Beale Street Mama (1946)
January 1, 1946Release Date
Plot.
Where to Watch.
Cast & Crew.
July Jones
July Jones
Spencer Williams
Bad News Johnson / Director
Rosalie Larrimore
Mathilda Mae Grimes
Howard Galloway
Pretty Boy Brown
J.W. (John) Hemmings
Chief of Police
Montgne McCormy
Hazel Smith
Mary Louise Stevens
Rosie Scott
George T. Sutton
Detective
George T. Sutton
Detective
Allen and Allen
Entertainers
Joyce McElrath
Entertainer
Don Albert
Himself, Band Leader
Alfred N. Sack
Presenter
Bert Goldbert
Producer
Bert Goldberg
Producer
Details.
Wiki.
Beale Street Mama is a 1923 popular song by J. Russell Robinson and Roy Turk and a 1946 film with an African-American cast named for the song. An early jazz standard, the song was recorded by Bessie Smith, Ted Lewis, Fletcher Henderson, Cab Calloway, and many others.
The 1946 film Beale Street Mama was named after the song. A race film, it was directed by and stars Spencer Williams. It was distributed by Sack Amusement Enterprises.
The film is set in Memphis, Tennessee, and focuses on a street sweeper who comes upon a large parcel of money. He uses the newly acquired wealth to go on a spending spree, with the hope of getting back at an old girlfriend who dumped him for another man. However, complications arise when it is discovered the money is counterfeit.
No copyright was filed for Beale Street Mama, which makes the production a public domain film.