Hallelujah!
Directed by King Vidor
Written by Wanda Tuchock, Richard Schayer et al
1929/US
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/YouTube rental
Chick Admirer #2: Oh, she’s chocolate to the bone!
The plot may be ancient and melodramatic but oh that music!
Zeke (Daniel L. Haynes) is the eldest son in a large family of honest hard-working sharecroppers. His father is also a preacher. The cotton harvest is over and Zeke and second son Spunk are sent to the city to sell the crop. Zeke gets $100 for it.
He meets up with Chick (Nina Mae McKinney) who has attracted a large audience with her hoochie coochie dancing near the mill. Zeke, who will be fighting a more or less unsuccessful battle with the Devil throughout the film, tries to get her to go off with him. It is only after he flashes his wad of bills that she agrees. She determines to make him spend that $100 on her before the night is over.
She lures him to a saloon where she continues to dance and drink. Then she introduces Zeke to her con-man boyfriend and the inevitable happens. Spunk, who had gone looking for Zeke and the money, is killed in the gunfire following the reveal of boyfriend’s rigged dice.
Zeke returns to his family who welcome him as a prodigal son. It is then Zeke gets a calling to become a revival preacher. He also proposes to Missy Rose, a good girl who loves him. Then the whole troop heads off on the revival circuit. Unfortunately, Chick shows up to be baptized …
This is a morality play and is melodramatic to the max. The acting is adversely affected by early sound technology which apparently required everybody to speak very slowly and clearly. What does shine is the music, which ranges from gospel to jazz. Haynes had a beautiful bass-baritone and Nina Mae McKinney was called the “Black Clara Bow” for a reason. Worth seeing.
