| The Brute | |
| Producer: | Oscar Micheaux |
| Cinematography: | "Whitie" |
| Studio: | Micheaux Film Corp. |
| Distributor: | Micheaux Film Corp. |
| Runtime: | 7 reels |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | Silent |
The Brute is a 1920 silent race film directed, written, produced and distributed by Oscar Micheaux. No print of the film is known to exist and the production is believed to be a lost film.[1] The original version of the film included a scene where the boxer defeats a white rival, but Micheaux was forced to remove the scene by censors.[2]
Herbert Lanyon is thought to be dead after a shipwreck, and his fiancée Mildred Carrison is forced by her money-minded Aunt Clara into marriage with "Bull" Magee, a gambler and underworld boss who mistreats Mildred. After Herbert returns, Magee undergoes financial difficulties that he blames on Mildred and Herbert, and seeks revenge. Herbert and a repentant Aunt Clara, however, free Mildred from Magee, and the lovers are able to marry. A subplot involves boxer "Tug" Wilson, who is ordered by his manager Magee to lay down in the seventeenth round of a prizefight at the film's climax. No other information concerning the plot has been discovered.
—American Film Institute