Pinky [1949] (REGION 1) (NTSC)

Customer Reviews:

"Pinky" would not have been made without Jeanne Crain.......2007-07-04

When you first look at the cover and the name of the main character you can already tell she is miscast for this role. Then again black people "passing for white" was not a new topic for Hollywood in 1949. It was part of the plot of "Imitation of Life" in 1934, but in that film, an actual black actress, Fredi Washington, played the role of the young woman who "passes" in the white world. In 1949, there were two films dealing with this issue: "Pinky" and "Lost Boundaries," and in both cases, the black person was played by a white actor.

"Pinky" stars Jeanne Crain as Pinky Johnson, a black woman who looks white, so much so that she when she studies nursing in New York, she easily enters the white world and becomes involved with a white doctor who wants to marry her. Needing time to think over her situation, she returns home, which is a shack where her grandmother (Ethel Waters) lives in a black section of their southern town. There she is reminded of the prejudice and cruelty she left. When her grandmother asks her to care for an elderly white woman (Ethel Barrymore), hostility between patient and nurse leads to an uneasy bond.

This is a great film all the way, magnificently directed by Elia Kazan and produced by Darryl F. Zanuck, who loved taking on these controversial social issues. The acting is superb: Jeanne Crain gives the best performance of her career as a woman who comes to grips with her true identity. She is as dignified as she walks through the town, soft-spoken yet strong, refusing to come down to the level of those around her. Ethel Barrymore is the elderly terminally ill woman Pinky reluctantly agrees to care for, and she nearly steals the movie with a no-nonsense performance. She's a woman set in her ways and opinions, but she's fair person who can see the human soul. It's probably the best drawn character in the film.
I read that Lena Horne was deemed not white-looking enough. I suggest that the same is true for the beautiful Dorothy Dandridge. There may have been black actresses who looked white enough to play this role, but would anyone have answered such a casting call? Most importantly, "Pinky" would not have been made without Jeanne Crain, because Zanuck wanted her to do it, and it's a film that deserved making. The other sticking point in the film is Pinky's fiancée, a white doctor. His easy acceptance of her as black - and the fact that she kept it from him - is a weakness in the script. This was done perhaps to highlight that he wanted to her to continue to pass for white, therefore making it clear that Pinky has to the make the decision, but the scenario does not seem believable.

You can predict the ending of "Pinky," and despite complaints that it's a typically neat Hollywood one; I found it vastly satisfying as I found the entire experience of watching this truly classic film, "Pinky."

Average customer rating:

Very good memories!

Little Miss - The Complete Original Series [2003]
Starring: Pauline Collins;John Alderton
Director: Trevor Bond (II);Terry Ward (II)
Manufacturer: delta home entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

Other | Animation | Children's DVD | Categories | DVD | Video
All Children's DVD | Children's DVD | Categories | DVD | Video
DVD | Format (binding_browse-bin) | Refinements | DVD | Video
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ASIN: B00009RS0F
Release Date: 2003-09-15

Customer Reviews:

Very good memories!.......2005-03-10

I watched the mr men and little miss as a kid it really brings back the memorys. John Alderton (Also does voices for fireman sam) does the voices so brilliantly well! If you fancy a trip back to the 80's I would say this is a brilliant dvd to get!

Customer Reviews:

Not a bad little film!.......2000-04-11

Boogie Boy is quite a good film, although not as good as the cast list tries to make out. Emily Lloyd's character is weak, Frederic Forrest's is unpredicatble and under-developed, and the two leads - Mark Dacascos as Jesse Page, the ex-con who wants to "Go Straight" with Joan Jett's Rock band, and his lover (? ) Jaimz Woolvett, an annoying little beardy who wants him to back him up on a drug deal, have glimpses of depth, but really you can't imagine these two being firm friends, let alone as close as is hinted at.

Poor Jesse's loyalty is put to the test when he realises Larry (Woolvett) isn't going to come with him to Detroit and live like Good, Honest Law-abiding citizens.

What should he do? Is dizzy Hester in need of his charity? Should he wait for Larry and miss his chance of fame and happiness with Jerk and her band?

All is revealed in this neat little drama. Good entertainment if you're not looking for a great deal of emotion.

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