AFRICAN-AMERICAN
by trblessitt | created - 20 Aug 2019 | updated - 29 Nov 2021 | PublicBlack Lives Matter .
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1. A Rage in Harlem (1991)
R | 115 min | Comedy, Crime
A gangster's girlfriend flees to Harlem with a trunkload of gold after a shootout, unaware that the rest of the gang are on her trail.
Director: Bill Duke | Stars: Forest Whitaker, Gregory Hines, Robin Givens, Zakes Mokae
Votes: 2,356 | Gross: $10.44M
2. Django Unchained (2012)
R | 165 min | Comedy, Drama, Western
With the help of a German bounty-hunter, a freed slave sets out to rescue his wife from a brutal plantation owner in Mississippi.
Director: Quentin Tarantino | Stars: Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kerry Washington
Votes: 1,696,147 | Gross: $162.81M
3. The Duke Is Tops (1938)
Approved | 73 min | Comedy, Drama, Musical
A theatrical producer puts aside his own success to boost the career of a talented singer.
Directors: William L. Nolte, Ralph Cooper | Stars: Ralph Cooper, Lena Horne, Laurence Criner, Monte Hawley
Votes: 429
4. The Symbol of the Unconquered (1920)
TV-PG | 54 min | Drama, Romance
Racists learn that the land a negro owns lies over a vast oil field, and threaten his life when he refuses to sell.
Director: Oscar Micheaux | Stars: Iris Hall, Walker Thompson, Lawrence Chenault, Mattie Wilkes
Votes: 572
5. Within Our Gates (1920)
Not Rated | 79 min | Drama, Romance
Abandoned by her fiancé, an educated black woman with a shocking past dedicates herself to helping a near bankrupt school for impoverished black youths.
Director: Oscar Micheaux | Stars: Evelyn Preer, Flo Clements, James D. Ruffin, Jack Chenault
Votes: 3,631
6. That's the Spirit (1933)
11 min | Short, Comedy, Music
Two night watchmen hear songs performed in a haunted pawn shop.
Director: Roy Mack | Stars: Noble Sissle, Cora La Redd, The Washboard Serenaders, F.E. Miller
Votes: 123
7. I Am Somebody (1970)
Not Rated | 28 min | Short, Documentary
In 1969, 400 poorly paid black women working in a hospital in Charleston, South Carolina, went on strike to demand union recognition and a wage increase, only to find themselves confronting the National Guard and the state government.
Director: Madeline Anderson | Stars: Ralph Abernathy, Leon Davis, Coretta Scott King, Bill Kircher
Votes: 241
8. The Quad (2017–2018)
TV-14 | 60 min | Drama, Romance
As President of Georgia A&M, a Historically Black University, Dr. Eva Fletcher must juggle the responsibilities of the financially-struggling institution with family ties and ambitious students.
Stars: Anika Noni Rose, Peyton 'Alex' Smith, Michelle DeFraites, Jake Allyn
Votes: 662
9. The World, the Flesh and the Devil (1959)
Approved | 95 min | Drama, Romance, Sci-Fi
A miner trapped in a cave-in resurfaces, and upon discovering mankind has been wiped out in a nuclear holocaust, sets out to find other survivors.
Director: Ranald MacDougall | Stars: Harry Belafonte, Inger Stevens, Mel Ferrer
Votes: 3,551
10. Odds Against Tomorrow (1959)
Approved | 96 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
In need of quick money, a fallen former cop recruits a hard-bitten ex-con and a debt-ridden nightclub singer to pull off a bank job. But as the animosity between them boils over, the entire plan threatens to implode.
Director: Robert Wise | Stars: Harry Belafonte, Robert Ryan, Gloria Grahame, Shelley Winters
Votes: 5,565
11. The Member of the Wedding (1952)
TV-G | 93 min | Drama, Family
Her older brother's wedding forces preteen tomboy Frankie to face her own immaturity.
Director: Fred Zinnemann | Stars: Ethel Waters, Julie Harris, Brandon De Wilde, Arthur Franz
Votes: 1,585
12. Intruder in the Dust (1949)
Approved | 87 min | Crime, Drama, Family
In 1940s Mississippi, two teenage boys and an elderly woman combine forces to prevent a miscarriage of justice and clear a black man of a murder charge.
Director: Clarence Brown | Stars: David Brian, Claude Jarman Jr., Juano Hernandez, Porter Hall
Votes: 2,657
13. One in a Million: The Ron LeFlore Story (1978 TV Movie)
TV-PG | 100 min | Action, Biography, Crime
True story of Ron LeFlore, a troubled Detroit youth who rose from Michigan prisons to star in Major League Baseball.
Director: William A. Graham | Stars: LeVar Burton, Madge Sinclair, Paul Benjamin, James Luisi
Votes: 220
14. Pinky (1949)
Approved | 102 min | Drama
A light-skinned black woman falls in love with a white doctor, though he is unaware of her true race.
Directors: Elia Kazan, John Ford | Stars: Jeanne Crain, Ethel Barrymore, Ethel Waters, William Lundigan
Votes: 3,414 | Gross: $4.20M
15. Siren of the Tropics (1927)
Not Rated | 86 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Marquis Sévéro, a rich, lazy Parisian, wants to divorce his wife so that he can marry his own goddaughter Denise. But Denise herself loves André Berval, an engineer employed by the marquis.... See full summary »
Directors: Henri Étiévant, Mario Nalpas | Stars: Georges Melchior, Régina Dalthy, Pierre Batcheff, Queenie Thomas
Votes: 374
16. Across 110th Street (1972)
R | 102 min | Action, Crime, Drama
Two New York City cops go after amateur crooks who are trying to rip off the Mafia and start a gang war.
Director: Barry Shear | Stars: Anthony Quinn, Yaphet Kotto, Anthony Franciosa, Frank Adu
Votes: 7,152 | Gross: $3.60M
17. Super Fly (1972)
R | 91 min | Action, Crime, Drama
The daily routine of cocaine dealer Priest who wants to score one more super deal and retire.
Director: Gordon Parks Jr. | Stars: Ron O'Neal, Carl Lee, Sheila Frazier, Julius Harris
Votes: 8,606
18. The Scar of Shame (1929)
Passed | 68 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
An educated, upscale young black musician marries a woman from a lower socioeconomic class to get her out of the clutches of her stepfather, who beats and abuses her. However, once he "... See full summary »
Director: Frank Peregini | Stars: Harry Henderson, Norman Johnstone, Ann Kennedy, Lucia Lynn Moses
Votes: 449
19. Carmen Jones (1954)
Approved | 105 min | Drama, Musical, Romance
Contemporary version of the Bizet opera, with new lyrics and an African-American cast.
Director: Otto Preminger | Stars: Harry Belafonte, Dorothy Dandridge, Pearl Bailey, Olga James
Votes: 5,925
20. The Angel Levine (1970)
PG-13 | 104 min | Drama
Morris Mishkin is an elderly Jewish tailor plagued by hard times who prays to God for help and receives it in the person of a most unusual angel named Levine, a young, black, Jewish hustler from somewhere between Harlem and Heaven.
Director: Ján Kadár | Stars: Zero Mostel, Harry Belafonte, Ida Kaminska, Milo O'Shea
Votes: 839 | Gross: $0.43M
21. Bright Road (1953)
Approved | 68 min | Drama, Music
Based on the story, See How They Run (The Ladies' Home Journal June 51), and subsequently won that year's Christopher award. The story was written by Mary Elizabeth Vroman, a 4th generation... See full summary »
Director: Gerald Mayer | Stars: Dorothy Dandridge, Philip Hepburn, Harry Belafonte, Barbara Randolph
Votes: 811
22. The Landlord (1970)
PG | 112 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
At the age of 29, Elgar Enders (Beau Bridges) "runs away" from home. This running away consists of buying a building in a black ghetto in the Park Slope section of Brooklyn. Initially, his ... See full summary »
Director: Hal Ashby | Stars: Beau Bridges, Lee Grant, Diana Sands, Pearl Bailey
Votes: 3,089 | Gross: $0.96M
23. No Way Out (1950)
Passed | 106 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Two hoodlum brothers are brought into a hospital for gunshot wounds, and when one of them dies the other accuses their black doctor of murder.
Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz | Stars: Richard Widmark, Linda Darnell, Stephen McNally, Sidney Poitier
Votes: 6,284
24. A Colored Life: The Herb Jeffries Story (2008)
45 min | Documentary, Biography
Directors: Kim Clemons, Kimberly Dunn | Stars: Larry C. Mullins, Ruby Dee, Michael H. Price, Ray Strait
Votes: 10
25. Escape to Athena (1979)
PG | 125 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy
A World War II adventure involving a group of Allied P.O.W.s, Nazis, black market priceless art treasures, Greek resistance, a Greek monastery, and a secret German rocket base.
Director: George P. Cosmatos | Stars: Roger Moore, Telly Savalas, David Niven, Stefanie Powers
Votes: 5,839
26. No Maps on My Taps (1979)
58 min | Documentary
This documentary centers around a performance by tap dancers Bunny Briggs, Howard "Sandman" Sims and Chuck Green at a Harlem club backed by a band led by Lionel Hampton. The dancers discuss their careers and their influences.
Director: George T. Nierenberg | Stars: Howard 'Sandman' Sims, Lionel Hampton, Chuck Green, Bunny Briggs
Votes: 163
27. Stormy Weather (1943)
Passed | 78 min | Comedy, Drama, Music
The relationship between an aspiring dancer and a popular songstress provides a retrospective of the great African-American entertainers of the early 1900s.
Director: Andrew L. Stone | Stars: Lena Horne, Bill Robinson, Cab Calloway and His Cotton Club Orchestra, Katherine Dunham and Her Troupe
Votes: 2,889
28. The Little Colonel (1935)
Approved | 81 min | Comedy, Family, Musical
In the post-Civil war south, a darling little girl attempts to restore the peace between her parents and her plantation owner grandfather.
Director: David Butler | Stars: Shirley Temple, Lionel Barrymore, Evelyn Venable, John Lodge
Votes: 1,888
29. Rufus Jones for President (1933)
21 min | Short, Comedy, Family
Rufus Jones, a black child, is elected President of the United States in this short musical comedy. The film features song and dance numbers by a seven year old Sammy Davis Jr..
Director: Roy Mack | Stars: Ethel Waters, Sammy Davis Jr., Hamtree Harrington, Dusty Fletcher
Votes: 231
30. The Omega Man (1971)
PG | 98 min | Action, Drama, Sci-Fi
Dr Robert Neville has developed an experimental vaccine which makes him the only immune survivor of a biological catastrophe. A gang of homicidal mutants blame science for their condition and attempt to kill him.
Director: Boris Sagal | Stars: Charlton Heston, Anthony Zerbe, Rosalind Cash, Paul Koslo
Votes: 34,078 | Gross: $8.72M
31. The Harder They Come (1972)
R | 120 min | Crime, Drama, Music
Wishing to become a successful reggae singer, a young Jamaican man finds himself tied to corrupt record producers and drug pushers.
Director: Perry Henzell | Stars: Jimmy Cliff, Janet Bartley, Carl Bradshaw, Ras Daniel Hartman
Votes: 7,038
32. Glory (1989)
R | 122 min | Biography, Drama, History
Robert Gould Shaw leads the U.S. Civil War's first all-black volunteer company, fighting prejudices from both his own Union Army, and the Confederates.
Director: Edward Zwick | Stars: Matthew Broderick, Denzel Washington, Cary Elwes, Morgan Freeman
Votes: 144,502 | Gross: $26.83M
33. George Washington Slept Here (1942)
Approved | 93 min | Comedy
When Bill and Connie Fuller are forced to move out of their Manhattan apartment because of their pet dog, Connie purchases a dilapidated old Pennsylvania house where George Washington allegedly slept, and persuades Bill to renovate it.
Director: William Keighley | Stars: Jack Benny, Ann Sheridan, Charles Coburn, Percy Kilbride
Votes: 1,956 | Gross: $0.66M
34. Cabin in the Sky (1943)
Passed | 98 min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
A compulsive gambler dies during a shooting, but he'll receive a second chance to reform himself and to make up with his worried wife.
Directors: Vincente Minnelli, Busby Berkeley | Stars: Ethel Waters, Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson, Lena Horne, Louis Armstrong
Votes: 3,414
35. All Night Long (1962)
Not Rated | 91 min | Drama, Music
This movie, based on William Shakespeare's Othello, is neatly positioned as a vehicle to showcase some of the best jazz musicians of the period, including Dave Brubeck and Charles Mingus.
Director: Basil Dearden | Stars: Patrick McGoohan, Keith Michell, Betsy Blair, Paul Harris
Votes: 1,529
36. Show of Shows (1929)
Passed | 128 min | Comedy
In 1929, the studio gave the cinema its voice and offered audiences a chance to hear their favorite actors and actresses from the silent-screen era. For the first time, they can be heard in... See full summary »
Director: John G. Adolfi | Stars: Frank Fay, William Courtenay, H.B. Warner, Hobart Bosworth
Votes: 471
37. Tarzan the Ape Man (1932)
Passed | 100 min | Action, Adventure, Romance
A trader and his daughter set off in search of the fabled graveyard of the elephants in deepest Africa, only to encounter a wild man raised by apes.
Director: W.S. Van Dyke | Stars: Johnny Weissmuller, Neil Hamilton, C. Aubrey Smith, Maureen O'Sullivan
Votes: 8,219
38. Tarzan and His Mate (1934)
Passed | 104 min | Action, Adventure, Romance
The idyllic life of Tarzan and Jane is challenged by men on safari who come seeking ivory, and come seeking Jane as well.
Directors: Cedric Gibbons, James C. McKay, Jack Conway | Stars: Johnny Weissmuller, Maureen O'Sullivan, Neil Hamilton, Paul Cavanagh
Votes: 5,572
39. Jazz on a Summer's Day (1959)
Not Rated | 88 min | Documentary, Music
The highlights of the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival.
Directors: Bert Stern, Aram Avakian | Stars: Louis Armstrong, Mahalia Jackson, Chuck Berry, Chico Hamilton
Votes: 1,944
40. Thelonious Monk: Straight, No Chaser (1988)
PG-13 | 90 min | Documentary, Biography, Music
A documentary film about the life of pianist and jazz great Thelonious Sphere Monk. Features live performances by Monk and his band, and interviews with friends and family about the offbeat genius.
Director: Charlotte Zwerin | Stars: Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, Jimmy Cleveland, Harry Colomby
Votes: 1,313 | Gross: $0.52M
41. Jammin' the Blues (1944)
Approved | 10 min | Documentary, Short, Music
Created under the guidance of jazz impresario and Verve Records founder Norman Granz, this short captures the spontaneity of a jam session and is one of few film records of black jazzers of the day including tenor sax legend Lester Young.
Director: Gjon Mili | Stars: Lester Young, George 'Red' Callender, Harry Edison, Marlowe Morris
Votes: 1,005
42. Lady Sings the Blues (1972)
R | 144 min | Biography, Drama, Music
The story of the troubled life and career of the legendary Jazz singer, Billie Holiday.
Director: Sidney J. Furie | Stars: Diana Ross, Billy Dee Williams, Richard Pryor, James T. Callahan
Votes: 4,848 | Gross: $6.03M
43. Souls of Sin (1949)
Not Rated | 64 min | Drama
Unsuccessful gambler 'Dollar Bill' Burton lives in a crummy New York basement room with old friend Bob and a new roommate, friendly blues singer 'Alabama' Lee. But, tired of being broke, Dollar Bill gets more steady employment.
Director: Powell Lindsay | Stars: Savannah Churchill, Jimmy Wright, Billie Allen, William Greaves
Votes: 79
44. The Tall Target (1951)
Approved | 78 min | Adventure, Crime, Drama
A New York City detective, traveling by train between New York and Baltimore, tries to foil an on-board plot to assassinate President-elect Abraham Lincoln before he reaches Baltimore to give a major pre-Inauguration speech in 1861.
Director: Anthony Mann | Stars: Dick Powell, Paula Raymond, Adolphe Menjou, Marshall Thompson
Votes: 2,339
45. The Steel Helmet (1951)
Approved | 85 min | Action, Drama, War
A ragtag group of American stragglers battles against superior Communist troops in an abandoned Buddhist temple during the Korean War.
Director: Samuel Fuller | Stars: Gene Evans, Robert Hutton, Steve Brodie, James Edwards
Votes: 4,737
46. Hall's Holiday (1938)
Approved | 10 min | Short, Music
Another entry in Paramount's "Headliner" series of shorts headlining top bands of the period---and many not so top---with George Hall and His orchestra and band singer Dolly Dawn featured ... See full summary »
Director: Leslie M. Roush | Stars: George Hall, Dolly Dawn, George Hall and His Orchestra
47. House of the Witch (2017 TV Movie)
Unrated | 90 min | Fantasy, Horror, Mystery
A group of high-school kids set out to play a Halloween prank at an abandoned house, but once they enter they become victims of a demonic witch who has set her wrath upon them.
Director: Alex Merkin | Stars: Emily Bader, Darren Mann, Michelle Randolph, Arden Belle
Votes: 3,934
48. She (I) (1965)
Unrated | 106 min | Adventure, Fantasy
An Edwardian archaeologist and two companions stumble upon a lost city in East Africa, run by a beautiful queen whose love holds the promise of immortality.
Director: Robert Day | Stars: Ursula Andress, Peter Cushing, Bernard Cribbins, John Richardson
Votes: 3,627
49. The Original Kings of Comedy (2000)
R | 115 min | Comedy, Documentary
A concert film featuring four major African American stand up comedians.
Director: Spike Lee | Stars: Steve Harvey, D.L. Hughley, Cedric The Entertainer, Bernie Mac
Votes: 6,068 | Gross: $38.18M
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