Mjeteconer Just perfect...

SpunkySelfTwitter It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

Juana what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Philippa All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Richard Chatten Like an episode of 'Police Squad' this film immediately establishes the level of incoherence it intends to maintain throughout by announcing in its main title that it's drawn "from three short stories" before just moments later posting a Producers Note listing the two "short stories of Negro night life in Harlem" from which it says its been adapted.Having made some reasonably competent silent films, poor Oscar Micheaux is plainly finding sound a serious millstone around his neck, since the dialogue is often almost inaudible and he goes to impressive lengths to get round this obstacle with extensive use of captions and notes; even making one of the characters a deaf mute so he can write down his dialogue rather than speak it. No matter. It's only 58 minutes long, is full of wonderful period detail and the frequent shot mismatches, captions like "WITHIN THE HOUR" to propel the narrative and the incongruous use of Beethoven's 5th on the soundtrack give it a certain 'nouvelle vague' vitality.

Rainey Dawn The copy of the film I have of this movie is badly damaged. The lighting is bad - that maybe due the the film's aging process (I've seen many other films that have this problem from this time era and earlier). This film would have to be restored to appreciate, just like other films that have not been restored.From what we see, there are some really cute dance numbers, some comedy, and a mixed up drama mystery that does not make sense but would I'm sure if the missing pieces of the film were found. It's hard to make a fair judgment on a film like this as to how good or bad the story really is.But if you are studying the history of film making this is a neat piece of historical footage from the 1930s. I would recommend trying to find a restored copy of this film or someone to restore it for you to watch.2/10

classicsoncall The other reviewers for this movie sound like they know what they're talking about, so you might want to read them first. As for myself, I have no idea what was going on here. I watched the whole thing start to finish, I paid attention, didn't fall asleep, and I tried to get it, but no go. About the most obvious thing I can point to were two separately titled chapters - The Faker and The Killer. The Faker was about a movie producer putting the move on a cute black singer with a promise to put her in a film, while The Killer had to do with a murder about to be committed at the scene of the story, a Harlem night club called The Libya.As a period piece, there's probably some worth in noting that this was presumably assembled as an all black cast, although it seemed to me there were a few white entertainers and folks in the audience. Easily more than half the picture was taken up by stage performers singing and dancing, and there was a comedy duo that sure looked to me like they were in black face. Very odd, because if they were really black to begin with, why the make up. I didn't get that at all.I've seen a couple other all black cast films to date, 1940's "Son of Ingagi" has been called the earliest by some, but this one would beat it by eight years if you disregard my earlier observations. The other was a Western, believe it or not, "Two Gun Man From Harlem" from 1938. Of the three, Two Gun Man's the best if you're looking for a recommendation. Ingagi is also somewhat better than this one, and won't make you feel like you've only got ten minutes to live while watching it.

kidboots Laura Bowman had an extremely distinguished career. She was hailed as "the Negro Ethel Barrymore", performed at Buckingham Palace before Edward VII and appeared in theaters all over Europe. In 1916 she joined New York's first black dramatic company, the Lafayette Players in Harlem and appeared in over 500 productions. Although she didn't make many films, she always made an impression - whether as a conjure woman in "Drums O'Voodoo" (1934) or as a mad doctor in "Son of Ingagi" (1939).She was definitely the most prestigious member in the cast of "Ten Minutes to Live", hence her prominent billing. She played the elderly woman in the very first scene, who tells the lecherous film maker where to find Ida. There are two Idas - I'm not sure which is which but they are both singers in the Libya Club.