HALLELUJAH!

US, 1929, 106 minutes, Black and white.
Daniel Haynes, Nina Mae Mc Kinney, William Fountaine, Fannie Belle De Knight, Harry Gray.
Directed by King Vidor.

Hallelujah! is the first sound film made by celebrated director King Vidor. Vidor had begun directing films in 1913 and by this film had made over thirty features. The sound was dubbed into the film after production. He went on to make quite a number of films in the 30s including Stella Dallas and The Citadel, a number of strong films in the 1940s including Northwest Passage and melodramas like Duel in the Sun, The Fountainhead and Beyond the Forest. He continued to make films during the 1950s but his main achievement was the adaptation of Tolstoy’s War and Peace. His final film in the 50s was Solomon and Sheba.

The film has an all-black cast – something quite unusual at the time for a mainstream film. It portrays a family of the period, a focus on Zeke who gambles his money in a rigged match after he has been led astray by the attractive Chick – who was only setting him up. He leaves home, returns as a preacher and has an impact on people – even Chick.

The film is a celebration of life, faults, failings, hopes, redemption.

1.The films of King Vidor, silent and sound? His impact on the developing film tradition? 1928? Stories about black Americans? The audience for this film? Traditional audiences, new audiences? In later decades?

2.Black and white photography, locations, the photography styles of the silent era, the editing?

3.The new talkie film, the place of songs and dances, the negro spirituals?

4.The title and black Americans and their enthusiastic prayer, religion?

5.The focus on the family members, the cotton fields, meals, the home, dances, a happy night?

6.Zeke and the cotton, the sale and the process? The boy? Chick and the seduction? The confidence deceit, the dice, losing? The shooting, the boy, the death and the funeral? Chick, the man and the money?

7.The religious background and audience expectations? Light and cloud? Zeke and the preacher? Chick? The family? The profit and the train? The sessions? The song and dance?

8.Zeke and his work, encountering Chick? Love, clash? A future life? The prodigal and repentance? Returning and received back?

9.African American life in the period, characters and types, stereotypes? Seeing these images on the American screen in their time?