In a sentenceOscar Micheaux has 74 minutes and no intention of making them comfortable
Engaged to Conrad Drebert (James D. Ruffin), Sylvia Landry (Evelyn Preer) stands at the centre of a drama of romance and crime. Alma Prichard (Flo Clements) and her stepbrother, Larry Prichard (Jack Chenault), are among the people around her, alongside Dr. V. Vivian (Charles D. Lucas). Oscar Micheaux follows Sylvia within a broader portrait of Black society. The cast of characters also includes Mrs. Geraldine Stratton (Bernice Ladd), Mrs. Elena Warwick (Mrs. Evelyn) and Jasper Landry (William Starks).
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Oscar Micheaux’s drama is untidy and sometimes awkwardly acted, but its images of suffering are hard to forget. We recommend it with a warning: the storytelling takes a roundabout route towards its most affecting scenes.
Within Our Gates is a forceful, uneven drama, worth seeing with some patience for its wandering story. Oscar Micheaux writes and directs as though romance, crime and a broad account of Black society all need to fit into the same film. They do not always sit comfortably together, and the joins can be distracting. Yet the images have a force that makes us forgive a good deal of the fuss required to get to them.
The breadth matters. Sylvia Landry, played by Evelyn Preer, gives the film a central figure, but Micheaux keeps widening his attention beyond her. That can be frustrating when we want him to stay with the person whose troubles have caught our interest. It also gives the drama something worth the occasional loss of concentration: a sense that the people surrounding Sylvia deserve attention beyond their usefulness to her story.
Evelyn Preer has the difficult task of keeping Sylvia important amid those competing demands, and her presence gives us a reason to follow the diversions. The surrounding acting is less dependable. Some performances press their emotions harder than they need to, making us notice the effort at precisely the point when we should be caught up in the trouble. The stiffness is a real obstacle in a film that needs us to care about its people.
We were shaken by the images of Sylvia’s trauma. Their force comes from how directly the suffering is presented, without allowing the surrounding plot to make it feel merely like another complication. We will not describe what happens. Micheaux makes us stay with the hurt, and those passages are the reason to see the film even if the route towards them has tested our patience.
The chief weakness belongs to Micheaux the writer, whose approach to the central subject is unnecessarily roundabout. At 74 minutes, this is a short film that can still feel as though it is taking its time getting somewhere. The complications sometimes demand attention that would be better spent on Sylvia. We can respect the wish to include a broad social picture and still wish that several stretches had been brought into a tighter sequence.
Micheaux asks a great deal of melodrama here. The romance and the crime must hold our interest while making space for suffering that cannot comfortably be treated as entertainment. That helps explain the crowded telling, although it does not excuse every diversion. The strongest passages justify the emotional pressure he applies; elsewhere, the awkward acting makes the same approach feel laboured, and we become too conscious of being urged to feel something.
The ending is awkward too, though we will leave its particulars alone. It does not erase the force of the images that precede it, or the seriousness with which Micheaux treats Sylvia’s suffering. The reservations are worth taking seriously, especially for anyone who needs a story to move cleanly. Give it an evening without distractions, and do not expect a reassuring romance.
O'Sullivan gives the film a strongly positive verdict, despite noting some gauche performances and an awkward ending. She particularly praises its visually searing sequences that reveal Sylvia’s trauma.
Read the full review →The review regards Micheaux’s melodrama as bold and daring in both style and subject. It especially praises the film’s expansive portrayal of Black society and its striking narrative twists.
Read the full review →Thomas regards the film as an important, impassioned work, though its storytelling rambles and takes a roundabout route to its central subject. He praises the haunting images and the discreetly presented lynching scenes.
Read the full review →
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