I saw the Library of Congress reconstruction, which was pieced together from fragments of three different prints. Silent, with a soundtrack by Samuel Waymon.

Produced for private showings at churches and other meetings. The Devil is shown as the engineer of a train heading to hell, as well as dancing around when he gets new recruits for hell. Different cars on the train are reserved for sinners of various types, such as thieves, drunkards, people who deceive their spouses, and cheats. There are various scenes illustrating these sinners in action.

Mainly interesting as illustrations of life of the time, such as costumes, interiors, cars and dances - the sins seem have remained the same.

(Flash Review)

This was the first film in a collection of films celebrating the 'early pioneers' of African American cinema. So major respect goes to the people who had the ambition to make a film in 1930 under who knows what limitations or hurdles. The film itself is showcasing an assortment of things one should not do to avoid being a sinner as I imagine church audiences were the target. Such things as drinking, cheating, stealing, violence and then also listening to jazz music; odd. So whenever they show someone doing something wrong a personified little devil appears and is excitedly jumping around. The film itself is very choppy with editing and the camera is often shaky. It cuts to the chase but is more a PSA than a narrative film.

To write about this as if it is a movie is a grave mistake. Produced at a time when many revival shows were still using magic lanterns, thinking of it as a movie produces a list of of its flaws. Its antiquated use of animated text, its poor camerawork, its ridiculous devil in a cloth costume repeatedly hopping up and down, rejoicing, the frequent cuts to hurtling trains as its sole Academician-style metaphor, make my agnostic 21st-Century brain go "Yeah, you've said this six times."

Of course, I am not the intended audience for this. I have no sense of faith, no belief in its primitive, dance-hating sense of morality. I believe in neither Heaven nor Hell, so it seems simply mean-spirited and bizarre to me, lumping gamblers with murderers, drunkards with cheaters, and so forth.

What is clear is that the audience for this .... well, let's call it a movie anyway, for want of a better word.... the audience for this movie is the sort of Christian revival meeting that once took place quite often in this nation. If we take the attitudes of the people who made this as typical, there is no hope of Heaven in this movie, just fear of Hell; no right way of living, just an endless list of wrong ways; no G*d of Love, just one looking to hand you over to the Devil to be tortured endlessly, once you slip and get on that Hellbound Train.