HALLELUJAH

Hallelujah!
MGM, 1929, B/W, 100 minutes, ***
Released August, 1929

In a juke joint, sharecropper Zeke falls for a beautiful dancer, Chick, but she's only setting him up for a rigged craps game. He loses $100, the money he got for the sale of his family's entire cotton crop. His brother Spunk is mortally wounded in the shoot-out which follows. Zeke goes away but returns as Brother Zekiel the preacher. His forceful preaching draws the faithful in large numbers. Even Chick wants to be saved. Zekiel has asked the pretty Missy Rose to marry him, but Chick can still cast a spell over the preacher...

Hallelujah is a cinematic milestone: the first all-black feature from a major studio and famed director King Vidor's (The Champ, The Big Parade) first talkie. But the film surpasses its historical significance, telling a story of such profound dignity and understanding that it as fresh and moving as the day it premiered. Featuring a largely unknown cast and infused with spirituals, folk songs, blues and jazz (Irving Berlin provided two songs for the production), Hallelujah follows the fortunes of Zeke (Daniel L. Haynes), a poor cotton farmer. He succumbs to the temptations of Chick (Nina Mae McKinney), a mercenary honky-tonk girl, finds salvation in religion, and falls again when his obsession for Chick overpowers his better self. Love, loss, passion, redemption and brilliant moviemaking: Hallelujah has it all.

There is a lot of music in this film. Most of it consists of old Negro Spirituals, some old folk songs. I don't know all the songs - some of them may have been entirely impromptu. I've tried to list the ones I do know here, but there are many that I just don't know. Really great singing going on throughout the film. This film will immerse you in the black culture of the slave days! It is outstanding, a one-of-a-kind experience.

Produced by: King Vidor, Irving Thalberg
Director: Milos Forman
Screenplay: King Vidor (story), Wanda Tuchock (scenario), Ransom Rideout (dialogue), Richard Schayer (treatment), Marian Ainslee (titles)
Musical Composer: Irving Berlin and various
Art Director: Cedric Gibbons
Cinematography: Gordon Avil
Editors: Hugh Wynn, Anton Stevenson

Cast: Daniel L. Haynes [Zekial "Zeke" Johnson], Nina Mae McKinney [Chick], William Fountaine [Hot Shot], Harry Gray [Parson Pappy Johnson], Fanny Belle DeKnight [Mammy Johnson], Everett McGarrity [Spunk Johnson], Victoria Spivey [Missy Rose], Milton Dickerson, Robert Couch, Walter Tait [Johnson Children], Dixie Jubilee Singers [Vocal Group], Matthew "Stymie" Beard [Child], William Allen Garrison [Heavy], Sam McDaniel [Adam], Blue Washington [Congregation Member], Evelyn Pope Burwell, Eddie Conners, Eva Jessye [Singers]

Musical Program: Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child (sung by Chorus under titles); Go Down Moses (O, Let My People Go) (sung by Chorus under titles); Old Folks at Home (sung a capella by cotton pickers); Bridal Chorus (Here Comes the Bride) (played on harmonium by Victoria Spivey); Waiting at the End of the Road (sung by Daniel L. Haynes and the Dixie Jubilee Singers, reprised by Daniel L. Haynes); Swanee Shuffle (sung by Nina Mae McKinney, danced by McKinney and Ensemble); Swing Low, Sweet Chariot (sung a cappella by Daniel L. Haynes); Get On Board Little Children (sung a cappella by Church Congregation); (Gimme Dat) Old Time Religion (sung a cappella by Church Congregation, reprised by Nina Mae McKinney); St. Louis Blues (sung a cappella by Nina Mae McKinney); Goin' Home, Goin' Home (sung by Daniel L. Haynes with guitar accompaniment)

There are numerous other song fragments that I don't recognize. It is said that the slaves used songs for a system of coded communication... some may have been extemperaneous, others were well known - even today.