Murder in Harlem

{{short description|1935 film by Clarence Williams, Oscar Micheaux}}

{{Infobox film

| name = Murder in Harlem

| image = Murder in Harlem (1935 film).jpg

| caption =

| director = Oscar Micheaux
Clarence Williams (cabaret sequence){{Citation needed|date=May 2011}} (uncredited)

| writer = Oscar Micheaux (novel The Story of Dorothy Stanfield)
Oscar Micheaux (screenplay)
Clarence Williams (cabaret sequence){{Citation needed|date=May 2011}} (uncredited)

| producer = Alice B. Russell (producer)
Oscar Micheaux (producer){{Citation needed|date=May 2011}} (uncredited)

| starring = See below

| narrator =

| cinematography = Charles Levine

| editing =

| music =

| distributor =

| released = {{Film date|1935}}

| runtime = 102 minutes

| country = United States

| language = English

| budget =

| gross =

}}

Murder in Harlem (also released as Lem Hawkins Confession and Brand of Cain) is a 1935 American race film written, produced and directed by Oscar Micheaux, who also appears in the film. It is a remake of his 1921 silent film The Gunsaulus Mystery.

Basing the works on the 1913 trial of Leo Frank for the murder of Mary Phagan,[http://www.filmquarterly.org/issue_5704_right.html "Oscar Micheaux and Leo Frank: Cinematic Justice Across the Color Line"], Film Quarterly, Summer 2004. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100413193019/http://www.filmquarterly.org/issue_5704_right.html |date=April 13, 2010 }} Micheaux used the detective genre to introduce different voices and conflicting accounts by his characters. In July 2021, the film was shown in the Cannes Classics section at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival.{{cite web|url=https://thefilmstage.com/2021-cannes-classic-lineup-includes-orson-welles-powell-and-pressburger-tilda-swinton-more/ |title=2021 Cannes Classics Lineup Includes Orson Welles, Powell and Pressburger, Tilda Swinton & More |work=The Film Stage |date=23 June 2021 |access-date=25 June 2021}}

Plot

An African-American man is framed for the murder of a white woman, but a white man is responsible. Author-turned-attorney Henry Glory is hired by the accused man's sister to defend him. Glory pieces the crime together, and the white killer is revealed. The film is loosely based on the real life case of Leo Frank. However, it changes the details of the real case, which was highly prejudicial against Frank due to his being a Jewish man in Georgia. Unlike in the film, Frank's guilt is often viewed with great skepticism due to his never receiving a fair trial.[https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/5819/lem-hawkins-confession "Overview: Lem Hawkins’ Confession"], Turner Classic Movies.J. Ronald Green, [https://books.google.com/books?id=w1zFLK2geOAC&dq=%22Murder+in+Harlem%22+micheaux&pg=PA165 Straight Lick: The Cinema of Oscar Micheaux], Indiana University Press, 2000, p. 174.