Hallelujah

film by Vidor [1929]

Written by

The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Last updated

July 18, 2026

Quick Summary

Hallelujah is a 1929 American musical drama film directed by King Vidor. It is notable for being the first feature film from a major studio to feature an all-black cast. Vidor invested his own salary to get the project approved, and the film starred Daniel L. Haynes as Zeke, a man who turns to religion after accidentally killing his brother, and Nina Mae McKinney as a scheming dancer. The film was praised for its blend of melodrama and music, earning Vidor an Academy Award nomination for best director, though it was a box-office failure. This film was made during the transitional period when sound was being introduced to cinema, with Hallelujah being enhanced with sound in postproduction.12

Summary created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.

2 Britannica Sources

Ask Britannica AI about this topic

Britannica doesn't have a full article on this topic, so we've curated a list of our relevant coverage.

King Vidor
Early sound features
Hallelujah, which was made into a talkie in postproduction, may have been the best picture of 1929, and it remains one of the seminal films of that transitional period. The drama was the first feature from a major studio to have an all-black cast, and…
Read More
Hallelujah, which was made into a talkie in postproduction, may have been the best picture of 1929, and it remains one of the seminal films of that transitional period. The drama was the first feature from a major studio to have an all-black cast, and…
Read More

History of film
Postsynchronization
…swamplands in the all-Black musical Hallelujah (1929). Vidor shot the action on location without sound, using a freely moving camera. Later, in the studio, he added to the film a separately recorded sound track containing both naturalistic and impressionistic effects. In the following year Lewis Milestone’s All Quiet on the…
Read More
…swamplands in the all-Black musical Hallelujah (1929). Vidor shot the action on location without sound, using a freely moving camera. Later, in the studio, he added to the film a separately recorded sound track containing both naturalistic and impressionistic effects. In the following year Lewis Milestone’s All Quiet on the…
Read More