The guts of the Eugene O’Neill play takes up the last 25 minutes or so of this film – the rest of it is prologue. It starts off as a semi-musical with an African tribal dance, then Paul Robeson singing in church, then visiting a nightclub where there’s some singing and dancing, and singing on the rock pile. He starts off the film beginning his job as a railway porter, earns a bit of cash, gets involved with gamblers then trouble with the law, winds up in gaol, escapes, runs away to the Caribbean and uses his moxie and strength to become the leader of a small company. Fascinating from a historical point of view and for those interested in the work of Paul Robeson (and of course Eugene O’Neill) – as drama it doesn’t quite work.
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