Two-Gun Man from Harlem (1938)

The first of three all-black music Westerns released by white-operated Sack Amusement Enterprises, Two Gun Man from Harlem was filmed at N.B. Murray’s African-American dude ranch near Victorville, California, and starred popular black entertainer Herb Jeffries (who billed himself Herbert Jeffrey for the occasion). Slightly more adult in tone than the average B-Western, the film was made by veterans of the genre, including cameraman Marcel LePicard, production manager Al Lane and art director Vin Taylor. Jeffries played Bob Blake, a ranch foreman falsely accused of killing his boss, John Steele (Tom Southern) after spurning the man’s flirtatious wife, Ruth (Mae Turner. Returning from a stay in New York’s Harlem, Bob returns West in the guise of the Deacon, a former preacher turned killer and Bob’s look-alike ("I preach the gospel, brother — gun gospel!").

Herb Jeffries, Marguerite Whitten, Mantan Moreland

60 minutes, B&W, 1938