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Pinky (1949)
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Overview
User Rating:
Director:
Writers:
Release Date:
November 1949 (USA)
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Tagline:
The love story of a girl who passed for white! more
Plot:
Pinky, a light skinned black woman, returns to her grandmother's house in the South after graduating from a Northern nursing school...
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Awards:
Nominated for 3 Oscars.
Another 1 nomination
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User Comments:
A seminal film
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Cast
(Complete credited cast) | Jeanne Crain | ... | Patricia 'Pinky' Johnson |
| Ethel Barrymore | ... | Miss Em |
| Ethel Waters | ... | Pinky's Granny |
| William Lundigan | ... | Dr. Thomas Adams |
| Basil Ruysdael | ... | Judge Walker |
| Kenny Washington | ... | Dr. Canady |
 | Nina Mae McKinney | ... | Rozelia |
| Griff Barnett | ... | Dr. Joe McGill |
| Frederick O'Neal | ... | Jake Walters |
| Evelyn Varden | ... | Melba Wooley |
| Raymond Greenleaf | ... | Judge Shoreham |
Additional Details
Parents Guide:
Runtime:
102 min
Country:
Language:
Color:
Aspect Ratio:
1.37 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Mono (Western Electric Recording)
Certification:
Fun Stuff
Trivia:
Lena Horne initially campaigned to play the title role in this movie (she is light enough to photograph "white"), but in the end, the movie studio felt white American audiences would feel more comfortable with a white actress, especially since love scenes with a white actor were involved.
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Quotes:
Melba Wooley:
Cousin Em, what do you mean, gettin' sick like this?
Miss Em: When you're eighty years old, you expect to be sick. Sit down.
Melba Wooley: Now, now. Naughty, naughty. Eighty years *young* is what we say.
Miss Em: I don't. It's old, and I won't have it minimized. Takes a lot of livin' to get there, and pure, cursed endurance. Eighty years young indeed!
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Miss Em: When you're eighty years old, you expect to be sick. Sit down.
Melba Wooley: Now, now. Naughty, naughty. Eighty years *young* is what we say.
Miss Em: I don't. It's old, and I won't have it minimized. Takes a lot of livin' to get there, and pure, cursed endurance. Eighty years young indeed!
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Movie Connections:
Featured in Hollywoodism: Jews, Movies and the American Dream (1998) (TV)
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FAQ
This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.more (18 total)
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I first saw Pinky when I was nine years old, and it moved me deeply. For the first time I understood the importance of a director, and it set my standards for excellence in that field. I later became a director myself, and I owe much of my artistic life to the influence this film had on me as a child. I'm now 67, and I've just watched it again for the first time since then, and I'm pleased to experience again how brilliantly it is directed, and how well it stands up over time. Yes,the plot and the social assumptions are extremely dated, but as with all great drama, Kazan and his actors brought the story to life so vividly, and with such depth, that the drama still stirs, and makes us celebrate how our society has changed for the better. Seeing the black and white struggle in the past only illuminates how far we yet have to go to be free of all prejudice. The artistic excellence lifts the film above the limitations and sentimentality of the fifties. It is a classic of social realism.