St Louis Blues (1929) with Bessie Smith

This is a complete 16-minute 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 “high-yaller 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