Birthright

1938
1h 14m

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

A black Harvard graduate confronts racism.A black Harvard graduate confronts racism.A black Harvard graduate confronts racism.

Director
- Oscar Micheaux
Writers
- Thomas Sigismund Stribling
- Oscar Micheaux
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

5.8/10

224

YOUR RATING

Director
- Oscar Micheaux
Writers
- Thomas Sigismund Stribling
- Oscar Micheaux
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 1 nomination total

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Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
When Siner calls on the white doctor who visits his sick mother and then takes him in, the house is clearly the same one as the doctor who refuses treatment unless he's paid ten dollars. Not a goof, but an example of the economies Michaux used , particularly in his sound films.

Goofs
When Peter and Cissy are walking down the street talking about the Peter's being swindled, the shadow of a boom mike is to the left of her throughout the shot.

Quotes
Peter's Mother: I 'clare fo gawd. Dis Darktown is a white man's pocket. Every time he misplaces something he feels in it to see if it ain't there... if a white man eat a flap jack and hit didn't give him belly-ache, he'd get out a search warrant to see if some Negro didn't steal it on the way down his throat.

Connections
Featured in Movies of Color: Black Southern Cinema (2002)

Soundtracks
All God's Children Got Rhythm
Music by Walter Jurmann

The 55 Year Old Oscar Micheaux

This adaptation of Thomas Edmund Stribling's novel was akin to Hitchcock's adaptation of Daphne Du Maurier's novel, 'Jamaica Inn'. I enjoyed reading Stribling's novel simply because it was written from a black perspective.

I don't think I should be too harsh on Micheaux because his contemporaries, Hitchcock and DeMille, weren't at their best either at this stage.