Emperor Jones (1933)

In 1933 playwright Eugene O’Neil would see yet another of his plays be adapted into a feature length motion picture. His Pulitzer Prize winning work Anna Christie had already been a much anticipated film in 1930, most notable for being Greta Garbo’s first talking picture, but with 1933’s The Emperor Jones we get a very different look at the stories O’Neil would produce. Most of his stories were of individuals struggling to maintain hope as they trek through life, but what makes this story/film different was that it was about an African American who finds great wealth and power and is ultimately destroyed by it. It would be a contrast from the likes of Anna Christie, but a story that nonetheless provided an opportunity to become a film and begin stirs within the realm of civil right off the screen. The picture would also introduce to the world a man named Paul Robeson, a dramatic figure in for African Americans in the twentieth century.

The Emperor Jones is a drama based loosely off the original play by Eugene O’Neil, telling the story of southern black man rising from simple beginnings and being corrupted by egoism, climbing to wealth and power, but falling to his own inner demons. Brutus Jones (Paul Robeson) is a simple Bible-believing African American who sets off to make a living working in bigger cities, but falls into the wrong temptations in life including money, women, and power. His lust for life ends him up in prison for murder, but he ultimately flees the country and proclaims himself emperor of a small island nation in the Caribbean. Despite the almost divine-like status he creates for himself, his crooked ways and ill treatment of the people send him running for his life from a mob out for his blood. It is here, while alone, that Jones battles his inner demons and the horrors of his past, driving him mad as he runs, unknowingly, head first into his predators. Ultimately it is a story about one being haunted by the evils of his past, much like the “Tell-Tale Heart,” driven insane by the paranoia that he will have to pay for his sins.

The film feels a bit jumpy and does not have solid ground to walk on until the final, over twenty minute long, monologue of Jones in the jungles running from is judgment. This is in part to the fact that the first half of the script was augmented to include much back-story that was not presented in the original O’Neil play. Many characters and plot points were added to change what was originally a primarily a one man show into a feature length motion picture with many settings. Robeson’s acting comes off as a little over the top and forced by poor screenwriting, but there is something a command presence that comes with the man while on screen. He shines the most in the truest part of the movie, where he is alone with his thoughts. Though presented as a verbal inner monologue the scenes still do well, despite feeling a bit awkward that a man is talking to himself. The film is dated and not easy to watch in modern standards, but provides an interesting window in the world before the most historical battles in civil rights will take place.

For the most part everyone in the film is not well known. Directed by poorly known Dudley Murphy, whose works were never of great merit, he was best known as an experimental director in the silent era of cinema during the 1920s and helped introduce some African American performers in early talkies. Light skinned African American actress Fredi Washington would play Robeson’s wife in a few short scenes at the beginning of the film. Her skin was so light and she so gifted that many urged her to peruse work as a white performer, but proud of her color she stuck true to herself and wished the word to know it. She would be a greatly accomplished actress of the 20s and 30s, but here she had to apply a thick layer of pancake makeup to add color to her light skinned completion, making her appear to be more black instead of being confused as a white wife of a black man. Then there is Dudley Digges who played Smithers, a backhanded trader and the only white man on Jones’ island; one of the characters that came from the original play. Digges, an Irish character actor, would provide a little cement to the back end of the movie as he becomes partners and eventually betrays Jones.

If there is anything of merit to this movie it was the big screen introduction of Paul Robeson. A highly educated, all-American athlete who was studying law, but found the love for the stage which would change his life. His commanding presence and deep bass-baritone voice helped bring him opportunities for success, including major roles as Broadway hits such as “Show Boat” and “Othello.” But it was his filling in for the role in O’Neil’s play where he would introduce to Emperor Jones. From the play he would be cast in the film version, which was where he began his own understanding of his power. Robeson demanded that the film not be filmed in the real South as the producers originally wished, but in New York to accommodate him. This would only be the beginning of his rise as he would become on the great political activists in the 20^th century as well as singer and actor. He would later state that he regretted acting in the film version of the play as it took away from the original story. Some critics thought that the script was written also to showcase his singing voice for a couple of numbers in the film. Her voice was a gift that would get him far in life.

The Emperor Jones would be a controversial film through time. As with the play, the film originally featured many used of the derogatory “n-word,” which would be heavily edited out through many cuts over the passage of time. Much of the important factors of the film would in their own way disown the film in time as well, including Robeson regretting the cinematic changes and even United Artist losing interest in the film, letting its copyright fall into public domain. In 1999 the Library of Congress would deem the film culturally important enough to be preserved by the National Film Registry, an organization formed to preserve America’s cinematic treasures.

Overall The Emperor Jones is somewhat a film long lost in the minds of film history. You won’t find film fans that will bring it up in conversation. It is a film that in itself preserves a piece of history for many aspects. It preserves a young man before his rise to great fame and political stature, a play once a success on stage by one of the finest American playwrights, and (in a small partially factual way) the way blacks were treated in American in the early 20^th century.  There would two far lesser known film adaptations of this story, one cheaply made television version in the 50s and another in England in 1938, but neither served near as much significance as this first production for its many aspects that added to American history.