Midnight Shadow is a 1939 film with an all African-American cast. It was directed and produced by George Randol, who was also African American.

Plot

The mind-reading Prince Alihabad courts a girl from Oklahoma played by Frances E. Redd. Her parents want to make her happy, but they do not like that Alihabad worships Allah. A killer is on the loose and locals fear that it might be Alihabad.

Cast

  • Frances Redd as Margaret Wilson
  • Buck Woods as Lightfoot
  • Richard Bates as Jr. Lingley
  • Clinton Rosemond as Mr. Dan Wilson
  • Jesse Lee Brooks as Sergeant Ramsey
  • Edward Brandon as Buster Barnett
  • Ollie Ann Robinson as Mrs. Emma Wilson
  • Laurence Criner (billed as John Criner) as Prince Alihabad
  • Pete Webster (actor) as John Mason
  • Ruby Dandridge as Mrs. Lingley
  • Napoleon Simpson as Mr. Ernest Lingley

Book coverage

The film was briefly discussed in terms of plot and as an African American production in the books Hollywood Be Thy Name: African American Religion in American Film, 1929-1949 and Whispered Consolations: Law and Narrative in African American Life.

External links

  • , IMdB
  • at the TCM Movie Database (archived version)
  • at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films
  • , undated photograph from Columbia, MO includes John Roland Redd's sisters Ruth Lankford Redd (accompanist) and Frances Elizabeth Redd, Collection: African Americans in Northeast Missouri, Hannibal Free Library