St. Louis Blues is a 1929 American two-reel short film starring Bessie Smith. Directed by Dudley Murphy, it is the only known film featuring Bessie Smith, and the soundtrack is her only recording not controlled by Columbia Records. An early sound film, it features an entirely African American cast, with Smith in the role of a woman left alone by her roving lover; in a speakeasy during the Prohibition era, the woman sings the W. C. Handy standard "St. Louis Blues".

Plot

At a rooming house, a group of men are shooting dice; a janitor interrupts them, but one of the men bribe him into letting them continue. Jimmy the Pimp then arrives, flirting with a woman and joining and winning the dice game. Jimmy then brings the woman to the room he shares with his lover, Bessie. Bessie soon arrives and confronts the woman, who flees the room. Bessie then confronts and pleads with an unconcerned Jimmy, who pushes her to the ground and leaves.