What makes it different from others?

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Murder in Harlem (1934)** 1/2 (out of 4)A black watchman is doing his rounds when he stumbles across the body of a white woman. He calls the police but he's eventually arrested for the crime. Soon a lawyer is on his case trying to find out who was really behind the crime.MURDER IN HARLEM is a fairly entertaining race film from director Oscar Micheaux who was of course the leading black director during this period. A lot of times the race films from this era didn't feature any white people but that's not the case here as the director was allowed a pretty good cast as well as an interesting story to work with.Obviously, the director was still hampered with a very low-budget that didn't allow much technical advantages. The cinematography is the biggest issue here and especially during a few scenes where the camera zooms towards the actors, cuts off the top of their heads and then has to re-arrange the shot. Of course, normally you'd be asking for a second take but that wasn't possible when you're working with this type of budget.The one big advantage this film had over several of the early sound films from Micheaux is that the performances were very good. Dorothy Van Engle gets most of the praise for her performance as the girlfriend and rightfully so as she comes across quite strong and certainly helps carry the picture. Clarence Brooks, Andrew Bishop and Alec Lovejoy all add very good support.MURDER IN HARLEM is a very good example of a race movie that could have been so much more had it had the budget and technical advantages of what was going on in Hollywood. As it stands, the film is certainly very much worth watching but one can only think of what it could have been.

Do NOT assume from my score of 1 that this is a terrible movie. What I saw of it wasn't too bad for a Black-produced film of the 1930s. The problem, however, is that it was released by Alpha Video--possibly the worst producers of DVDs you can find!! Like so many of their other releases, this film is a horrible print and desperately needs to be restored--and Alpha, as usual, has done NOTHING to clean up the print and piece it back together properly. It was really frustrating when again and again, scenes would "chop"--with chunks missing and the scene abruptly changing. I know the original film couldn't have looked like that!! And yet, this happens throughout the film and makes viewing and enjoying it next to impossible. I sure hope that some other video company releases the film after some restoration work--it was interesting and I really wanted to finish it, but couldn't because the print was THAT bad.By the way, HARLEM RIDES THE RANGE is also on the same DVD. While its print is very fuzzy, it is watchable and doesn't have chunks missing like in MURDER IN HARLEM. It's one of five Black Westerns starring Herb Jeffries in an attempt to create an African-American version of Gene Autry for Black-owned theaters. It's not an especially good film, but very important historically and worth a peek.Also, some time back MURDER IN HARLEM was on DVD from Westlake Entertainment and I assume their copy must be better. Sadly, Westlake is no longer selling the DVD according to Amazon.

I believe that Oscar Micheaux is one of the most prolific and uncredited Director of our time. Today, many do not know about this African American Director who became the First Independent African American Movie Director. Oscar Micheaux had his own marketing machine when it came to production of his movies. Beginning in the 1920s, Oscar Micheaux began to create a new market, the African American movie goer. Not only did he make "Murder in Harlem" on a shoestring budget, he also made movies that dealt with the era. Oscar Micheaux singlehandedly got African-American movie goers into the movie houses. Oscar Micheaux taught the new cinema goer what they should expect from a movie. Micheaux addressed African American life in his movies and gave the viewer something to be proud of. Yes, in some of his movies we saw characters such as Lincoln Perry (the lazy servant character), but we also saw strong professional characters such as: Robert Earl Jones (Father of Actor James Earl Jones),William Graves (The Attorney Actor), Lorenzo Tucker (Movie Heartthrob) and Francine Everett(Our African American Beauty).Too some viewers, "Murder in Harlem" isn't one of Micheaux' best efforts, however, to me, Micheaux played to the themes of life in Harlem. Affluence and Poverty, Professional Life and the Underworld. Good vs. Evil. See this movie when you get a chance!!!

An interesting movie. You may have to watch it a few times to really understand and seem interesting, it took quite a few times because at first it seemed boring but since I'm understand Micheaux and his actors and actresses...I get it.The movie is about a black night watchman who's accused of killing a white girl which he didn't do but the watchman and his boss(who done it) try to put it on another watchman which is Claudia's brother played by Dorothy Van Engle and she along with Henry Glory try to bring her brother justice. Dorothy provides Henry with the determination and will to clear her brother and in love all the time, Henry and Claudia profess their love.Dorothy Van Engle light shines throughout all this movie. She's the most appealing and most beautiful of Black Cinema and movie history period. Dorothy could of rivaled the leading white ladies of Hollywood if Hollywood wasn't so afraid for Dorothy fit the beauty standards and acting talents of Hollywood. Dorothy Van Engle was the first black woman on screen to be glamorous and elegant not Lena Horne, a coincidence is Lena and Dorothy were friends as children. If I was to compare, Dorothy Van Engle, I would say is the Black Dolores del Rio or vice versa. Dorothy has the sweetness of Ruby Keeler, the glamour and impeccable dressing of a Kay Francis(Van Engle made her own clothes for the movies she was in) and appeal, charm, and naturalness of a Myrna Loy. Dorothy Van Engle was the first positive black woman on the screen. Intelligent, smart, ambitious, sure, spoke proper English but wasn't snooty and still possessed the Black heritage. Dorothy's body language, gestures, attitudes were right on time. You forgot her color and look at her talent, the same you would a white actors and actress. The best parts are the nightclub scenes where Van Engle really is exuberant and sensational Eunice Wilson who is always a treat to see sing and dance and in her few scenes, she was called, the best of the female dancers in the 1930's. She also was in a few black cinema movies, especially in the first movie made in color by blacks. Clarence Brooks plays his role fine. All this wasn't seen in Hollywood or even today with Blacks. So audiences were very appreciative of Black Cinema and its actors and actresses for providing them with role models. These types of films gave Blacks chances to play substantial roles and sparked an interest in wanna be actors and actresses in Black Cinema instead of begging Hollywood for a chance they never would get. Most didn't make a lot in Black Cinema but became movie stars with the Black Press giving them publicity, but the best parts were they could be dignified, respectful, classy, beauty, able to tell a story and challenge the stereotypes in a movie which would use their talents favorably.