Broken Strings (film)
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''Broken Strings'' is a 1940 American
race film The race film or race movie was a genre of film produced in the United States between about 1915 and the early 1950s, consisting of films produced for African American, black audiences, and featuring black casts. Approximately five hundred race ...
, directed by Bernard B. Ray and produced by L.C. Borden. It has been described as "the all-black version of
The Jazz Singer ''The Jazz Singer'' is a 1927 American part-talkie musical drama film directed by Alan Crosland and produced by Warner Bros. Pictures. It is the first feature-length motion picture with both synchronized recorded music and lip-synchronous ...
".


Plot summary

Concert violinist Arthur Williams and his manager Earl Wells are involved in a car accident in which Arthur's fingers are paralyzed. Instead of playing at concerts he becomes a music teacher. He favors his student Dickie Morley's classical musical preferences over his own son John's, which tends towards modern swing. Williams' daughter Grace is romantically interested in a man named Gus, and they both work for the same company that makes hair products, which is owned by a James Stilton. Stilton's son, Sam, is attracted to Grace and is jealous of the attention she gives Gus. As a result, Sam refuses to give Grace an advance when she needs to pay for her father's appointment at a doctor that specializes in neurology, Dr. Charles Matson. The doctor promises Grace that she can pay the fee of $1,000 later, when her brother John has raised the money. Sam goes on to frame Gus for something he did not do, and when Gus finds out, both he and Grace quit their jobs at the Stilton company. Fortunately, Johnny is a big success at the Miller Café when he is playing swing. An angry Arthur chastises his son for playing such, in his view, awful music, and punishes him by making him play the violin until he faints. Soon after, Grace tells her father that Johnny only played at the club so that they could pay for the neurologist and support themselves since she is currently between jobs. Arthur feels guilt over how he treated his son. Johnny and Grace go on to enter a music contest broadcast on the radio. At first it looks like their performance will be stopped when two strings on his violin, but then he gets the idea to play swing, since there are enough strings for that. The rest of the radio musicians all start playing the same way, and the performance is a success. When his son wins the contest, Arthur realizes his talent, and starts to regain sensitivity enough in his fingers to applause his son. Later it turns out that Dickie had sabotaged the violin before the contest, for which he apologizes. Arthur continues his career as a violinist.


Cast


Soundtrack

* The Stevens Sisters – "Kentucky Babe" (Music by Adam Geibel, lyrics by
Richard Buck Richard Thomas Buck (born 14 November 1986 in Grimsby, Lincolnshire) is a former British sprinter who specialised in the 400 metres event. He is from York, and trains in Loughborough. Buck's current club is City of York A.C. (formerly Nestlé ...
) * Played by Tommie Moore on piano and William Washington on violin – " Humoresque in G-flat Major, Op. 101" (music by
Antonín Dvořák Antonín Leopold Dvořák ( ; ; 8September 18411May 1904) was a Czech composer. He frequently employed rhythms and other aspects of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia, following the Romantic-era nationalist example of his predec ...
)


References


External links

* * * * {{Internet Archive film, id=broken_strings, name=Broken Strings 1940 films 1940 drama films American black-and-white films Films about violins and violinists Race films Films directed by Bernard B. Ray American drama films 1940s English-language films 1940s American films English-language drama films