St. Louis Blues (1929)

ST. LOUIS BLUES  (1929)  ¢ ¢ ¢
    D: Dudley Murphy
    Bessie Smith, Jimmy Mordecai, Isabel Washington
At early sound short featuring the only on-screen appearance of Bessie Smith. The framing device has Bessie coming home to find her man with another woman. The centerpiece has her at the bar in a Harlem nightclub delivering a mournful rendition of the title song. Smith wasn't crazy about being filmed, which might explain why in some shots she's barely visible. W.C. Handy did the arrangement, and the story goes that the filmmakers got the nightclub extras in the mood for the shoot by supplying them with bootleg beer.