Film Forum

U.S., 1948
Directed by Jack Kemp
Starring Sheila Guyse, William Greaves
35mm print courtesy the Library of Congress. Approx. 70 min.

“Generally considered a technical landmark in the history of race movies, Miracle in Harlem appeared toward the end of the early Black independent film movement. Ostensibly the movie’s a murder mystery centering on a candy-store swindle. But beneath its glossy veneer lies an interesting subtext: it’s a look at post-World War II Black America’s vision of its new tomorrow of promise and prosperity. Its lead characters – serious, noble, educated, bourgeois, less ethnic – stand as embodiments of the new social/economic philosophy: they are attractive, optimistic, capitalistic go-getters, who believe in the American system of free enterprise and are determined to make the system work for them.”– Donald Bogle, Blacks in American Film and Television