Pinky (film)

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Movie
Original title Pinky
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1949
length 101 minutes
Rod
Director Elia Kazan
script Philip Dunne
Dudley Nichols
production Darryl F. Zanuck
music Alfred Newman
camera Joseph MacDonald
cut Harmon Jones
occupation

Pinky is a 1949 American film directed by Elia Kazan . It is based on the novel Quality by Cid Ricketts Sumner .

action

Patricia Johnson, nicknamed Pinky, is a light-skinned African American woman. After a few years of studying medicine in Boston and training as a specialist nurse, she is returning to her village deep in the southern United States. In the north she met the doctor Dr. Know and love Thomas Adams, but who believes she is white. During her studies she always called herself Patricia and kept silent about her origins. They lived as equals.

In her home village she lives with her grandmother Dicey, who she raised when her mother died. Dicey worked hard as a laundress for years to enable Pinky to study. Now she realizes that her granddaughter has denied her origins abroad and is outraged. Pinky in turn experiences everyday racism after a short time. She wants to claim back money from Dicey's neighbor Jake, which Dicey gave him for Pinky and he did not forward it to her. Jake's wife, Rozelia, starts an argument with Pinky because she thinks it's not her money. The police intervene to protect the "whites" from the "blacks". When Rozelia says that Pinky is also black, all three are taken to the station, although there is nothing against them. A little later, Pinky is on her way home when two white people want to take her with them in their car, as it is not without danger in the black district. When Pinky replies that she lives here, both men immediately pursue her. She can escape and pack her things at home. She just wants to leave. Her grandmother asks her to stay anyway. She helps out with 80-year-old white Miss Em who lives in a large mansion. Miss Em is feeling bad after a heart attack, and Dicey hopes Pinky will nurse her as a nurse. Pinky declines because she was treated as a second class person by Miss Em as a child. Dicey tells her that Miss Em cared for her when she was very bad. Pinky doesn't believe Miss Em did this, but realizes she has prejudice against whites herself. She goes to Miss Em, who she will look after for Dicey's sake.

Miss Em initially met Pinky with suspicion and humiliated her. When Pinky refuses to give her instructions, Miss Em goes weak. Pinky realizes that Miss Em will not live long and continues her work as a nurse. She not only gains the trust and respect of Miss Em, but also from her attending physician Dr. Joe McGill. One day Miss Em receives a visit from her cousin's wife, Melba Wooley. She is after Miss Em's property and hopes to inherit it all soon. Calculation is hidden behind its friendly facade. Miss Em can't stand them and leaves Pinky with them in the room so that Melba can be thrown out quickly under the pretense of a medical emergency. Melba tries in conversation to stop Miss Em from drawing up a will. Miss Em asks Pinky for her opinion and she replies that if Miss Em is planning a will, she will have to draw it up in the near future. In fact, Miss Em secretly wrote her will shortly afterwards and had it certified by Joe McGill. However, the exertion leads to another heart attack, as a result of which Miss Em dies.

In her will, Miss Em bequeaths the house and property to Pinky so that she can use both sensibly. Joe McGill doubts Pinky will actually get the house as Melba and her family will contest the will. Thomas Adams, who has meanwhile come to the village and has found out her origins from Pinky, but still wants to marry her and move north with her, advises her not to take over the inheritance. Pinky, however, knows that she is right and wants Miss Em's last will to be preserved. She takes legal counsel in Judge Walker, who is friends with her grandmother. The process begins, in which Thomas also participates as a spectator. The prosecution is doing all it can to challenge Pinky's credibility, claiming that Miss Em wrote the will under the influence of medication and was coerced by Pinky to do so. Joe McGill will not be admitted as the sole defense witness because he cannot be in court on time due to a medical emergency and the case is refused to adjourn. Still, the will is considered final and Pinky inherits the house and yard. The mood in the village is now finally turning against them. Thomas wants Pinky to sell the house and property so that she becomes financially independent from him and therefore does not have to rely on him in her marriage. Pinky, however, doesn't think that Miss Em meant that by her last will. She wonders what she could have meant by meaningful use of the house. Some time later, Miss Em's Villa became Miss Em's Clinic and Nursery School , where black nurses are trained and children receive medical care. Pinky is sure that she acted right and well according to Miss Em's last will.

production

Filming of Pinky began in March 1949 under the direction of John Ford , who was replaced by Elia Kazan after only a week for health reasons. Kazan re-shot scenes that had already been filmed by Ford, justifying this with the fact that he could not even try to shoot in the style of John Ford. Filming ended on May 23, 1949. Pinky premiered on September 29, 1949 in New York City . "'Pinky' is the name of the most successful film of the year, which was a hit with the press, box offices and audiences in New York and other major American cities," stated Der Spiegel in December 1949.

criticism

The New York Times called the film "vivid, revealing and emotionally intense". Although it has been criticized as a stereotype at times, it leaves the film at it, to highlight atrocities and injustices against black people. But he manages to do this in a moving and disturbing way, for which one must be grateful to the makers of the film.

Awards

Pinky was nominated for three Academy Awards in 1950 : Jeanne Crain was nominated for " Best Actress ", while Ethel Waters and Ethel Barrymore each received a nomination for " Best Supporting Actress ". Also in 1950, Philip Dunne and Dudley Nichols received a nomination for the WGA Award / The Robert Meltzer Award from the Writers Guild of America .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Pinky (1949) - Notes. In: Turner Classic Movies . Accessed April 25, 2020 (English).
  2. ^ Pinky (1949). In: American Film Institute . Accessed April 25, 2020 (English).
  3. ↑ A drop of negro blood . In: Der Spiegel . No. 51/1949 , December 15, 1949 ( online at Spiegel.de [accessed April 25, 2020]).
  4. ↑ Bosley Crowther : 'Pinky,' Zanuck's Film Study of Anti-Negro Bias in Deep South, Shown at Rivoli 'Strange Bargain' and 'Peddler and the Lady' Other Movies Having Local Premieres . In: The New York Times . September 30, 1949 (English, online on the pages of the New York Times [accessed April 25, 2020]): “A vivid exposure of certain cruelties and injustices is all it gives. These it gives, however, with moving and disturbing force. And for this we can be entirely grateful to 'Pinky' and to those who brought it forth. "