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Black and Tan

Play trailer Poster for Black and Tan Released Dec 8, 1929 19m Drama Music Play Trailer Watchlist
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Tomatometer 1 Reviews Popcornmeter Fewer than 50 Ratings
A piano player and his wife struggle to make ends meet.

Critics Reviews

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Sime Silverman Variety The all-dialog short has some excellent fancy photography as the second attraction, with the music the first, and the Harlem cafe life for the rest. Jan 28, 2021 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Audience Member Duke Ellington stars in this short film in which he plays himself, and gets a job at a club his wife is dancing at...but she is sick, dances too hard, and Duke and his band play for her at her death bed. I didn't know much about this before I watched it, I assumed it was just going to be a performance film of Ellington and his band, but it had a little more artistry to it...it had a story, and some neat black and white visuals...plus some neat old timey jazz. Worth a look! Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/17/23 Full Review Audience Member Black and Tan is a 1929 short, notable now for the first screen appearance by Duke Ellington. This film, a musical short is written and directed by Dudley Murphy, an avant-garde director of early American cinema. This film, perhaps is most successful, exhibits the ideas and thoughts of the Harlem Renaissance Movement, known at the time as the New Negro Movement, that saw a flowering of literature, cinema, art and poetry of black origin (key figures include Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes). Black and Tan contains an early portrayal of the life of poverty lived by many black Americans at the time. Duke Ellington and his wife Fredi Washington live in a cramped apartment, with their instruments, including Duke's piano. Duke and his musicians are working on a new piece when two debt collector's turn up. These figures, racial stereotypes, accept liquor as payment but the threat of their return and their possession of the piano threatens the sanity, health and livelihood of Duke and Fredi. But Fredi has a plan - she is a dancer, and together they can make their fortune. Only she is not well, and one more dance might kill her. This is a lyrical, beautiful and memorable expression of black-American anguish in the 1920s. Its visually represents the struggle and rage of everyday citizens in Harlem - that these people must physically exhaust themselves, if not kill themselves, to earn enough money to simply survive. The music extenuates this anger, and Dudley Murphy's direction - expressionistic and avant-garde - is note-perfect. Black and Tan, then, is a powerful and important piece of American cinema (not just black cinema), a polemic of enormous power and grace, and should be seen by anybody with an interest in cinema, history, and humanity. It is a film that in its 19 short minutes moves more completely than many longer films, and will live in the memory more fully. It is that good. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/25/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Black and Tan

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Cast & Crew

Movie Info

Synopsis A piano player and his wife struggle to make ends meet.
Director
Dudley Murphy
Screenwriter
Dudley Murphy
Production Co
RKO Radio Pictures Inc.
Genre
Drama, Music
Release Date (Theaters)
Dec 8, 1929, Original
Runtime
19m