| Lulu Belle | |
|---|---|
&sq=&lang=&file=File:Lulu_Belle_(film_poster).jpg) Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Leslie Fenton |
| Written by | Karl Kamb (additional dialogue) |
| Screenplay by | Everett Freeman |
| Based on | Lulu Belle by Charles MacArthur and Edward Sheldon |
| Produced by | Benedict Bogeaus |
| Starring | Dorothy Lamour George Montgomery |
| Cinematography | Ernest Laszlo |
| Edited by | James Smith |
| Music by | Henry Russell |
Production company | Benedict Bogeaus Production |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 87 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Lulu Belle is a 1948 American drama musical romance film directed by Leslie Fenton and starring Dorothy Lamour.[1] The film was a loose and highly sanitized adaptation of Charles MacArthur and Edward Sheldon's hit 1926 Broadway play of the same name.[2][3] The play was a critique of American middle class morality and inter-racial relationships and told the story of Lulu Belle, a black cabaret performer and prostitute in Harlem, who becomes the object of desire for first a white married barber and later a white boxer.
The play's theme of miscegenation and its authentic depiction of black life and community in 1920s Harlem was completely removed from the film; which was uncomfortable with the play's openness about both sex and race.[4] The resulting film was a convoluted and heavily Code-censored film version of the play. Lulu Belle was transformed from a black prostitute from Harlem into a white blues singer from Mississippi who could not be true to her boxer beau.[5] The film also transformed the play into a musical as the original stage work contained little music. The film also re-wrote the ending. In the play Lulu is murdered and no characters are left in a positive situation. In the film Lulu is only injured and the work ends on a bitter-sweet note. Although the film offered a change of pace for its star, Dorothy Lamour, it was not a success at the box office.
- ^ Hannan, Brian (2016-05-31). Coming Back to a Theater Near You: A History of Hollywood Reissues, 1914–2014. McFarland. p. 74. ISBN 978-0-7864-9813-0. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
- ^ Wintz, Cary D.; Finkelman, Paul (2004). Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance: K-Y. Taylor & Francis. p. 746. ISBN 978-1-57958-458-0. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
- ^ Scott, Ellen C. (2015-01-14). Cinema Civil Rights: Regulation, Repression, and Race in the Classical Hollywood Era. Rutgers University Press. ISBN 978-0-8135-7292-5. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
- ^ Black, p. 73
- ^ Black, p. 74