Eugene Brooks Movies
Writer, director, and star Mario Van Peebles tried to correct historical misconceptions about African-Americans on the frontier with this action-packed western that's also an homage to spaghetti Westerns. During the Spanish-American War, a squadron of black soldiers led by Jesse Lee (Van Peebles) is assigned a dangerous mission behind enemy lines in Cuba by evil Colonel Graham (Billy Zane). Joined by a white gambler, Little J (Stephen Baldwin), the troupe is to recover a chest of gold. Realizing that Graham will slaughter them once they've relinquished the booty, Lee and his men retrieve the chest, wound Graham, and head for home. Ambushed by Graham in New Orleans, the "posse" heads for Lee's hometown of Freemanville, a frontier settlement of ex-slaves. Years ago, Lee's minister father (Robert Hooks) was murdered there by Klansmen, and the gunslinger wants revenge. There's new trouble brewing in Freemanville, however. Sheriff Bates (Richard Jordan), top lawman in neighboring Cutterville, plans to wipe out Freemanville's citizens and sell their lucrative property to a railroad. Then there's Graham, still on Lee's trail. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi
- Starring:
- Mario Van Peebles, Stephen Baldwin, (more)
- 1932
An African-American Secret Service agent (Carl Mahan) saves a young girl from a fate worse than death in this typical low-budget "all-black" melodrama produced, written, and directed by Oscar Micheaux. Returning from Europe, Secret Service agent Alonso White (Mahan) is assigned to a case in Batesburg, Mississippi. At his lodgings, he meets and falls for the town's new schoolmistress, Norma Shepard (Starr Calloway), later rescuing the girl from being ravished by nasty Jeff Ballinger (John Everett). By coincidence, Ballinger proves to be the very man agent White was assigned to track down. After shipping Ballinger off to jail, Alonso and Norma depart for Harlem, New York, where Norma's former landlady, Mary Austin (Eunice Brooks), now lives. Having lost all her money gambling in the Radium Club, Mary is accused of murdering Gomez, the owner. As Alonso and Norma prove, the real killer was Liza, the estranged mistress of Ballinger and now Gomez's wife. This confusing melodrama was actually a reworking of Micheaux's silent The Spider's Web, both having been based on the director's unpublished Jeff Ballinger's Woman. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi
