Lying Lips
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Oscar Micheaux
Edna Mae Harris
Carman Newsome
Earl Jones
Frances Williams
Cherokee Thornton
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Black nightclub singer Elsie Bellwood refuses to go out with two Italian customers who want to sponsor a party with some of the showgirls, despite the urgings of her white boss, Farina. Farina decides to call on her black manager, Benjamin Hadnott, to try to convince her, but Ben refuses and quits his job. That evening, Elsie has dinner with Ben, who tells her that he has been studying to become a detective. Believing he is trying to conceal his unemployment, Elsie decides to take care of Ben until he gets a new job. One evening, Elsie is summoned to her Aunt Josie's, only to find that Josie has been killed. When the police arrive, the white police lieutenant decides to arrest Elsie, even though black detective Wanzer believes she is innocent. Desperate, Elsie gives Ben's address to Wanzer, and he and Ben agree to do what they can to help her. Elizabeth Green, Elsie's cousin, suggests a possible motive for the murder when she tells the police that Elsie had taken out a large insurance policy on her aunt. Meanwhile, Elsie's cousins, "John" and "Clyde," who have been hired by Farina to replace Ben, claim they saw Elsie leave the club for a half hour around the time of the murder. Although she denies their statement, Elsie is convicted of the murder. When Ben and Wanzer learn that "Ned" Green, Elizabeth's husband, was in love with Josie, they question Reverend Bryson, a longtime friend of the family, who tells them the story of Ned: Elizabeth forced Ned to marry her by tricking him into believing that she was pregnant. When Ned found out that she had lied, he left her without waiting for an annulment. Elizabeth and her unscrupulous brothers then followed Ned to the north, where he went to be near his true love, Josie. John and Clyde eventually found Ned and forced him to return to Elizabeth. Now, years later, Ned has disappeared again, and to help find him, Ben suggests that he and Wanzer abduct John and tell him they are taking him for a ride to haunted Tolston Manor. When they accuse John of killing Josie, he admits that he lied to shift the blame to Elsie. Ned, it is learned, decided he would kill Josie if she did not run away with him. When the police realize that the frame-up was planned in order to get the insurance money from Elsie, Elsie is released from prison. Once reunited with Ben, Elsie gives him the money, which he puts into a trust fund for their "children."
Director
Oscar Micheaux
Cast
Edna Mae Harris
Carman Newsome
Earl Jones
Frances Williams
Cherokee Thornton
"slim" Thompson
Gladys Williams
Juano Hernandez
Henry "gang" Gines
Don Delese
Charles Latorre
Robert Paquin
George Reynolds
Amanda Randolph
Teddy Hall
Crew
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
Although an onscreen statement claims that the picture featured "an All-Star Colored Cast," the actor who played nightclub owner "Farina" was white, as were a number of actors in the roles of policemen. According to modern sources, Hubert Fauntleroy Julian produced the film, and Frank Costell and J. Louis Johnson were in the cast.
Lying Lips marked the motion picture debut of actor Robert Earl Jones (1910-2006), a former boxer and stage actor who was crdited onscreen as "Earl Jones." Jones continued to act into the 1990s on stage and television, with occasional film roles, including "Luther Coleman" in the 1973 Universal release The Sting. Jones was the father of noted stage, film and television actor James Earl Jones.
