NFR Project: 'The Emperor Jones' (1933)

 

NFR Project: ‘The Emperor Jones’

Dir: Dudley Murphy

Scr: DuBose Heyward

Pho: Ernest Haller

Ed: Grant Whytock

Premiere: Sept. 29, 1933

76 min.

Another problematic entry. It is a record of a great central performance in a great American play. It is also irredeemably racist.

The Emperor Jones tells the story of Brutus Jones, a lowly Black Pullman porter who schemes his way into power. After killing a man, he winds up in prison, and escapes after killing a guard. He takes over a backwards country in the tropics, and begins lording it over the natives. Finally they, tired of his oppression, revolt. Seeking to make his escape, Jones flees through the jungle. As his pursuers grow closer, he begins to hallucinate, reliving past portions of his life, as he slowly loses his grip on reality.

The great American playwright Eugene O’Neill premiered this play in 1920, anchored by a great central performance by Charles Sidney Gilpin. The play, O’Neill’s second, was his first big hit. However, Gilpin objected to the extensive use of the n-word in the script, and changed it to “Negro” in his performances. When the play was revied in 1925, Paul Robeson was chosen to be the leading man.

Robeson was an American phenomenon. An academic and athletic star, he earned his law degree before devoting his life to acting and singing. His powerful baritone voice, expressive face, and husky frame made him a natural leading man.

O’Neill’s play is in essence a monologue interspersed with flashbacks and visions; for the screenplay, adapted by DuBose Heyward, who is best known for writing Porgy and Bess, made the plot linear instead of impressionistic, as was O’Neill’s approach. This removes some of the incantatory intensity of the original, but it delineates a rise and fall expertly.

The director, Dudley Murphy, had previously made shorts starring Duke Ellington and Bessie Smith, as well as earlier experimental films; this experience was thought to qualify to treat this subject. Seeking to work outside the structure, and strictures, of Hollywood, the film was produced by two individuals and filmed on East Coast sound stages.

The problem at the film’s heart is this – can white writers and directors tell Black stories with any authority? For instance, censors declared that it was not to show a Black man killing a white man, so that moment was excised. In addition, actress Fredi Washington was forced to wear blackface, lest she be mistaken for a white woman (Washington was relatively light in color). In an atmosphere like this, how can an enlightened creation take place?

Jones is written as a powerful and three-dimensional character, but he is still a Black man perceived through a white sensibility. The extensive use of the n-word, and the tendency to see Black culture as an inherently inferior imitation of white culture, now distract from the genuine drama to be found in the film.

The most powerful part of the film is its end, when Jones is on the run, which is closest to the form and spirit of the original play. Robeson is amazing in the title role, moving from smooth self-assurance to outright, screaming frenzy at the end. For all its flaws, Jones is invaluable for preserving his performance.

The NFR is one writer’s attempt to review all the films listed in the National Film Registry in chronological order. Next time: Footlight Parade.