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Biography: Clarence Muse

When, in his later years, African-American actor Clarence Muse requested that he be addressed as Dr. Muse, it was no mere hollow affectation; Muse held a law degree from Pennsylvania's Dickerson University. Opting for a show business career, Muse appeared as an opera singer, minstrel show performer, and vaudeville and Broadway actor; he also composed songs and wrote plays and sketches. An active participant in the burgeoning black theater movement of the 1920s, Muse was a member of the progressive all-black Lincoln Players. His Hollywood film assignments generally confined him to stereotypes, though Muse was usually able to rise above the shuffling "yassuh, boss" characterizations required of him. He was given dignified, erudite roles in films designed for all-black audiences (e.g., 1939's Broken Strings), and on rare occasions was permitted to portray non-submissive characters in mainstream films (it must have come as quite a shock to Southern audiences of 1941 when Muse, playing Bela Lugosi's independent-minded butler in The Invisible Ghost, spoke harshly to a white female servant, addressing her as "you old fool!"). Muse also penned the songs and co-wrote the story for the 1938 Bobby Breen musical Way Down South. In 1955, Muse was a regular on the weekly TV version of Casablanca, playing Sam the pianist (a role he'd very nearly gotten in the 1942 film version). Though he was an outspoken advocate for better and more equitable treatment for black performers, Muse was a staunch supporter of the controversial TV series Amos 'N' Andy, pointing out that, despite the caricatured leading characters, the series allowed black actors to play doctors, bankers, judges, professors, and other parts generally denied them in "white" shows. In 1973, Clarence Muse was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame -- then went back to work, remaining active in films until the year of his death, when he was featured in The Black Stallion (1979). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide less

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The Black Stallion (1979)
Cast: Mickey Rooney Francis Ford Coppola Teri Garr
Tags: Animal Picture Family-Oriented Adventure Adventure Family
Length: 120min
This beautifully mounted adaptation of Walter Farley's story for children tells the tale of Alec (Kelly Reno), a young boy touring the world with his adventurous salesman father (Hoyt Axton). While travelling back to the United States by ship, Alec...
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Passing Through (1977)
Tags: Musical Drama Crime Drama Drama
Length: 105min
The same Ted Lange who spent several years in the innocuous role of the bartender in TV's The Love Boat was the screenwriter for the far-from-innocuous "black pride" effort Passing Through. Nathaniel Taylor plays African-American jazz musician...
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That Gang of Mine (1940)
Cast: Leo Gorcey
Tags: Comedy Sports Comedy
Length: 62min
Despite the ridicule of the rest of the East Side Kids, Mugs Maloney (Leo Gorcey) aspires to be a jockey. He gets his chance with the help of elderly stablehand Ben (Clarence Muse), the owner of a thoroughbred race horse. Ben agrees to train Mugs on...
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Gentleman from Dixie (1941)
Tags: Crime Drama
Length: 61min
Veteran screen menace Jack LaRue is the unlikely hero of Monogram's Gentleman From Dixie--and no one seems more surprised at this atypical casting than LaRue himself! The star is cast as ex-convict Thad Terrill, who upon his release heads to his...
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Spirit of Youth (1938)
Tags: Drama Sports Drama
Length: 70min
World heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis stars in Spirit of Youth. Often mistakenly referred to as a biography of Louis, the film is actually the fictional story of aspiring boxer Joe Thomas, who hopes to make millions in the ring. He does, but as...
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Way Down South (1939)
Cast: Ralph Morgan Alan Mowbray
Tags: Musical Drama
Length: 62min
Way Down South ranks as among the better Bobby Breen musicals, if only because of its impressive production credits. The film is set in antebellum Louisiana, where young Tim Reid's (Breen) inheritance is highly coveted by crooked attorney Martin Dill...
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The Invisible Ghost (1941)
Cast: Bela Lugosi Joseph H. Lewis Clarence Muse Betty Compson
Tags: Crime Horror Psychological Thriller
Length: 70min
Invisible Ghost is far from the best of Bela Lugosi's Monogram vehicles (if indeed there is such a thing), but with Joseph H. Lewis at the controls it is far and away the best directed. Lugosi is cast as Kessler, an otherwise normal gentleman who goes...
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Winner Take All (1932)
Cast: James Cagney Perc Westmore Virginia Bruce Roy Del Ruth
Tags: Drama Romance Sports Drama
Length: 68min
James Cagney stars as a popular prizefighter who loses his winnings through too much partying and too many women. Cagney's fans finance the boxer's regenerative stay at a New Mexico health resort. For the sake of pretty, poverty-stricken Marian Nixon,...
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Prison Train (1938)
Tags: Crime Drama Prison Film Crime Thriller
Length: 84min
Also known as People's Enemy, this is a low-budget surprise movie which depicts a convicted racketeer on his way across country to Alcatraz, where he is to begin his sentence for murder. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide
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Daniel Boone (1935)
Cast: John Carradine Heather Angel
Tags: Adventure Drama Family-Oriented Adventure Action Adventure Historical Film
Length: 75min
The great wilderness explorer Daniel Boone has many exciting adventures in this family-oriented outdoor actioner that primarily centers on the big man's attempts to quell an Indian uprising and capture the ornery villain who has been stirring up all...
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Clarence Muse

Biography: Clarence Muse

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