Jail House Blues

Jail House Blues is a motion picture released by Columbia Pictures in 1929. This musical short features Mamie Smith, who had been a popular Blues singer on Okeh Records.

Two songs were prerecorded by Victor Records, "Jailhouse Blues" and "You Can't Do It!" as custom recordings, evidently used for synchronization purposes.

There are no known complete prints of the movie, but short segments turn up in various documentaries on African-American entertainment culture; one entire sequence of Mamie Smith singing "Jail House Blues" is intact.

There are short vaudeville, broad humor dialogue and gag scenes, lots of "bug-eyed" mugging and fist-clinching by Mamie Smith.

Synopsis

Mamie is missing her man, and finds him in jail. She pleads through her singing for his release.