"During the 1920s, many independent film corporations sought to improve the image of Black Americans in the motion pictures of that era. These films, produced by both Black and white companies, varied in quality and The Scar of Shame is one of the best remaining examples of the genre: a melodrama couched in the manners and mores of Victorian ethics and jazz-age cynicism. For decades, this film was considered 'lost', but was rediscovered intact in the 1970s in the attic of an elderly, retired projectionist in Michigan. The story concerns the plight of a lower-class mulatto woman, Louise, who is brutalized by a drunkard father. When she is rescued by and marries an upper-class musician, she soon encounters social prejudices and violence, leading to episodes of high emotional tragedy. Aside from the Delsartean style of acting, the film's richness lies in its on-location views of Black Philadelphia's middle-class homes, speakeasies, dances and nightclub antics as well as the slang and fashions of the Roaring Twenties. Finally, The Scar of Shame is a plea for Blacks to strive for 'the finer things in life', attainable through better environment: refinement was the panacea for racial pains."