Harlem Rides the Range
                                                                                            
Director: Richard Kahn
Year: 1939
Rating: 4.5
Here is a singing cowboy film but this time in a Race film. Herbert Jeffrey aka The Bronze Buckaroo was already a well-known singer for both Earl Hines and then Duke Ellington. His recording of Flamingo for Ellington sold over 14 million records. One interesting thing about Jeffrey is that no one was really sure if he was black. His mother was Irish white and his father vanished before Jeffrey was born and no one was really sure what he was - some thought Creole, some Italian, some mixed. Jeffrey claimed to be black until he wanted to marry a white woman - Tempest Storm, a famous burlesque dancer - and then he claimed to be white. He was light skinned enough so that in his films he had to add color to his skin. At any rate, he was a fan of Westerns and thought why shouldn't blacks have Westerns too. If you look at the old Westerns you will see mainly white, Native American and Hispanic players (often white in brown face) but rarely black. Which historians say makes no sense. They estimate that 25% of cowboy were black. Bass Reeves being the most famous.

 

So, he set out to produce an all-black Western. He went to Jed Buell as a producer - he was to produce a number of Race films - some under the Dixie National name - and also got the help of Spencer Williams Jr. who was to become one of the top names in Race films (and Andy later in the Amos n' Andy Show). For his first film Harlem on the Prairie (1937), he added Mantan Moreland and F.E. Miller to the cast. He was to make four singing cowboy films. This being the last one. Jeffrey wrote and sang the songs with his smooth baritone.

 

I wish I could say it's a good film but it is way too low-budget for that. At the same time, it is no worse than many of the B Westerns of the time. Bob Blake (Jeffrey) and his comic sidekick (Lucius Brooks), trying to take the place of Mantan, are looking for work. They get hired on by Watson (Spencer Williams Jr.). Some skullduggery is going on with an attempt to take over the mine of a man - and Blake gets involved - arrested - escapes with his lasso - and the big shoot-out at the end in which no one seems to get hit and gets the girl. I think he sings three songs.