Of One Blood (film)

Of One Blood is a 1944 race film directed by and starring Spencer Williams. The film focuses on two orphaned African American brothers who grow up to become a lawyer and a police officer, and who work together to break up a crime ring that is run by a miscreant who turns out to be their long-lost older brother.

Of One Blood
Release poster
Directed bySpencer Williams
Produced byH. W. Kier
Screenplay bySpencer Williams
Starring
Production
company
Sack Amusement Enterprises
Distributed bySack Attractions
Release date
1944[Note 1]
Running time
64 minutes
LanguageEnglish

Release, reception, and legacy

Like many race films, all of Spencer Williams' works were thought to have been lost.[5][6] At the time, movies were printed on nitrate film, which is highly flammable and is liable to decompose, and only a few prints of Williams' films were made due to their low budget. However, most of his movies from the 1940s have been rediscovered; many of them were found in a warehouse in Tyler, Texas by film historian G. William Jones in 1983, alongside a number of independent exploitation films and prints of popular Hollywood films from the 1930s and 40s. Williams' works recovered in the collection were restored and now held at Southern Methodist University (SMU) as the Tyler, Texas, Black Film Collection.[7][8] Of One Blood was one of the few films of Williams' not found in the Collection. However, a copy of it has been preserved in a different collection at SMU and another copy is held at the Library of Congress.[9][10]

See also

Footnotes
  1. Some modern sources, for example the American Film Institute and Turner Classic Movies, list the film with a 1945 release date.[1][2] However, records from industry publications state that the film was planned for release on September 15, 1944,[3] and the San Antonio Register published an ad for showings at the Cameo Theatre in November 1944.[4]

References
  1. American Film Institute (1997), pg. 732.
  2. Staff (2018). "Of One Blood (1945)". Turner Classic Movies. Time Warner. Archived from the original on August 17, 2016. Retrieved May 29, 2018.
  3. Staff (August 9, 1944). "Sack Acquires 'Of One Blood'". The Film Daily. 86 (27). New York City. p. 2. OCLC 1001651401.
  4. "Cameo Theatre". Classifieds. San Antonio Register. 14 (42). San Antonio, Texas. November 17, 1944. p. 7. OCLC 7862969. Retrieved May 29, 2018 – via The Portal to Texas History.
  5. Staff (2016). "Pioneers of African-American Cinema - 7/24 & 7/31". Turner Classic Movies. Time Warner. Archived from the original on July 2, 2016. Retrieved May 25, 2018.
  6. Corliss, Richard (February 4, 2008). "Top 25 Important Movies On Race–The Blood of Jesus". Time. Time Inc. Archived from the original on June 29, 2015. Retrieved May 25, 2018.
  7. Jones (1991), pp. 13–14.
  8. Stewart, Jacqueline (2011). "Discovering Black Film History: Tracing the Tyler, Texas Black Film Collection". Film History. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press. 23 (2): 151–152. doi:10.2979/filmhistory.23.2.147. ISSN 1553-3905. S2CID 191953381.
  9. Jones (1991), pg. 217.
  10. Staff (April 28, 2016). "Black Films: Paper Print Collection". Moving Picture Research Center. Library of Congress. Library of Congress: By Title. Archived from the original on July 11, 2017. Retrieved May 25, 2018.

Bibliography


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