1929 - HALLELUJAH - early talkie about Black American life in the south

King Vidor shot one of the first sound films on location in the southern United States.  His subject, religion and Black American life.  Vidor incorporated a lot of musical sequences into this film which makes it a strange quasi musical drama.

Hallelujah was an honest attempt to portray black life in the late 1920's.  Watching the film today is mighty tough going.  The primitive early sound recording and the presentation of black life in a very patronizing manner no matter how well the intentions were.  It makes the film pretty hard to stomach

The most interesting parts in Hallelujah are the scenes of the religious revival meetings and most impressively the large scale baptism in the river sequence.  Here religious ecstasy is combined with a kind of sexual frenzy or hysteria, very interesting stuff. 

King Vidor must have filmed a lot of these on location scenes without sound which was probably added later since the camera work is pretty fluid.  Vidor was one of the masters of silent films.
 

King Vidor directs the impressive river baptism sequence.

Hallelujah is a film of historical importance for the fact that major mainstream films about black American life were just never filmed.  The all black cast does what it can to keep the racial stereotypes from completely sinking the film.  But, this "happy darkie" stuff is what finally keeps the film from becoming a classic.
 
90 minutes, written by King Vidor, Wanda Tuchock, Richard Schayer and Ransom Rideout.