Birthright (1939)
** 1/2 (out of 4)
Peter Siner (Carman Newsome) returns to the South after graduating from Harvard and he soon realizes that an educated black man isn't going to sit well with many folks. Peter plans to open some education centers for black youths but quickly comes up against opposition and dirty business practices.
Oscar Micheaux's BIRTHRIGHT is a remake of a film he made in 1924 and sadly that version is lost. The first two reels of this 1939 version are also lost but the print I watched had some dialogue and story lines to help you understand what was going on. From here we get another very low-budget film from the director but this one here is certainly among the most interesting that he made.
If you've'e seen enough of Micheaux's work then you already know that many of his films had to deal with low-budgets as well as technical issues that prevented them from being of a high quality. Those same issues are here but for the most part the story is good enough to overcome this and you're left with a pretty entertaining film that manages to give you a great idea of what it must have been like being black, educated and trying to function in the South.
As is also the case with much of the director's work, the performances are a mixed bag but on the whole I thought they were a lot better here than what we typically see. Newsome wasn't brilliant here but he was certainly good enough to keep you glued to the material and he was certainly a sympathetic character and one that you could feel for. As I said, the majority of the cast are hit and miss but none of them are bad enough to ruin the picture.
Hopefully one day the complete film will turn up as well as the original version. Still, this is an interesting movie and certainly one that is worth watching.
