The Melancholy Dame is a 1929 American comedy short film by an African-American cast.
[1] Al Christie based it on the Octavus Roy Cohen comedy series called "Darktown Birmingham", published in the Saturday Evening Post.
The Melacholy Dame was produced and released by Paramount Pictures and includes racial caricatures.
[2] It has been described as the first African-American talkie[3] and features a vision of high society[4] and comic dialogue[5] in a Birmingham restaurant with a piano and dance show.
The Los Angeles Times summarized the plot: "A cabaret owner’s wife demands that her husband fire the sexy star attraction (if he doesn’t, she warns, 'there’s going to be a quick call for an undertaker').