The Darktown Revue 93 years old

With a series of long takes and frontal camera set-ups, Michaeux provides a record of several cabaret acts, using intertitles to separate the individual numbers. This quietly outrageous film begins with the high-toned Heywood Choir singing "Watermelon time" and concludes with Amon David playing a preacher using heavy blackface. Amon Davus was known as "the Back Biting Comedian, Par Excellence", and his sermon is one of Michaeux's many notable send-ups of the clergy.

The Darktown Revue poster
The Darktown Revue (93 years)

  • Release day: Saturday, January 31, 1931
  • Runtime: 18 minutes