The Black King (1932) User Reviews

The Black King was pretty entertaining if you can get pass the scrachy soundtrack

[tavm · 6/10 · 20 April 2020]

This was one of those "race" movies I just stumbled into on Prime Video. It's about a loud-mouthed con man who gets himself to become a deacon of a church which leads him to bigger things. I'll just stop there and just say that while the soundtrack was quite ragged considering its age, I did see some of the charisma of A. B. DeComathiere that seemed to contribute to why the people on the screen seemed to follow his every word of whom among those people would be including was leading lady Vivienne Baber whose character is torn between him and her morally good (and good-looking) other boyfriend Lorenzo Tucker who plays an attorney who's the opposite of DeComathiere. In summary, The Black King was pretty entertaining if not always easy to understand because of the not-always-clear soundtrack.

Fair movie. Vivienne Baber and A.B. Comathiere keeps you watching.

[msladysoul · 7/10 · 17 December 2004]

The movie is fair. What kept my attention mostly was Vivienne Baber and her exotic attractiveness, sleek presence, and her pleasing, natural dramatic acting. She's classy and glamorous. She plays Mary Lou...caught between good and evil. She seems perfect for the screen, she never overacts but is moving without being over-dramatic, wish she could of did more movies in Black Cinema but she was a popular actress on stage appearing in many Broadway plays. Black Cinema needed more true actresses such as Vivienne Baker. A.B. Comethiere is perfect as Deacon Charcoal Jackson who is a hypocritical preacher but at the same time trying to influence his people to go back to Africa where they can have power and freedom. But ego and backstabbing comes back on him and ruins the faith the people had in him and his name. The character Charcoal is supposedly is a portrayal of Marcus Garvey. A.B is funny, he eats the screen up, when he's present he overshadows everyone with his dramatic and comedic abilities. A.B. was one of the early greats of theater and race films. The cast includes some of the more well-known black actors and actresses of theater and screen, A.B. Comathiere, Vivienne Baber, and The Black Valentino Lorenzo Tucker, one of the most handsome men in movies, as the cool, smooth attorney, because of these three the film is substantial and worth watching.