The Emperor Jones (1933 film)
The Emperor Jones is a 1933 American pre-Code film adaptation of Eugene O'Neill's 1920 play of the same title, directed by iconoclast Dudley Murphy, written for the screen by playwright DuBose Heyward and starring Paul Robeson in the title role, and co-starring Dudley Digges, Frank H. Wilson, Fredi Washington and Ruby Elzy.
Theatrical release poster
The Emperor Jones is a 1920 tragic play by American dramatist Eugene O'Neill that tells the tale of Brutus Jones, a resourceful, self-assured African American and a former Pullman porter, who kills another black man in a dice game, is jailed, and later escapes to a small, backward Caribbean island where he sets himself up as emperor. The play recounts his story in flashbacks as Brutus makes his way through the jungle in an attempt to escape former subjects who have rebelled against him.
Charles Sidney Gilpin in The Emperor Jones in 1920
Brutus Jones, played by Charles Sidney Gilpin, removes his shoes to facilitate his flight through the jungle in the original Provincetown Playhouse production of The Emperor Jones (1920)
Brutus Jones (Charles S. Gilpin, left) at a slave auction (Scene 5)
Under the spell of hallucination, Jones fires at the wraiths of an auctioneer and a Southern planter (Scene 5)