Charles Gilpin

This is only the third time I've written about an actor based on just one film, but in the case of the performance of Charles Gilpin in the 1926 silent movie, Ten Nights in a Bar Room, that's all the proof needed to see what a brilliant actor he was.

In the film he plays a man who turns to alcohol after his business is stolen from him. His journey takes him from drunken rock bottom to sober redemption. And what's so impressive is that all of this is done without uttering one word of dialogue. I'm confident in saying that Charles Gilpin gives not only one of the greatest performances of the silent era, but of any era, and if people weren't so afraid to watch a silent movie, I'm confident they would agree.

Ten Nights in a Bar Room, produced by the Colored Players Film Corporation, was released at a time when Hollywood made movies for white audience with white actors. Lower budget movies featuring all Black cast were made - called Race Films, but they were only shown at Black theatres and rarely received any mainstream press. In fact it wasn't until recently that journalist discovered there was an entirely different kind of ethnic experience that existed long before the Black cinema phase known to many as the Blaxploitation era.

Charles Gilpin, or often referred as Charles S. Gilpin was mainly a stage actor. He received most of his notoriety by playing the lead role in the original Broadway cast of Eugene O'Neill's The Emperor Jones. It's a shame more film work didn't come his way because his work in Ten Nights in a Bar Room is a powerhouse of a performance that leaves one begging to see more. And the fact that one film is all that's left of his work is a shame to both the world of the arts, as well as his legacy.