The Midnight Ace
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
John H. Wade
A. B. De Comathiere
Mabel Kelly
Oscar Roy Dugas
Walter Cornick
Susie Sutton
Film Details
Synopsis
A young black girl falls in love with a master criminal, believing him to be a good and decent man. The criminal and his gang's many robberies leave the city gripped in terror. After the criminal calls the police to direct them to the sight of the latest robbery, a black detective finds a playing card, the ace of spades, at the scene of the crime. The detective is hopelessly in love with the girl who loves the criminal. After the detective finds another clue leading to the identification of the criminal, he informs the girl that the man she loves is a crook and a philanderer. After the criminal's wife finds a photograph of the girl in her home, she horsewhips her husband, who then beats her and leaves her to die after turning on the gas in their kitchen. The girl saves the wife, and they go to the scene of the next robbery, where the criminal and his gang are apprehended. At the trial, as he is being sentenced, the criminal escapes from the courtroom and makes a break for freedom. The stolen car in which he flees goes over a cliff, however, and carries him to a rocky death. The detective and the girl find love and happiness with each other.
Director
John H. Wade
Cast
A. B. De Comathiere
Mabel Kelly
Oscar Roy Dugas
Walter Cornick
Susie Sutton
William Edmonson
Roberta Brown
Bessie Givens
Anthony Gaytzera
Pete Smith
Edward Day
Clarence Penalver
Film Details
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
According to a May 1928 article in Pittsburgh Courier, The Midnight Ace was the first production of the Dunbar Film Corp., which was located in New York City. Swan E. Micheaux, Jr., who previously had worked for eight years with his brother, noted African-American filmmaker Oscar Micheaux, interested white investors in the formation of the company. While the president of the company, Peter Eckert, and the secretary and treasurer, Bertha Elwald, were white, the director of the film, John H. Wade, was black. Swan Micheaux was responsible for booking, buying and supervising the production. The article noted that the Micheaux brothers were the only African Americans producing films at that time. The film's production cost was $8,000. An unidentified news item in the George P. Johnson Collection at the UCLA Special Collections Library noted: "While it [the film] was only fair it is a slight improvement on his [Swan Micheaux's] brother Oscar." According to a Chicago Defender news story, Swan Micheaux secured the film rights to twelve stories by Jack Harrison, who wrote the story of this film.
