Production
Veiled Aristocrats was Oscar Micheaux's second film adaptation of the 1900 novel The House Behind the Cedars by the author Charles W. Chesnutt. In 1927 he made a silent film production of it (no print of that film is known to exist today). In his 1932 version, Micheaux altered the Chesnutt story by having Rena and Frank marry. (Chesnutt’s book ends with Rena’s death). Micheaux's screenplay is often blunt in its exploration of color lines within the African-American community; at one point John says: "I've heard, right on the street, a coal black Negro declares he loves her!"
Micheaux shot much of Veiled Aristocrats at his mother-in-law’s home in Montclair, New Jersey. Lorenzo Tucker, who played John Walden, was a popular leading man of the race film genre. He was dubbed the "black Valentino" because of his striking good looks. Laura Bowman, who played Rena Walden, was the leading lady in several of Micheaux’s films during the 1930s, including Ten Minutes to Live (1932) and Murder in Harlem (1935).
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