Product Description

Pinky (Jeanne Crain), a black woman who works as a nurse in Boston, finds she is able to "pass for white." Afraid her true heritage will be discovered, she leaves her white fiancé (William Lundigan) and returns home to Mississippi. There, she helps her ailing grandmother (Ethel Waters) by caring for her employer (Ethel Barrymore), an imperious plantation owner. When she names Pinky heiress to her estate, the community rises in resentment, triggering a sensational court trial.

Subject of landmark Supreme Court case in film censorship, this story about a mulatto woman's rights against prejudice, became itself, a battle for civil rights.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #17465 in DVD
• Brand: CRAIN,JEANNE
• Released on: 2006-01-10
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .20 pounds
• Running time: 102 minutes

Amazon.com essential video
It used to be called "miscegenation," and it hasn't been a scandalous or taboo subject for several decades now. (Every other prime-time TV series seems to have an interracial romance going, and nobody bats an eyelash.) These welcome social changes have stranded Elia Kazan's 1949 weepie about a light-skinned African American woman (played less than convincingly by lily-white Jeanne Crain) who tries to "pass"---and falls in love with a white man. Director Douglas Sirk mined similar territory, and got a lot more juice out of it, in Imitation of Life. To his credit, perhaps, the director of On the Waterfront just doesn't have cheap soapsuds in his blood, and he makes the fatal mistake of taking a solemn and high-minded approach to this overheated material. The picture isn't even a hoot. Ethel Waters is the aunt who raises Pinky, while concealing her true lineage; it's a strong performance with a simmering subtext of anger. David Chute

Customer Reviews

TO THINE OWN SELF BE TRUE...
This is a landmark film, as it tackled issues that were considered to be taboo at the time. Race hate, miscegenation, and passing for white are some of its themes. Unlike "Imitation of Life (1934), which in its own fashion dealt with the themes of passing for white and the unequal opportunities afforded blacks, this is not a sentimental tearjerker of a movie. Rather, there is an undercurrent of anger and righteousness that permeates it, and rightly so. It is a hard edged, no holds barred type of film. There is nothing sentimental about it.

Controversial in its time, the film is about a young bi-racial woman known as "Pinky" (Jeanne Crain), sent up north by her southern granny (Ethel Waters), so that she could receive an education. While up North, she begins passing for white inadvertently, as that is how she is apparently perceived, and makes no move to correct that perception. She studies and works hard, becoming a nurse. She then meets white Dr. Thomas Adams (William Lundigan), and they fall head over heels in love. He has no idea, however, of her background and knows her as "Patricia" not "Pinky".

Pinky, leaving him behind, returns home to the South one last time to confront her past and her personal demons. She ends up meeting bigotry head on, as down South where Pinky is known she is treated as blacks are treated, and does not like it one bit. It hardens her resolve all the more to return North and continue passing for white. She would like nothing better than to put as much distance as is possible between herself and her racial heritage. Helping out her grandmother, however, she ends up playing nurse to Miss Em (Ethel Barrymore), a crotchety, crusty, and ill eighty year old former plantation owner who has come down on hard times.

When Miss Em dies, she wills her estate to Pinky, creating a controversy that rocks the town when the will is challenged by distant relatives, the Wooleys. They are outraged and claim that the "colored girl" used undue influence over the elderly Miss Em. This galvanizes Pinky to stand up for her rights, enduring a mockery of a trial. Moreover, when Dr. Adams comes looking for her, Pinky finds herself taking a position with respect to their relationship that is a revelation to herself.

This is a film that at the time was highly controversial, due to its themes. It was a film that was certainly daring for its times. Why they cast a white woman for the part of a biracial character may seem puzzling to those of us in the twenty first century. I presume that this casting was mandated because there were love scenes between Pinky and her fiance, Dr. Adams, and this type of scene would have been forbidden in those days, if the actress cast for the part of Pinky were other than white. While a bi-racial woman was cast for the role of Peola, the woman who passed for white, in "Imitation of Life" in 1934, it was a safe bet to do so, as she had no love scenes with which to contend. Notwithstanding the casting of Jeanne Crain in the role of Pinky, this film was cutting edge stuff in 1949.

Wonderful performances are given by the entire cast. Ethel Waters, Jeanne Crain, and Ethel Barrymore all received Academy Award nominations for their roles in this film, though none of them won. While Jeanne Crain's casting was a stretch for her as an actress, she did give it her all, letting the viewer sense Pinky's discomfort and angst over the racial divide. Ethel Waters is superb as the hard working, humble soul who did the best that she could for her beloved Pinky. As the imperious Miss Em, Ethel Barrymore was perfectly cast and gives a superlative performance, imbuing the character with a humanity that a lesser actress may not have. All in all, this is a movie that lovers of classic films should enjoy and one that should be in any serious movie lover's collection.

Pinky
Although this movie is somewhat dated, it has a message that is still important: you must be true to yourself. This was one of the first films to successfully deal with racism. So controversial was this film in 1949 it was banned in the south. The performances by all three women are very good. Jeanne Crain's scenes with Ethel Barrymore are especially moving. I'm surprised by the review from Amazon. You can't look at this film with the eyes of someone living in the 1990s. Pinky should be appreciated for addressing a subject that hadn't been addressed at all up until this film was made. From a technical level, this film is nicely put together. The music, the cinematography are all first rate. As film history, it's worth taking a look.

Old-Fashioned "Issues" Movie
"Pinky" is one of those old-fashioned "issues" movies popular in the 1940s, such as "Gentlemen's Agreement," which tackled anti-semitism (of note, both of these films were directed by the great Elia Kazan). Unfortunately, these movies don't tend to age particularly well, and even the sympathetic characters often end up looking quite intolerant. However, we shouldn't dismiss these films summarily, as they obviously had an impact on their audience.

Jeanne Crain stars as the title character, a young black woman raised by her grandmother. Granny (Ethel Waters) is a poor, uneducated Southern washer-woman - the kind of good-hearted woman who cares for sick neighbors without compensation. When Pinky was a child, Granny saved every penny she could and sent Pinky up north to go to school and escape the harsh life of segregated Alabama. Pinky is so light-skinned, though, that she begins to "pass" as white; when she returns to Alabama, she has a white fiancé and has been living as a white nurse.

Pinky is shocked by her return to the South and suddenly being treated as a second-class citizen again. Further conflict occurs when Granny asks Pinky to tend to a sick white neighbor - Miss Em (Ethel Barrymore) who lives in a giant, slave-era colonial mansion. Pinky has memories of Miss Em treating her and the other black children poorly. Not surprisingly, Pinky refuses to tend to the racist Miss Em, but when Granny insists, an unlikely bond forms between Miss Em and Pinky. Unfortunately, the plot is awkwardly handled, and the final conflicts are resolved unrealistically.

To a modern audience, this movie certainly doesn't offer any answers regarding racial relations; however, the historical perspective is of interest and the acting is fairly good. A behind-the-scenes drama helps illustrate the status of blacks in 1949 Hollywood - Lena Horne, who was a major star, wanted to play "Pinky," but the producers were not willing to incur the controversy of having a love scene between a black actress and a white actor. Thus, the white actress Jeanne Crain received the role, as well as a later Oscar nomination. Overall, "Pinky" is a decent 1940s drama of added interest for its history. I enjoyed the film, despite its being outdated and somewhat creaky.