Two-Gun Man from Harlem

Quite some time back I recorded Two-Gun Man from Harlem when it ran on TCM. I had gotten different results when I searched for it on DVD, but as of now it's at least available from the TCM Shop, so I'll do a full-length post on it.

The movie starts off with a combo led by a singing cowboy, Bob Blake (played by Herb Jeffries). After finishing the song, Bob's brother Bill (Mantan Moreland, a relationship you'd say only Hollywood could come up with if this wasn't an all-black film) takes the bass and tries to sing a song. That's all just a prologue for the real action, however.

Bob runs into Sally Thompson (Margaret Whitten), an apparent widow who is walking with her son Jimmy ("Stymie" from the Our Gang shorts) to her brother's ranch. Bob helps her negotiate a barbed-wire fence, and the two immediately fall in love.

But there's problems for Bob back at the ranch where he works. His boss' wife, Mrs. Steel is having an affair with a gangster who's trying to get control of the ranches in the area, and the guy eventually shoots Mr. Steel. When Bob walks in, Mrs. Steel switches guns so that the one in Bob's holster will be the one that was the murder weapon.

With the police about to take him in, Bob makes a quick escape, winding up in Harlem, where he meets the "Deacon", a gangster who look amazingly like Bob, mostly because the Deacon is also played by Herb Jeffries. Bob notices the similarity and decides to impersonate the Deacon and go back west to uncover the real murderer of Mr. Steel. Along the way, Bob helps Sally pay off the mortgage on her brother's ranch, so you know they'll live happily ever after.

When I think of the race films, I always try to compare them to Hollywood's B movies. I think that's a much easier comparison to try to make in the case of Two-Gun Man from Harlem, since the Poverty Row studios were churning out a huge number of B westerns back in those days. Compared to those other westerns, Two-Gun Man from Harlem fits in reasonably well. The plot is familiar, the acting is variable, and it entertains. It's no great shakes, especially not compared to what happened once Stagecoach came along. But with a budget like this, who could expect a Stagecoach?

There are certainly bright spots, especially from Mantan Moreland and his skillet in the climactic fight. Stymie also gets the chance to be a hoot. All in all, if you want an introduction to the race film genre, Two-Gun Man from Harlem isn't a bad place to start.