Platicsco
Good story, Not enough for a whole film
Dynamixor
The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.
Aneesa Wardle
The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.
thejcowboy22
One afternoon I was Channel surfing (using my clicker,channel changer), looking for something to watch. I came across a scene from a movie showing Matthew "Stymie" Beard taking a violin lesson. Stymie a few years older with some hair on his scalp minus the bowler hat which was his signature accessory in the Our Gang, Lil' Rascals comedies a decade earlier. Our story begin with a Violin virtuoso an accomplished artist of the strings Arthur Williams (Clarence Muse),who at the height of his fame gets into an automobile accident and injures his hand. Nerve damage to his hand ends his career as a violinist. To salvage some of his income Mr. Williams gives violin lessons to Dickey Morley played by "Stymie" Beard. In addition Mr. Williams has a son Johnny (William Washington) who also is exceptional at the violin but the difference here is that Johnny at times crosses over to swing music which at that time is all the rage as the new form of contemporary music. Johnny is adept at playing classical violin with the best of his competitors. To the disdain of Johnny's Father, Johnny promised his Dad not to play that swing jazzy sound on his violin . Mr. Williams is a staunch believer in respecting tradition. Another words the violin should only be used for classical music and not swing style which in Mr. Williams despises. Johnny does showcase his musical talents and his violin is quite pleasing to the ear. Our second front in this tale is Mr. Williams other child, his daughter Grace (Sybil Lewis) who is romantically interested in her boyfriend Gus (Pete Webster) who work together in a hair products company, The owner's son Sam Stilson (Edward Thompson) has his eyes for Grace but Grace's affections are Gus. Grace asks her boss for a cash advance so her Father can have his injured hand examined by a neurologist. A frame up ensues which was initiated by Sam having Grace's boyfriend Gus blamed for something he didn't do. Meanwhile Johnny gets caught playing swing music by his Father and the result is an unusual punishment of endurance. Despite the punishment, Johnny still wants to try to win the local talent contest so the prize money can go towards fixing his Dad's hand. Dickey also wants to win that contest and to make sure he wins he tampers with Johnny's violin so the strings will break during the competition. The movie is only an hour in length but flows nicely. I enjoyed the music throughout and the serious role by Stymie Beard who shows a future in the business as an actor. My first film featuring an ALL BLACK CAST and an enjoyable story about life's obstacles, misunderstandings, broken traditions, culture, love, jealousy and accountability. Can swing music fix Arthur Williams Hand?
MartinHafer
Back in the bad old days of racial segregation, black movie patrons often were not allowed into whites only theaters in the States. Not surprisingly, a small industry sprung up--black movies to be shown in blacks only theaters. Unfortunately, because the audiences were much smaller, there wasn't nearly as much money to be made with these black films...and the budgets were incredibly small. While these films today are interesting from a historical standpoint, you can't help but notice that the acting is often very suspect--as well as the direction. The usual Hollywood polish is missing and the films try hard but aren't particularly great films. An example of this is "Broken Strings"...a well intentioned movie that tries very hard but its shortcomings are obvious.When the film begins, Arthur Williams (Clarence Muse) is doing a classical recital with his violin. He's brilliant and his future looks bright but he's soon in a traffic accident and his hand is injured...and his career is over. As a result, he's left making a few dollars giving violin lessons. However, he also has become a cranky jerk and is enraged when his young son begins playing swing music...and he forbids this. However, when a doctor is willing to try to repair Arthur's hand, the son goes to work performing in clubs...and he keeps it a secret. What's next? See the film.The plot of "Broken Strings" is very much a reworking of "The Jazz Singer" and the film is entertaining. But even good actors (such as Muse who was a crossover hit in mainstream films) looked poor when delivering their lines...because the direction wasn't good and they didn't have the money to re-shoot scenes. It's a shame, as the film could have easily been better.By the way, pay attention to the bratty, jerk-face kid, Dickie, who takes violin lessons--that's Stymie Beard of the "Our Gang" shorts.
Michael_Elliott
Broken Strings (1940) *** (out of 4) This is without a doubt the best of the early black cinema films I've seen. Clarence Muse plays a classical violinist who loses movement in his hand after suffering an accident. Unable to perform, he picks up teaching students as well as his son but soon he begins to have a mental breakdown. Things aren't getting any better when he realizes his son doesn't want to play classical music but instead the son finds a liking to swing/jazz. Unlike some of of the other black cinema films I've watched this year, this one here features a wonderful group of talented folks so there's none of the bad acting that I've seen in previous films. Some will recognize Muse from films such as White Zombie, The Lost Weekend, Double Indemnity and Car Wash but none of them really gave him the chance to act. He does a very good job in his role here, although there are a few times where he goes a bit too over the top. Our Gang member Matthew "Stymie" Beard also appears as one of the students. The film tacks on an incredibly silly ending but the 60-minutes fly by with some nice laughs and some nice drama.
Arthur Hausner
Except for the hokey ending, I enjoyed this family drama which touched on the artificial dichotomy of classical music and swing or jazz. Clarence Muse is excellent as a concert violinist who lost the use of his left hand after an automobile accident, and is reduced to teaching for a living. His son, Walter Washington, plays the violin well, but prefers swing and jazz, which leads to conflicts because Muse doesn't consider those forms of music worthy of being played. There are good subplots too, involving Muse's daughter, nicely played by Sybil Lewis.This being a "race" movie intended for black audiences, other musical entertainment was a must, and there are two items I enjoyed. The first had the young Stevens sisters (introducing themselves as Charmain, Cecile and Leonetti) sing and dance to a song called "Kentucky Babe." And the second was Darby Jones doing a rubberlegs kind of a dance that was excellent, especially since I knew him only from his playing African savages in two Tarzan movies and in Congo Maizie (1940). It took an all-black movie to demonstrate this talent.
