Ten Nights in a Barroom (1926) User Reviews

One of perhaps 10 film versions of this Timothy Shay Arthur novel!

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 20 February 2020]

WARNING: If you have a severe snake phobia, be aware that this film has a sequence where a drunk man keeps seeing snakes.

While you'd never know it today, Timothy Shay Arthur's "Ten Nights in a Bar-Room and What I Saw There" was among the most successful novels of the Victorian era...being only surpassed by "Uncle Tom's Cabin" in popularity. So, it's not surprising that they'd make a film version of this story....and WOW have they made a bunch. I counted 10 different versions, including this all-black cast version from 1926. Each version is about the evils of drink and the joys of clean, domestic living...sentiments that led to the Prohibition movement in the late 19th and early 20th century.

The story finds Joe Morgan a pathetic drunk who spends most of his time at the local saloon. He used to be respected and rich but lost it all due to liquor and the swindlers at the bar. After his daughter is killed there, however, he and the town are bent on revenge and purging the town of this criminal element. Several lesser stories are also portrayed...such a son who has descended to card playing and drinking at the establishment.

Most movies made for black movie theaters and patrons of the 1920s-40s were rather poor quality productions--with lousy acting, direction and no budgets. They just didn't have the money and stars mainstream cinema had and had to make the most of what they could get. It's in light of this that I mention that "Ten Nights in a Barroom" (1926) is surprisingly good for the genre. Now I am not saying it's a masterpiece...but it is competently made and is entertaining to watch with less of the usual overacting. In fact, most of the acting is pretty good....even though I must admit that the story is VERY old fashioned and ultra-melodramatic.

What Did You See There?

[boblipton · 6/10 · 8 June 2020]

Charles Gilpin used to be a prosperous man in his community. He was partners in a mill. When he started drinking, however, the business went away, and now he drinks every evening at Laurence Chennault's tavern, coming home only when his younger daughter comes to fetch him.

It's an all-Black version of Timothy Shay Arthur's famous novel, pretty well translated by a company in Philadelphia. The camerawork is good, and the acting is likewise, although director Roy Calnek seems unable to coax close pantomime out of his players; except for the big scenes, it relies on title cards to tell what is going on.

Yet it is in those big scenes that this movie lives, and those are well directed, with good crowd scenes and plenty of emotion, that transforms a story typically played for pure melodrama into something a bit smaller and more real.

The cast list is incomplete, and the players who are accounted for seem to have limited their work to Calnek's movies; the one exception is Chenneault, whose film career goes back to 1913, and whose almost two dozen known film appearances ran as late as 1934. The records are often sketchy at the large Hollywood studios. The small race films like this one often failed to leave any records at all.

Skin color doesn't matter

[morrisonhimself · 7/10 · 15 February 2022]

Although the PC and woke hosts at TCM kept referring to this movie as "a race film," it had nothing to do with race.

It is a story about people. It's about individuals who have various problems, as all people do. And the skin color of the participants is a totally insignificant aspect: They are just people.

The folks who performed are, yes, all black, but, again, skin color has no bearing on the plot. Various pitfalls of living, such as alcohol and gambling, affect, even afflict, people of all races, creeds, and colors, and place of national origin.

This version of "Ten Nights" gets attention from TCM during Black History Month because of the black people who produced and performed in it, and it's a shame TCM feels it must wait till then. There are some very good actors, the production values were noticeable, and, up to the end, the story holds together -- meaning it deserves to be watched at other times.

However, I guess the sad truth is it gets shown only because of its being a black production; that is, it's seen as more interesting, as an oddity, than as entertaining. Regardless, I do urge its being watched, especially by movie historians, but also by anyone wanting to see what the black movie-makers could do, and could have done more of were it not for the stupid and stifling segregation of the time.

Great Lead Performance Makes Film

[Michael_Elliott · 4 December 2016]

Ten Nights in a Barroom (1926)

*** (out of 4)

Joe Morgan (Charles Gilpin) is a former mill owner who spends most of his days and nights inside a local bar where he drinks until he can't walk. His alcoholism is having a major impact on his family and especially his youngest daughter who usually has to go to the bar and beg him to come home. Soon after a tragic event Joe must confront his demons.

If you look up this title based on the Timothy Shay Arthur novel you will see that there were several versions made in the silent era and more in the sound. This version here comes from the Colored Players of Philadelphia and it's a good example of an early race movie. I haven't read the novel nor have I seen any other version to compare it to but if you're a fan of silent films or race movies then you'll certainly want to check this out.

There's really not too much that happens during the 63-minute running time. The first fifty-five minutes deal with the alcoholic side of the story and then the accident happens only to be followed by something that I won't spoil but it basically comes out of nowhere and really feels rushed. I'm not sure why they didn't cut down some of the opening stuff and expand on the ending but like I said it really does feel rushed.

What makes this movie worth watching are the performances by the all black cast. Gilpin certainly steals the film with his performance as the drunk. The actor only had one more movie credit and that was the underrated THE SCAR OF SHAME and it's too bad because he was certainly good at his craft. He was very believable in the role of this drunk and his sorrow at the end really comes through. Lawrence Chenault is good as the landlord and the rest of the cast is nice as well.

TEN NIGHTS IN A BARROOM certainly isn't a masterpiece as there are some flaws but film buffs would do themselves a great service by checking it out.

Most viewers will be hard-pressed to figure out . . .

[pixrox1 · 7/10 · 7 February 2022]

. . . to exactly WHICH evenings the title of TEN NIGHTS IN A BARROOM refers. Title cards keep referring to "a month later" here and "two months later" there, and all of this is followed by a lapse of several years leading up the this flick's Election Day conclusion. Perhaps the so-called "prologue" is taking place on the day of the voting as well, but there is no mention of a mayor's race during the beginning of this film. If the mob of angry townspeople were wielding swords instead of torches as they storm the saloon, the spelling here could be seen as a misprint for TEN KNIGHTS IN A BARROOM.

Morality story

[gbill-74877 · 4/10 · 18 February 2023]

I wasn't aware going into this film that it was based on a very popular 1854 temperance novel that was adapted into films no less than eleven times - seven times before Prohibition (1897, 1901, 1903, 1909, 1910, 1911, 1913, good grief), three times during it (1921, 1926, and 1931), and even once for TV by the BBC decades later (1953). This version from 1926 was made by Colored Players Film Corporation, a production company that was a rival to Oscar Micheaux's, and stars Charles Gilpin and Lawrence Chenault. It's pretty well made with solid performances, but the heavily moralizing in the story, condemning the local pub as a den of iniquity and getting in a little divine retribution was quite distasteful to me. The storytelling is also mediocre, with a slow pace and various subplots just getting in the way. It's too bad because this seemed to be a race film with a bigger budget than most, and the dramatic action scenes of the bar being engulfed in flames and the boats out on the river are suitably gripping. I enjoyed watching those while having a drink, naturally.

Ten Nights in a Barroom (1926) IS AND EXCELLENT EXAMPLE OF AN EARLY RACE FILM.

[revpaulmtzion · 10/10 · 14 January 2007]

Ten Nights in a Barrom(1926) is one of four films produced by the Colored Players Film Corporation of Philadelphia, in the 1920's in Philadelphia, PA. All of the films were considered race films and cared significant and important racial content. My father Sam Sadler was in two of these movies. Ten Nights in a Barroomand The Prince of His Race.The American Film Institute lists his name in cast credits in Ten Nights in a Barroom. I am searching for a copy of both films. I am aware of one copy of Ten Nights in a Barroom (1926)that is located at the George Eastman House in Rochester, NY. But cannot find a copy of The Prince of his race.I have a photo of my father taken on the street near the studio during the filming.