Blackface is not exclusively a term for white actors who made themselves up to be black. It was a form of stylised make-up (essentially similar to "clown" makeup) that was used by black actors themselves (even when performing for black audiences) as well as, in imitation. by whites blacked up in minstrelsy or comedy. It looks to me as though the actors here are black and I find it very strange that people would wish there not to be black actors in a film when the opportunities open to African American actors were notoriously few. The film is not very politically correct, the parts are mildly - but only mildly - caricatural, the stereotype of black thieving is re-inforced but at least in a context where one can appreciate, from the state of the house, that they are genuinely poor. And let us say - the one thing politically correct whites, while complaining about racism, seem always somehow to forget to say - that it is good to see African Americans with reasonably substantial roles in a comedy and that the three actors involved, even if we do not know their names, do a pretty good job.
Review of A Nigger in the Woodpile
