Film Masters Restores Director Dudley Murphy's 1933 Film Adaptation Of Eugene O'Neill's Stage Play The Emperor Jones • Starring Paul Robeson • For Blu-ray Distribution On Feb. 25

Look to Feb. 25 for the arrival of a newly restored Blu-ray edition of director Dudley Murphy’s 1933 film adaptation of Eugene O'Neill’s 1920 stage play, The Emperor Jones, starring Paul Robeson as the “gone astray” Brutus Jones.

Gifted singer, intellectual, stage actor and later in life a political lightning rod, Robeson reprised his performance in O’Neill’s long-running stage production in his film debut here, which featured an all-black cast, save for Dudley Digges (Alexander Hamilton, Tess of the Storm Country, The General Died at Dawn, etc.) as the ruthless gun runner and shady Caribbean businessman, Smithers.

Brutus Jones goes from being celebrated at the local Baptist church for landing a coveted job as a Pullman porter (off to the big city) to becoming a gambler, womanizer, murderer (it was an “accident”), escaped convict and ultimately the “Emperor” of a Caribbean island … the very corrupt “Emperor” at that!

The film, because of its cast, was often relegated to the “Negro” theatrical circuit and for many audiences of the period The Emperor Jones was a complete unknown.

Bonus features include commentary from author and film historian Karen Burroughs Hannsberry (“Femme Noir: Bad Girls of Film,” “Bad Boys: The Actor of Film Noir” and host of “Shadows and Satin”) and documentary filmmaker Gil Noble’s 1977 look at the life and career of Paul Robeson, The Tallest Tree in Our Forest.