The Girl From Chicago (1932) review

U.S. Secret Service agent Alonzo White (Carl Mahon) finds out he's assigned a mission, meets teacher Norma Shepard (Starr Calloway) and they fall in love - later, a "numbers Banker" named Jeff Ballinger (John Everett) is killed and Mary Austin (Eunice Brooks) is falsely accused of the crime, so Alonzo has to defend her (... or something to that extent, Micheaux's not exactly known for narrative cohesion).  The acting is godawful and the dialogue is no better, and for some reason the camera cuts the heads off of the actors - I'm not sure if that was due to incompetence or just a slip-up.  Compared to this, short films put together by high school students should be playing at Cannes.  That said, it has its defenders: critic J. Hoberman included it on his 2012 Sight & Sound ballot ... so an argument could be made that it's "accidentally avant-garde."