The Black King: A weird trip back in time

Is this for you?

If you have a high tolerance for scratchy film stock and stories that move at the pace of a slow-moving parade, you might dig The Black King. If you need clean editing or actors who aren't constantly staring at the camera like they're looking for their mark, you will absolutely hate it. It's a relic, plain and simple.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of The Black King (1932) through its definitive frames.

The whole premise is this minister guy, played by A.B. DeComathiere, who decides he’s going to lead a big movement to Africa. It’s essentially a giant scam, and watching him try to maintain this air of holiness while clearly just being a total crook is… well, it’s something. The movie feels less like a polished production and more like a captured moment of a very strange, high-stakes community theater project.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of The Black King (1932) through its definitive frames.

Odd moments and observations

• The minister’s voice sounds like it’s being projected from the bottom of a well.
• Every time there’s a crowd scene, someone is definitely trying to hide their laughter in the back.
• The costumes look like they were pulled from a trunk that hadn’t been opened since the turn of the century.

There’s this one scene where he’s preaching and he just goes on and on. It feels like ten minutes, but I think it was maybe three. You start to lose your grip on reality while watching it. It’s not exactly gripping, but you can’t look away because the sheer audacity of the performance is so loud.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of The Black King (1932) through its definitive frames.

It’s nowhere near as polished as something like The Sixth Sense, which obviously had a budget that could buy a small country. This is way rougher. It has that same sort of jagged energy you find in movies like Heart Strings or Fair Lady, where you’re just happy the film didn't snap during the screening.

The way the characters move is just bizarre. They walk in and out of frame with no real reason. Sometimes someone just stands there, hands on hips, looking like they forgot their lines halfway through a sentence. It’s endearing, in a way. Or maybe it’s just exhausting. I’m still not sure which.

The ending doesn't really resolve much of anything. It just stops. It’s like the director decided they’d had enough and called it a day. It reminds me of the pacing in Homeless Homer, where things happen, then they stop, and you're left sitting in the dark wondering if there's more. But that’s the deal with these old independent things. You take what you get. 🤷‍♂️