The Notorious Elinor Lee
Cast & Crew
Oscar Micheaux
Gladys Williams
Carman Newsome
Robert Earl Jones
Edna Mae Harris
Vera Burrelle
Film Details
Synopsis
While visiting sports bosses Farbacker and Feretti, gangster moll Elinor Lee tells them that she has a fighter named Benny Blue under contract for ten years. Confident that the chances of a black man becoming boxing champion are remote, they plan to make $500,000 by building him up and then forcing him to take a dive and throw a fight. Lee soon enlists boxing managers Norman Haywood and "Crocker" Johnson to engage Fredi, an old friend of Benny's, to become his sweetheart. Benny fights an Italian and beats him in the sixth round by a knockout. Although he no longer writes to her, Benny later asks his mother about Mary, a girl who she believes would look out for him. Benny's mother is worried about her son, for she knew Lee when she lived in St. Louis, where she was charged with murder and acquitted under suspicious circumstances. After winning his next fight, Benny goes to a nightclub and celebrates with Fredi all night. The next day, Benny, in poor shape, loses his bout with a German, Hans Wagner, who refuses a rematch. Benny is soon reduced to fighting anyone, but when he begins to win his bouts, Wagner agrees to a rematch. Fredi, meanwhile, has been bribed and threatened by Lee into urging him to throw the rematch, but when Benny convinces Fredi that his affection for her can overcome her troubles, she confesses to him that she is an escaped convict and that she is afraid of Lee. Two years after his first match against Wagner, Benny again faces the German, who suspects that his opponent will be using the same poor tactics he used in their last fight. Benny, however, has changed, and as reporters bet on "Blue dynamite vs. Arayan mentality," Benny scores a quick knockout, and Lee and her backers are ruined.
Director
Oscar Micheaux
Cast
Gladys Williams
Carman Newsome
Robert Earl Jones
Edna Mae Harris
Vera Burrelle
Eddie Lemons
Columbus Jackson
Laura Bowman
Madeline Donegan
Amanda Randolph
Robert Paquin
O. W. Polk
Charles Latorre
Don De Leo
Abe Simon
Sandy Mcdonald
Harry Kadison
Lew Hearn
Jack Effrat
Harry Ballou
Sam Taub
Lou Goldberg
Juano Hernandez
Fred Palmer's Orchestra
"rubberneck" Holmes
Ralph Brown
Sally Gooding
Ella Mae Waters
Crew
Film Details
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
According to modern sources, the producers were Hubert Julian, the "Black Eagle," and Oscar Micheaux. A January 1940 Time article noted that the picture was filmed in an old Biograph studio in the Bronx, NY. Although contemporary sources indicate that the film had its premiere in January 1940, the exact release date of the picture has not been found. Song titles for this film have not been found.
