Castors

1944 · 390327 — Million Dollar Pictures 1944. Very Good. Poster. Measuring 27" x 40". With the original title covered by an affixed 24" x 4" sheet with red lettering. Scattered short tears at the edges early tape repair on the back to a fold very good. This all-black cast was a vehicle for Louise Beavers who played a probation officer at a boy's reform school who steps in with kindness after forcing out the cruel warden. Though Beavers was a veteran of more than 100 Hollywood films she was largely limited to stereotypical "mammy" roles of slave maid and servant. She achieve a level of mainstream prominence for her role in the 1934 Oscar-nominated film Imitation of Life in which her character was featured in a major subplot rare at the time for black actors as a mother struggling with a light-skinned daughter who refuses to live as a black woman. Reform School was one of her few starring roles and important culturally due to its all-black cast. The film was re-titled Prison Bait" in its 1944 re-release but given the quality of the printing we believe this poster was from the original batch printed in 1939. Million Dollar Pictures unknown