What a Man”, “Shoop” and “Push It”. The movie stars GG Townson as Cheryl “Salt” James, Laila Odom as Sandra “Pepa” Denton, Cleveland Berto as music producer “Hurby Azor,” Jermel Howard as rapper “Treach” and Monique Paul as “DJ Spinderella.”

Details:  Lifetime has announced the premiere date of the long-awaited Salt-N-Pepa biopic, with an after show special featuring the hip-hop icons.  The project stars G.G. Townson as Cheryl “Salt” James, Laila Odom as Sandra “Pepa” Denton and Monique Paul plays Deidra Roper aka DJ Spinderella.  The three-hour feature is co-produced by Queen Latifah and billed as a biopic miniseries that will chronicle the groundbreaking group that made huge strides for women in hip hop.

The miniseries follows the story of Queensborough Community College students Cheryl “Salt” James and Sandra “Pepa” Denton as they fall into the world of rap and hip hop, after recording a song for their friend Hurby Azor.  Salt-N-Pepa made a huge impact in hip hop by being one of the first all-female rap groups, changing the look of hip hop and unafraid to talk about sex and share their thoughts on men.  Salt-N-Pepa became the first female rap act to go platinum and experienced ground-breaking success with multiple awards, including a Grammy, paving the way for all female rappers to follow. The miniseries will also feature the group’s biggest hits like “Let’s Talk About Sex”, “What a Man”, “Shoop” and “Push It” among others.

The mini-series will be followed by a “fun and intimate” interview. The discussion with host Loni Love will focus on the duo’s iconic partnership work, how these two very different personalities find the delicate balance to keep it going, and how their pioneering style continues to influence the music world today.  It will also include behind the scenes footage and special appearances from surprise guests.

Unfortunately, DJ, Spinderella, will not be a part of this great moment.  Spinderella, Deidra Roper, sued James and Denton after she was fired from the group for unpaid royalties from their reality show, Ladies Night, their Best Of album as well as concerts. Roper also requested a restraining order against her former group members. Roper, who joined the group in 1987, filed the lawsuit after she found out that the group has had profits over the past decade that she claimed that she hasn’t seen one dime of.  Source(s):  Mylifetime.com; The Grio; Madame Noire; Nostalgicexpress.com; Shadow & Act.

Trailer:

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A Modern Cain

Details:
Year of Release:   1921
Genre:   Drama
Rating:  N/A
Studio:  J. W. Fife Productions
Director:   J. W. Fife
Black & White
Silent
Cast:   Norman Ward (William Moore), Ted Williams (Paul Moore), Fred J. Williams (Everett Moore), Vivian Carrols (Leonore Blackwell).
Synopsis:   William and Paul Moore are twin brothers who were orphaned at an early age and raised by their uncle.  When they grow up, William invests his inheritance in a business, but Paul squanders his share. They both fall in love with the same girl and Paul, who is jealous of William, pushes his brother off a cliff and reports him missing and presumed dead.  William survives the fall though he develops amnesia.  Fortunately, a doctor cures him, and William finds his way back home where he learns that Paul has died from drug addiction.  At last he is free to marry the girl he loves without further complication.
Source(s):   TCM; Within Our Gates: Ethnicity in American Feature Films, 1911-1960 by American Film Institute.
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Untitled Mike Tyson Biopic

a/k/a Finding Mike

Status:  Announced
Genre:  Biography
Rating:  TBA
Director:  TBA
Studio(s):  Unknown
Cast:  Jamie Foxx

Details:  On June 24, 2020, Screen Rant reported, that a Mike Tyson biopic has been rumored for years, but it now appears to be in the works. Jamie Foxx will portray the former U.S. Heavyweight boxing champ, a Brooklyn native who rose to fame during the 1980s and intimidated opponents with his presence alone. Now 53 years old, Tyson has been planning a comeback in 2020, which means that the screenplay for Foxx’s biopic may not be technically complete.

Foxx was originally attached to the Tyson biopic in 2014. He later revealed that Terence Winter would write the screenplay and that Martin Scorsese would direct. In 2015, Foxx made the interview rounds and recalled befriending Tyson during the late ’80s after they met at a stand-up comedy show in Los Angeles. By 2017, Foxx told Screen Rant that the boxing project was still moving forward, and that Scorsese was indeed going to direct. Three and half years later, the buzz appears to be picking up again thanks to Tyson and Foxx’s recent Instagram posts. The boxer has been promoting a return to the ring, while the actor has continued to tease his role as Tyson.

In June 2020, Foxx confirmed that he’d been physically training for his role as Tyson. The actor shared exclusive photos of his upper body transformation, the result of an every-other-day regiment involving 60 pull-ups, 60 dips, and 100 push-ups. Foxx joked about his lack of calf muscle, and implied that prosthetics would be needed to complement his real-life training. However, the actor didn’t reveal anything about the script, the director, or the production schedule.  As of now, the biopic presumably won’t release until 2022 at the earliest. Foxx revealed that he’ll first need to adapt his body to align with Tyson’s early years, and will then need to gain weight for late-career sequences.

The first half of Finding Mike will likely explore Tyson’s personal and professional life prior to his 1991 arrest and subsequent imprisonment for rape. The second half of the Tyson biopic will theoretically explore his 1995 comeback and pop culture persona. Foxx has also stated that he wants to show the real Mike Tyson, and how the boxer found inner peace after the 2009 death of his four-year-old daughter, Exodus.

As for Tyson’s, ex Robin Givens, her career is on a new roll, but she’s “relieved” to be left out of the upcoming biopic.  Givens was married to Tyson in 1988 for eight months and alleged abuse, but says she has been “re-victimized” by the relationship for decades since Tyson has routinely trashed her publicly — from alleging that she took his millions to catching her in bed with Brad Pitt.  Givens, 55, was worried enough about her potential portrayal in a Tyson biopic that she sent a cease-and-desist from top lawyer Arthur Aidala, alleging that while she has “attempted to move on, she still finds herself fighting the abusive, demeaning and false accounts of their relationship by Mr. Tyson nearly 35 years later.”

But reps for Tyson, who has denied any abuse claims, told Page Six he has no plans to depict their relationship in his film.  Source(s):  Screen Rant; Page Six; Biography.com.

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The Lure Of A Woman

Release Date:  8/21/1921
Genre:  Drama
Rating:  NR
Director:  J.M. Simms
Studio:  Progress Picture Association
Running Time:  75 mins.
B&W
Silent

Cast:  John Cobb, Regina Cohee, Dr. A. Porter Davis, Lenore Jones, Alonzo Nixon, Regina Taylor

Details:  According to information in the George P. Johnson Collection at the UCLA Special Collections Library, this was the first release of The Afro-American Film Exhibitors Co. of Kansas City, Missouri. An advertisement called the film “the first Negro production ever made in Kansas City” and stated, “All the cast in this production are Kansas City Negroes. All the scenes were taken about the city.” Charles H. Allen, the male lead, was the general manager and treasurer of the company. They planned a series of eight films that would be released in Central and South America, as well as in the U.S., and boasted of a distribution policy “that will enable it to overcome some of the difficulties usual to colored pictures.” Their second release was to be called The Human Devil.

There is no  information available regarding the plot of this film.

An item in the 14 May 1922 Kansas City Kansan reported that a print of the film caught fire during a screening at Western University. The audience was evacuated, and only the film print was burned.

Source(s):  TCM; IMDB; American Film Institute (AFI) catalog.  Photo Source:  Wiki Commons.

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Judas and the Black Messiah

a/k/a  Jesus Was My Homeboy

Release Date:  2/1/21; Sundance Film Festival & 2/12/21; HBO Max
Genre:  Biography
Rating:  R
Director:  Shaka King
Studio(s):  Bron Creative, MACRO Participant, Warner Bros. Pictures
Running Time:  126 mins.

Cast:  Daniel Kaluuya (Fred Hampton), Lakeith Stanfield (William O’Neal), Jesse Plemons (Roy Mitchell), Dominique Fishback (Deborah Johnson), Ashton Sanders (Larry Roberson), Martin Sheen (J. Edgar Hoover), Algee Smith (Jake Winters), Lil Rel Howery (Brian), Jermaine Fowler (Mark Clark), Darrell Britt-Gibson (Bobby Rush), Robert Longstreet (Special Agent Carlyle).

Story:  The story follows the rise and demise of Hampton (Daniel Kaluuya) as seen through the eyes of William O’Neal (Lakeith Stanfield), a petty criminal who cut a deal with the FBI to infiltrate the Panthers. O’Neal helped create rifts within the organization, kept tabs on Hampton and, when the time came, drugged the 21-year old activist on the night of the raid, which ultimately led to Hampton being gunned down by officers.

Details:  Chairman Fred Hampton was 21 years old when he was assassinated by the FBI, who coerced William O’Neal to help them silence him and the Black Panther Party.  But they could not kill Fred Hampton’s legacy and, 50 years later, his words still echo…louder than ever.

I am a revolutionary!

In 1968, a young, charismatic activist named Fred Hampton became Chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party, who were fighting for freedom, the power to determine the destiny of the Black community, and an end to police brutality and the slaughter of Black people.  The Chairman was inspiring a generation to rise up and not back down to oppression, which put him in the line of fire of the government, the FBI and the Chicago Police. But to destroy the revolution, they had to do it from both the outside…and the inside. Facing prison, William O’Neal is offered a deal by the FBI: if he will infiltrate the Black Panthers and provide intel on Hampton, he will walk free. O’Neal takes the deal.  Now a comrade in arms in the Black Panther Party, O’Neal lives in fear that his treachery will be discovered even as he rises in the ranks. But as Hampton’s fiery message draws him in, O’Neal cannot escape the deadly trajectory of his ultimate betrayal.

Though his life was cut short, Fred Hampton’s impact has continued to reverberate. The government saw the Black Panthers as a militant threat to the status quo and sold that lie to a frightened public in a time of growing civil unrest. But the perception of the Panthers was not reality. In inner cities across America, they were providing free breakfasts for children, legal services, medical clinics and research into sickle cell anemia, and political education. And it was Chairman Fred Hampton in Chicago, who, recognizing the power of multicultural unity for a common cause, created the Rainbow Coalition—joining forces with other oppressed peoples in the city to fight for equality and political empowerment.  O’Neal was placed in federal witness protection after his role in the infamous raid was revealed. He reportedly died by suicide in 1990, aged 40.  Source(s):  msn.com; official site, judasandtheblackmessiah. Com; Wikipedia; Openroad.la; denofgeek.com.

Trailer:

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