Intersecting Aesthetics: Literary Adaptations and Cinematic Representations of Blackness

In this illuminating history, five film and African American studies professors examine the compromises and complications that accompanied Hollywood adaptations of literary works about Black people throughout the 20th century. Lamenting how early Hollywood sidelined Black artists, Regester describes Langston Hughes’s ill-fated attempts to break into the movie business in the 1930s, including his embarrassment about acquiescing to studio demands that his screenplay for Way Down South, a rework of the play St. Louis Woman, feature a “stereotypical depiction of southern Blacks.” Contributor Elizabeth Binggeli details Warner Bros. internal memos revealing how the studio sought to water down racial critiques in Black authors’ novels to make the stories more palatable for white moviegoers, including an abandoned proposal to adapt Richard Wright’s Native Son with an all-white cast in the 1940s. Elsewhere, Judith E. Smith traces how “debates over racial representation, colonialism, and decolonization” inside 20th Century Fox led to a racist portrayal of the Haitian Revolution in the studio’s 1952 film, Lydia Bailey). Throughout, the contributors’ reporting on internal documents offers enlightening insight into forgotten would-be blockbusters and fascinating projects that never saw the light of day. The result is a riveting take on overlooked chapters in Hollywood history. (Dec.)