American Cinematographer - February 1990 - 42

inferiority. When Robeson was
the film was a failure he did not
betray his confidence in the play (which, inciden¬
tally, he retained in his stage repertoire) but crit¬
icized the handling of the material.
"Scenes were changed around from the
proper psychological order of the play
the big
episode, the long monologue in the forest, was not
played the same way in the film. On the stage a
upon them their
asked in 1938 why

drum became an actual character in the scene. The
lines I spoke were dialogue addressed to the drum
and answered by it. But in the film, which I started
with enthusiasm, I was told that of course we
couldn't play the scene that way. We couldn't use the
drum in the dramatic emotional way that was neces¬

sary

for me."
With Robeson's

political censure in Ameri¬
era his films disappeared
from circulation. His son maintains that they were
purposely destroyed. When The American Film
Institute sought to retrieve The Emperor Jones in the
early 1970s all that could be found were the pro¬
ducers' own battered 16mm copies. All 35mm mate¬
rials were said to have been destroyed in a
laboratory fire. Fragments of the two prints were
combined and blown up to 35mm, and a very
shabby Emperor was restored to public view.
Was it merely a physical accident that caus¬
ca

during the McCarthy

ed the film to vanish? "There

was a

fire in

small

laboratory where we stored our film and the nega¬
tive was destroyed," declared Krimsky But on fur¬
ther questioning he indicated that "around the time
of the McCarthy era," he and Cochran were served
a summons and "the fire department moved in and
set a torch to old film." Paul Robeson Jr.'s conspir¬
acy theories suddenly sound credible.
Fortunately, though after the AFI's heroic
salvage, a good 35mm print was discovered at the
Canadian Film Archive in Ottawa and it is this

superior print that is currently distributed in the
United States by Janus Films. Both the AFI
Canadian print are heavily cut when compared

and
to a

cutting continuity of the film as passed by the New
York State Board of Censors in 1933, at which time it
had been given a seal without changes. Perhaps the
cuts were made during the Screencraft reissue, or

hark back to those 1935 lavender cuts.
According to footage counts The Emperor
Jones ran 80 minutes in 1933. Today it runs approx¬
imately 72 minutes. The cutting continuity shows
that 40 deletions have been made in the surviving
Canadian print. Thirty of these are the word "nig¬
ger," plucked out of sentences, rendering many of
Robeson's lines unintelligible. Two or three of the
missing bits are damaged ends of reels.
The AFI print contains several additional
shots, including the moment where Jeff pulls his
knife on Brutus and the subsequent murder, along
they

may

with the bizarre coda where the white cop enters
the juk. Salacious bits of other scenes - the gyra¬
tions of the

dancing girls in the club; Undine enter¬
on a coach in the brothel; Undine
tucking money in her garter - have been removed.
taining

American

client

Cinematographer

Two key scenes are missing today in their
entirety. In the first, Jones finds himself being sold
in

southern slave auction, and he uses two bullets

to kill the

spectres of the white auctioneer and
plantation owner. In the next sequence he is sur¬
rounded by the mute spirits of enslaved Africans.
Dressed now only in the shards of his trousers, his
appearance matches their nakedness as he joins
their journey in the belly of a slave ship to American
shores, reliving the moment of his race's betrayal.
Lacking these two key scenes, the entire
balance of the film is upset. White shame is spared
while Jones, and the play, have a large dimension
removed.
After Jones, Krimsky and Cochran consid¬
ered filming O'Neill's All God's Chillun Got Wings,
but with the strict drum-beating of The Legion of

Decency in 1934 that put teeth in the Production
Code, a miscegenation story was forbidden out¬
right. The team split up. Krimsky worked briefly as
a
producer at Fox and MGM but by the late 'thirties
he bailed out of Hollywood and spent the rest of his
life in advertising. Cochran retreated to his West¬
chester estate, raising cattle and painting watercolors. Murphy tried but never quite realized his
dream of alternative cinema.

Robeson continued to appear in revivals of
war and embarked on a great
concert career. As his political views embraced
Communism and he became deeply involved in civil
the

play before the

rights, The Emperor Jones became suspect baggage
for him. Manning Johnson, a former member of the
Communist Party busily naming names before
HUAC, recalled Robeson's portrayal of Jones to the
committee, claiming, "He has delusions of gran¬
deur. He wants to be the black Stalin among

Negroes."
Robeson would later

renounce

the film,

saying, "They called The Emperor Jones an art film,
but it was meant to make money which, I guess,
it did."

Jack Shalitt and Grant Whytock were interviewed by Richard
Koszarski. John Krimsky and Fredi Washington were inter¬
viewed by the author. Thanks to Harry Miller at State Histori¬
cal Society, Madison, Wisconsin; Eleanor Mish at The
American Museum of the

Moving Image; Bill Littman; Ralph
Clayton; Robert Gitt; Dennis Doros, Janus Films; Roger
Ritzmann, N.Y. State Archives.

Credits
produced by John Krimsky & Gifford
Cochran, Inc.; from a play by Eugene O'Neill; directed by Dudley
Murphy; screen play by Dubose Heyward; supervised by William
C. de Mille; photography by Ernest Haller, ASC; art director,
Herman Rosse; incidental music composed and conducted by
Frank Tours; vocal arrangements by J. Rosamund Johnson; film
editor, Grant Whytock; sound recording, Joseph Kane; Western
Electric sound system; synchronization, Max Manne; assistant
director, Joseph H. Nadel; production manager, J. Edward Shugrue; casting associate, Fritz Pollard; stills, Jack Shalitt; filmed at
Eastern Service Studios, Long Island City, New York. Running
time 80 minutes (7300 feet); existing prints, 72 minutes.
Brutus Jones, Paul Robeson; Smithers, Dudley
Digges; Jeff, Frank Wilson; Undine, Fredi Washington; Dolly,
Ruby Elzy; Lem, George Haymid Stamper; Marcella, Jackie
Mayble; Treasurer, Blueboy O'Connor; Carrington, Brandon
Evans; Man, Gordon Taylor; Court Crier, Rex Ingram; Nightclub
Dancer, Harry Nicholas; Extra, Fritz Pollard.

A United Artists release;

February 1990

American Cinematographer - February 1990

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