and the toll that it takes on both them and their families. On the other hand, I balk at the use of white actress Jeanne Crain to play the light-skinned black woman, Pinky. I've heard tell that Lena Horne was originally slated for the lead role but was eventually rejected, because the script calls for Pinky to kiss her white boyfriend and Kazan feared the audience reaction to a white man kissing a black woman - no matter how light-skinned - on screen in 1949. So a white woman portrays a black woman pretending to be a white woman. Such were racial politics in the good old days. The movie was, in fact, banned in Marshall, Texas, which spurred a court battle that wound up in the U.S. Supreme Court. That case resulted in the First Amendment of the Constitution (i.e. freedom of speech) being extended to cover motion pictures. Yes, Pinky was - and still is - a controversial film.The story revolves around the title character, Patricia "Pinky" Johnson, who has been sent north by her Granny, Aunt Dicey Johnson (Ethel Waters), to go to school. But once Pinky gets there, she's mistaken for a white woman, and she decides not to correct that mistake. Throughout her school years, and later during her hospital training, Pinky passes for a white woman, using her
real name. When her white boyfriend, Doctor Thomas Adams (William Lundigan), proposes to her, Pinky panics and heads back to her Granny's cottage in Mississippi, where she grew up. Once back home, Pinky is chastised by her granny for the "sin" of passing; although, Granny understands the reasons why Pinky passed for a white woman, she cannot overlook the sin of denying her heritage, and she tells Pinky so. The next day, Pinky is subjected to a barrage of racial abuse, including being arrested when she tries to recover money that was stolen from her Granny and nearly being raped by two white men on a lonely country road. After this last incident, Pinky decides to go back up North where she can be treated like a white person. When Granny asks her to stay and help nurse the dying Miss Em (Ethel Barrymore), Pinky refuses flatly, arguing that she won't step-and-fetch for a mean old white dowager. But Granny prevails by playing the guilt card. Seems Miss Em had cared for Granny when she was sick with pneumonia. Feeling guilty, Pinky relents and grudgingly agrees to tend to the old white woman during her last days. Gradually, Pinky develops a close relationship with Miss Em, who turns out not to be such a bad person after all. When Miss Em finally dies, she leaves Pinky her house and land.At this point, the movie moves into its third act, if you will. Miss Em's only living relative, Melba Woolley (Evelyn Warden) contests the will. She claims that Miss Em must have been crazy to leave her house to a black woman. Furthermore, she argues that Pinky was keeping Miss Em drugged and used undue influence to get her to write the will. Tempers begin to run high in town, and more racial hatred ensues. Eventually, the case goes to court.
Pinky is defended by retired Judge Walker (Basil Ruysdael), who was a long-time friend of Miss Em. It looks as if the trial is going Melba's way, with the prosecution using racial slurs and innuendos, all of which are allowed by Judge Shoreham (Raymond Greenleaf). In the end, however, everyone is shocked when Judge Shoreham declares the will to be valid and decides in favor of Pinky. At this point, Dr. Adams shows back up and begs Pinky to sell the house, the land, and the furniture, leave "these people," and come away with him. He's taken a post in Denver, where he points out that nobody will find out about her. But Pinky has decided to that she's tired of lying, tired of pretending, and tired of denying who and what she is. Besides, now she has a purpose in life. She sends Dr. Adams packing, and, with the help of the local white and black doctors, she turns Miss Em's mansion into a clinic and daycare for local black children and a school for black women who want to become nurses. And that's where it ends, with Pinky helping her own people to better themselves.The world that Pinky shows is one that truly existed in this country until the Civil Rights Movement swept it away. Black folks lived separate from white folks, but not equal to them.
There were few - if any - economic opportunities available to black people. Most were relegated to jobs as servant or laborers. Aunt Dicey is a wash woman, scrubbing the clothes of white people by hand, using a wash board and water that's heated on a fire. And since the courts and the police were all white, there wasn't much of a chance for blacks to receive anything like justice. Kazan shows all of this in Pinky, from the run-down shacks in the black neighborhood to the subtle - and not so subtle - forms of racism that went on all of the time. The sets are marvelous, and the actors all do superb jobs in their roles. I have no argument with this film on any technical grounds. As I stated earlier, my only argument is with which actors Kazan chose to showcase the racial inequalities that existed in Jim Crow's America. The movie is very good. It would have been outstanding had Kazan only had the chutzpah to cast a black actress in the lead role.Pinky is filmed in glorious black-and-white and is rated G. It has a 102-minute runtime.
