The Brute (1920 film)

The Brute is a 1920 silent race film directed, written, produced and distributed by Oscar Micheaux. No print of the film is known to exist and the production is believed to be a lost film.^[2] The original version of the film included a scene where the boxer defeats a white rival, but Micheaux was forced to remove the scene by censors.^[3]

The Brute
Newspaper advertisement for the film
Directed by	Oscar Micheaux
Written by	Oscar Micheaux
Produced by	Oscar Micheaux
Cinematography	"Whitie" [Note 1]
Production company	Micheaux Film Corp.
Distributed by	Micheaux Film Corp.
Release date	1920 (1920)
Running time	7 reels
Country	United States
Language	Silent

Plot

Herbert Lanyon is thought to be dead after a shipwreck, and his fiancée Mildred Carrison is forced by her money-minded Aunt Clara into marriage with "Bull" Magee, a gambler and underworld boss who mistreats Mildred. After Herbert returns, Magee undergoes financial difficulties that he blames on Mildred and Herbert, and seeks revenge. Herbert and a repentant Aunt Clara, however, free Mildred from Magee, and the lovers are able to marry. A subplot involves boxer "Tug" Wilson, who is ordered by his manager Magee to lay down in the seventeenth round of a prizefight at the film's climax. No other information concerning the plot has been discovered.

—American Film Institute

Cast

• Evelyn Preer – Mildred Carrison
• A. B. DeComathiere – Bull Magee
• Sam Langford – Tug Wilson
• Susie Sutton – Aunt Clara
• Lawrence Chenault – Herbert Lanyon
• Laura Bowman – Mrs. Carrison
• Mattie Edwards – Guest in "The Hole"
• Alice Gorgas – Margaret Pendleton
• Virgil Williams – Referee
• Marty Cutler – Sidney Kirkwood
• Floy Clements – Irene Lanyon^[4]
• Louis Schooler – Klondike
• Harry Plater
• E. G. Tatum
• Al Gaines

See also

• List of lost films

Notes

1. In the records of the George P. Johnson Negro Film Collection, the cameraman was identified only as "Whitie."^[1]