Juke Joint (film)
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''Juke Joint'' is a 1947
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 and starring
Spencer Williams Spencer Williams (October 14, 1889 – July 14, 1965) was an American jazz and popular music composer, pianist, and singer. He is best known for his hit songs " Basin Street Blues", " I Ain't Got Nobody", " Royal Garden Blues", " I've Found a N ...
and produced and released by
Sack Amusement Enterprises Alfred N. Sack (October 22, 1898 – March 1, 1969) was an American businessperson, newspaper publisher and the proprietor of film distribution, production, and the theater-owning business Sack Amusements in the United States.. He collaborated with ...
. The film was considered lost until being rediscovered.


Plot

Bad News Johnson, a con artist from
Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in Shelby County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. Situated along the Mississippi River, it had a population of 633,104 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of municipalities in Tenne ...
, arrives in
Dallas, Texas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...
accompanied by his dim sidekick July Jones with only twenty-five cents between them. Johnson is constantly exasperated at Jones’ deficient perspicacity, and at one point he comments that Jones is so dense that he probably thinks "
Veronica Lake Constance Frances Marie Ockelman (November 14, 1922 – July 7, 1973), known professionally as Veronica Lake, was an American film, stage, and television actress. Lake was best known for her femme fatale roles in films noir with Alan Ladd durin ...
is some kind of summer resort." The duo arrange to become boarders at the home of Louella "Mama Lou" Holiday, who is fooled into believing that Johnson is an acting teacher named Whitney Vanderbilt; Jones takes the alias of Cornbread Green. Mrs. Holiday agrees to give the men free room and board if they will provide poise lessons to her daughter, an aspiring beauty queen named Honey Dew. The lessons pay off and Honey Dew wins the beauty contest, but problems arise when Mrs. Holiday’s husband, Papa Sam, decides to hold a party for the new beauty queen at a disreputable
juke joint Juke joint (also jukejoint, jook house, jook, or juke) is the African-American vernacular term for an informal establishment featuring music, dancing, gambling, and drinking, primarily operated by African Americans in the southeastern United St ...
.


Cast

*
Spencer Williams Spencer Williams (October 14, 1889 – July 14, 1965) was an American jazz and popular music composer, pianist, and singer. He is best known for his hit songs " Basin Street Blues", " I Ain't Got Nobody", " Royal Garden Blues", " I've Found a N ...
as Whitney Vanderbilt * July Jones as "Cornbred" Green *
Inez Newell Inez is a feminine given name. It is the English spelling of the Spanish and Portuguese name Inés/Inês/Inez, the forms of the given name " Agnes". The name is pronounced as , , or Agnes is a woman's given name, which derives from the Greek w ...
as "Mama Lou" Holiday * Leonard Duncan as "Papa Sam" Holiday * Dauphine Moore as "Honey Dew" Holiday * Melody Duncan as Melody Holuday * Katherine Moore as Florida Holiday * Alford Patterson as Jefferson Lee * Albert Smith as "High Life" Harris * Howard Galloway as Juke Joint Johnny * Clifford Beamon as Bartender * Frances McHugh as Waitress


Production

''Juke Joint'' was the last in a series of films directed by Spencer Williams, an
African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...
actor and writer, for production by Sack Amusement Enterprises, a white-owned Dallas-based company that distributed all-black race films to segregated theaters across the
United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
. Williams was among the few African Americans to direct films during the 1940s. The juke joint scenes were filmed on location at the Rose Room in Dallas and Don’s Keyhole in
San Antonio, Texas San Antonio ( ; Spanish for "Anthony of Padua, Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the List of Texas metropolitan areas, third-largest metropolitan area in Texa ...
, and included musical numbers featuring band leader Red Calhoun.“Within Our Gates” by Alan Gevinson, American Film Institute, Google Books
/ref> Following the release of ''Juke Joint'', Williams disappeared from the entertainment industry. He returned to prominence in 1951 when he was cast as Andrew H. “Andy” Brown in the television version of the radio comedy '' Amos 'n Andy'', which ran on
CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...
from 1951 to 1953. He made one final film appearance in a small role in the 1962
Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...
horror production ''L'Orribile Segreto del Dottor Hitchcock''.“L'Orribile Segreto del Dottor Hitchcock,” AllMovie
''Juke Joint'' was considered a
lost film A lost film is a feature film, feature or short film in which the original negative or copies are not known to exist in any studio archive, private collection, or public archive. Films can be wholly or partially lost for a number of reasons. ...
for many years, until a print was located in 1983 in a warehouse in
Tyler, Texas Tyler, officially the City of Tyler, is a city in and the county seat of Smith County, Texas, United States. As of 2020, the population is 105,995. Tyler was the List of municipalities in Texas, 38th most populous city in Texas (as well as the m ...
.


See also

*
List of films in the public domain in the United States Most films are subject to copyright, but those listed here are believed to be in the public domain in the United States. This means that no government, organization, or individual owns any copyright over the work, and as such it is common property ...


References


External links

* * {{Internet Archive film, id=JukeJoint, name=Juke Joint 1947 films American black-and-white films Films directed by Spencer Williams Race films American comedy-drama films 1947 comedy-drama films 1940s English-language films 1940s American films English-language comedy-drama films