I found this movie on DVD at my local library. No surround sound and no extras, but a nice presentation anyway.The title needs to be understood first. Evidently an "old settler" was the slang used to describe a middle aged woman who was single and had no immediate prospects. Here Phylicia Rashad plays Elizabeth, an "old, old settler" in her early 50s but still looking good. But most of all is her personality, kind and gentle, the kind any good man would be attracted to.She shares her small apartment in WW II with her sister (and real life sister) Quilly (Debbie Allen), just a shade younger, but a whole lot more cynical. And most times hard to bear. She really gets charged up when she finds out that Elizabeth has corresponded with a man down south who is coming to Harlem and will rent their tiny extra room.Bumper Robinson plays Husband, a 20-something coming to town to find his girlfriend, Lou Bessy, from back home. She has gotten in with the wrong crowd, even has a small child being raised elsewhere by a relative. Husband (that's his name) finds her, but Lou Bessy isn't the girl he used to know. Meanwhile, he and Elizabeth, in spite of their age differences, begin to enjoy each other's company.SPOILERS. Husband and Elizabeth begin dating. They kiss. He tells her he has fallen in love with her. He wants to take her back home. He tells her he is finished with Lou Bessy who hangs out with the criminal element. He gives her a ring. But Quilly remains doubtful. She cautions her sister. Lou Bessy shows up, drunk, is disrespectful, Elizabeth throws her out of her apartment, slaps her, then Lou Bessy says as she is leaving, "I'm going to steal Husband from you just to show you I can." Elizabeth packs her things, waits for Husband, all night, he never shows up, Quilly was right, the movie ends with the two sisters once again holding onto each other, it may be all they have to depend on.

The Old Settler is now one of my favorite movies. I ran across it at Wal-Mart about a month ago and have watched it over and over. I picked it up half-heartedly and I'm so glad I did. I always loved Phylicia Rashad as Claire Huxtable and have hated that I haven't seen more of her on the "Big Screen". The Old Settler was fabulous from start to finish. I am very interested in film-making and tend to be very critical of movies, but I have no criticism for The Old Settler. In my opinion, every aspect of it was done incredibly well. The acting was superb, the set design and costuming were wonderful, the screenplay was fabulous, and of course Debbie Allen is absolutely THE BEST director around. I have told everyone how wonderful this movie is and can't wait for everybody I know to see it. I didn't like the ending, but that was only because it was so sad. Kudos to everyone involved in this fantastic work.

I taped this movie on PBS about a month or so ago. I just watched it last night. It was such a warm and moving film, the kind that pulls you into the time setting. The dynamics of the sisters were wonderful, and you could feel the hope, anger, dashed dreams of all of the characters. It was interesting, also, to learn what the title meant. If you understand and are interested in the zeitgeist of the Harlem Renaissance, it will be very interesting viewing

I saw this film of a story written by Willa Cather twice on the local black public television network, out of Howard University. I wish I'd stayed to watch the credits, but I do know the names of two of the actors: Phylicia Rashad and Debbie Allen play sisters who, with several of their neighbors, move to Harlem from South Carolina to change their lives. Some of them change their names, but none of them changes his personality. Forty-something and terminally spinstered Rashad rents out a room in her Harlem home to a young man, named "Husband," from back home. They soon fall in love and he convinces her and the viewer that he is not like the other emigrants who have fallen into a life of drugs, theft and prostitution.Rashad and Allen show us black people as whites rarely see them in films: thoughtful, conservative, human. I don't know if you could rent this film, but it's worth seeing. And I don't know why IMDB doesn't have more information on it.Mag