I suppose one should commend Joseph L Mankiewicz for
attempting to make a movie about racism in the up tight early 1950’s and I do
but I wish the film was better.
Sidney
Poitier in his film debt is a young and handsome new doctor at a big city
hospital working under the guidance of a liberal doctor played by the earnest
but dull Stephen McNally. Poitier of course is feeling insecure and somewhat
uptight what with all those looks he keeps getting from hospital workers and patients.
One night two petty criminals who have just been shot while on a crime spree
are brought into the ER and it turns out that they are brothers. One of them is
played by Richard Widmark who is a raving racist and immediately starts in with
the racial
epithets directed at
Poitier. Both brothers have been shot in the legs and Widmark’s brother dies
while Poitier is trying to save his life. Guilt, accusations and threats follow
and we are treated to some pretty bad taunts from Widmark that was shocking in
its day and is still hard to handle 63 years later. The plot also introduces us
to the marvelous Linda Darnell who is the dead man’s wife and a one-time lover
of Widmark’s who is torn between her hatred of Widmark and her uneasy and
tentative racism. As usual with Darnell she plays cheap and loose and is
amazingly watchable and gorgeous. The year before she had given a wonderful
performance in the director’s smart and tart “a Letter To Three Wives” but as
good as she is here, there’s not much to her role. Widmark
who could be hammy and over the top in some of
his roles, is a ham on rye with lots of mustard to go in this one and I wish
the director had turned down the volume on him a bit. Mankiewicz throws in a
race riot, family conflicts in the Poitier household. (Check out the very young
Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis as family members) and way too many stereotypical
characters and forced situations that cumulates in an obvious showdown between
Poitier and Widmark.
Shot in black and
white, the film is black and white not only metaphorically but in plot, theme
and direction.
Cheap looking and cheesy
in its settings the best thing about the movie is seeing the young Poitier and
the classy poster campaign designed by the great Paul Rand.
Mankiewicz
did a lot
better in the fall of
1950 when his
little film about the
theatre was released to great acclaim .
I suppose one should commend Joseph L Mankiewicz for
attempting to make a movie about racism in the up tight early 1950’s and I do
but I wish the film was better. Sidney
Poitier in his film debt is a young and handsome new doctor at a big city
hospital working under the guidance of a liberal doctor played by the earnest
but dull Stephen McNally. Poitier of course is feeling insecure and somewhat
uptight what with all those looks he keeps getting from hospital workers and patients.
One night two petty criminals who have just been shot while on a crime spree
are brought into the ER and it turns out that they are brothers. One of them is
played by Richard Widmark who is a raving racist and immediately starts in with
the racial epithets directed at
Poitier. Both brothers have been shot in the legs and Widmark’s brother dies
while Poitier is trying to save his life. Guilt, accusations and threats follow
and we are treated to some pretty bad taunts from Widmark that was shocking in
its day and is still hard to handle 63 years later. The plot also introduces us
to the marvelous Linda Darnell who is the dead man’s wife and a one-time lover
of Widmark’s who is torn between her hatred of Widmark and her uneasy and
tentative racism. As usual with Darnell she plays cheap and loose and is
amazingly watchable and gorgeous. The year before she had given a wonderful
performance in the director’s smart and tart “a Letter To Three Wives” but as
good as she is here, there’s not much to her role. Widmark who could be hammy and over the top in some of
his roles, is a ham on rye with lots of mustard to go in this one and I wish
the director had turned down the volume on him a bit. Mankiewicz throws in a
race riot, family conflicts in the Poitier household. (Check out the very young
Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis as family members) and way too many stereotypical
characters and forced situations that cumulates in an obvious showdown between
Poitier and Widmark. Shot in black and
white, the film is black and white not only metaphorically but in plot, theme
and direction. Cheap looking and cheesy
in its settings the best thing about the movie is seeing the young Poitier and
the classy poster campaign designed by the great Paul Rand. Mankiewicz
did a lot better in the fall of
1950 when his little film about the
theatre was released to great acclaim . 
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