Popular Culture Review Vol. 5, No. 1, February 1994 | Page 57
Lynched, Assaulted, and Intimidated
53
ones are black . . . . As a matter of fact, the picture is
thoroughly bad from every point of analysis, from the
continuity which is unintelligible, to the caption
writing which is a crim e----- (April 16,1930:10)
Roland C. Irving and Earl 6. Westfield composed the film's
theme song, "That Gets It" (Pittsburgh Courier, 12 April 1930: 7.2).
Micheaux experimented with nudity in his murder mystery The
Temptation, produced in 1936. Nudity was used to create controversy,
arouse interest, and thereby allow him to promote his works. One
headline advertising this film read, "Mixing Sex, Rhythm and
Romance Is Job of a Pioneer Producer of Sepia Film" (Afro-American,
Baltimore, 27 February 1937: 11). The film was often advertised as
the Sins of Temptation, a technique used by Micheaux to give
audiences the impression a particular film was different from the one
previously screened and, thus, lure them again into the theaters.
After he was boycotted for his controversial themes, Micheaux's
film God's Stepchildren (1938) was, in fact, halted due to protests
staged at theaters in New York and Boston when the film premiered.
The film, introduced as a parallel to Imitation of Life, featured a
young black woman whose attempt to pass as white ultimately led to
her suicide. The film, which was technically poor in quality,
received opposition because of Micheaux's portrayal of the color
divisions in the African-American community. In this film Micheaux
equates light-complexioned blacks with industry, ambition, and
attractiveness, while he equates dark-complexioned blacks with less
appealing attributes. Further objections to this film were raised in
response to a particular scene in the film "which showed an actor,
playing the part of a white man, knocking down a young girl and
spitting on her because she had 'colored blood in her veins'" (AfroAmerican, Baltimore, 28 May 1938: 10). In response to the boycotts
that had been staged denouncing the film and after meeting with
RKO officials, Micheaux deleted objectionable features.
Creating controversy initially aroused interest in Micheaux's
films, particularly in the early period of the film industry when
African-American audiences craved black images on the screen.
Micheaux recognized that in order for his films to have appeal and
marketability he had to separate himself from other black
filmmmakers of the time by using provocative approaches in his