Midnight Menace (DVD)

Following yet another show-stopping performance, famed vaudevillian "Lollypop" Jones finds the dead body of a woman in his dressing room. After repeated attempts to dispose of the body -- including hiding it in a closet, and stuffing it down a laundry chute -- fail, Lollypop realizes that his unwanted guest isn't dead...she's a zombie!

Onnie "Lollypop" Jones (1897-1954) was a popular African-American vaudeville singer, tap dancer, and comedian in the 1940s. In 1946, he was enlisted by All-American News in Chicago, Illinois to star in a series of "streamlined" (short) musical comedy features. These included Midnight Menace, Lucky Gamblers, and Chicago After Dark. All-American News had originally been formed during World War II to specifically make newsreels documenting the efforts of African-American soldiers overseas for blacks-only theaters. Midnight Menace was also released as Hidden Menace. Lollypop performs his signature hit, "Don't Sell My Monkey, Baby", with Alma Jones.

PLUS: The Framing of the Shrew (1929): In 1929, movie producer Al Christie adapted author Octavus Roy Cohen's "Darktown Birmingham" stories into a series of two-reel comedy shorts for Paramount. They starred the all-black, California-based Lafayette Players theatre company. Cohen's stories ran in the Saturday Evening Post from 1919 to 1938, and centered on the adventures of the bumbling Florian Slappey. In The Framing of the Shrew, Slappey convinces his best friend, Privacy Robson, to threaten his wife Clarry with divorce if she nags him about taking out the garbage one more time. The plan backfires when Clarry calls his bluff, and soon Privacy is starving for a homecooked meal. The couple's lawyer is played by Spencer Williams, who would later find fame on television as Andrew H. Brown on Amos 'n' Andy (1951-1955). Starring Spencer Williams, Evelyn Preer. Directed by Arvid E. Gillstrom.

The Private Eye (1951): Florian Slappey made one last appearance in this unsold TV pilot, meant to be the first of a series adapting Octavus Roy Cohen's stories. In "The Private Eye", Slappey opens his own detective agency. His first case of recovering some stolen jewels doesn't go so well when he's accused of the theft himself! "The Private Eye" is directed by Erle C. Kenton, who made the horror classics Island of Lost Souls (1932) The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942), House of Frankenstein (1944) and House of Dracula (1945). Starring Milt Wood. Directed by Erle C. Kenton.

• horror