Keep Punching (1939)

Starring:

• Henry Armstrong 
• Willie Bryant 
• Mae E. Johnson
• Hamtree Harrington 
• Canada Lee 
• Lionel Monagas 
• Francine Everett 
• Dooley Wilson

Storyline
Henry Jackson, known as Little Dynamite, is a Golden Gloves champion, who agrees to turn professional when approached by fight manager Ed Watson, despite the opposition raised by his father and Fanny Singleton, his sweetheart. Soon, Jackson is ready to fight for the championship, when he runs into Frank Harrison, an old school friend. Harrison is not the faithful friend that Jackson believes him to be as he is betting heavily that the heavily-favored Jackson will lose the bout. To ensure he does, Harrison introduces Jackson to a hot mama, Jerry Jordan, who is instructed to make him drink, stay out late and generally mess him up by whatever means. The day of the fight, Harrison orders Jerry to slip Jackson a sleeping potion just before he leaves for the fight. Jerry, now in love with Jackson, finally agrees after Harrison threatens her. A few hours before the fight, Jackson, Windy, a Harlem hanger-on, Harrison and Jerry are in Harrison's apartment when Jerry proposes a toast to Jordan. When he is not looking, she slips the sleeping potion into his glass. Windy sees her and switches glasses with Jackson. Jerry, ringside at the fight, sees the boy she loves getting a bad beating.Sobbing wildly, she leaves the arena and runs to a near-by church, where she drops on her knees and prays to God to forgive her and to let Henry win.

Souls of Sin (1949)

Starring:

• Savannah Churchill 
• Jimmy Wright 
• Billie Allen
• William Greaves 
• Emory Richardson 
• Louise Jackson 
• Powell Lindsay

Storyline
In Harlem, temptation lurks around every corner. Hard luck gambler "Dollar Bill" Burton hates his squalid existence sharing a run-down basement apartment with a struggling writer and a penniless blues guitarist from Alabama. All three men dream of success in the Big Apple, but only Dollar Bill is desperate enough to stoop to crime to achieve it. Dealing cocaine for gangster Bad Boy George could be Bill's ticket out of Harlem - or it could be a one-way boarding pass to hell.
Souls of Sin (1949) is a poignant and literate portrait of a black man at a moral crossroads. The sobering subject matter is served with an enjoyable side course of music and comedy. This mixture was a tradition in many all-black productions of the 1930s and 40s, and makes for compelling viewing today.