Pinky (1949)

Director:

Elia Kazan
(more)

Writers:

Cid Ricketts Sumner (novel)
Philip Dunne (screenplay) ...
(more)

Release Date:

November 1949 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

The love story of a girl who passed for white!

Plot:

Pinky, a light skinned black woman, returns to her grandmother's house in the South after graduating from a Northern nursing school...

Plot Keywords:

Will | Passing For White | Love | Doctor | South

Awards:

Nominated for 3 Oscars. Another 1 nomination

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
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Shelby Bacon	...	Boy (uncredited)
Rene Beard	...	Teejore (uncredited)
Bert Conway	...	Loafer (uncredited)
Everett Glass	...	Mr. Jeffers Wooley (uncredited)
William Hansen	...	Mr. Goolby (uncredited)
Arthur Hunnicutt	...	Police Chief (uncredited)
Jean Inness	...	Viola, Saleslady (uncredited)
Tiger Joe Marsh	...	George, Wooleys' Chauffeur (uncredited)
Juanita Moore	...	Nurse (uncredited)
Robert Osterloh	...	Police Officer (uncredited)
Tonya Overstreet	...	Nurse (uncredited)
Dan Riss	...	Mr. Stanley, Wooleys' Attorney (uncredited)
Harry Tenbrook	...	Townsman (uncredited)

Directed by
Elia Kazan
John Ford		(uncredited)

Writing credits
Cid Ricketts Sumner		(novel)
Philip Dunne		(screenplay) and
Dudley Nichols		(screenplay)

Produced by
Darryl F. Zanuck	....	producer

Original Music by
Alfred Newman

Cinematography by
Joseph MacDonald		(director of photography) (as Joe MacDonald)

Film Editing by
Harmon Jones

Art Direction by
J. Russell Spencer
Lyle R. Wheeler		(as Lyle Wheeler)

Set Decoration by
Thomas Little
Walter M. Scott

Makeup Department
Ben Nye	....	makeup artist

Sound Department
Eugene Grossman	....	sound
Roger Heman Sr.	....	sound (as Roger Heman)

Special Effects by
Fred Sersen	....	special photographic effects

Camera and Electrical Department
Frank Corey	....	grip (uncredited)
Les Everson	....	gaffer (uncredited)
Til Gabani	....	camera operator (uncredited)
Anthony Ugrin	....	still photographer (uncredited)

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Charles Le Maire	....	wardrobe director (as Charles LeMaire)
Sam Benson	....	wardrobe supervisor (uncredited)

Music Department
Edward B. Powell	....	orchestrator (as Edward Powell)

Other crew
Darryl F. Zanuck	....	presenter
Rose Steinberg	....	script supervisor (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Distributors

• Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation (1949) (USA) (theatrical)
• Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment (2005) (USA) (DVD)

Runtime:

102 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

USA:Approved (certificate #13731) | Finland:S | Sweden:Btl

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

William Hansen's feature film debut.

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!

Movie Connections:

Featured in Classified X (1998) (TV)

Top-notch all the way

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 brilliant 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 so 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.

As a teen-aged fan of "Route 66," I can well remember the publicity around the show when Ethel Waters guest-starred. Of course white teens in the '60s had no idea of who she was or the circumstances of her life and career. Yet to this day I can remember her on that show. Forty years later, thankfully, I have an appreciation of her place in history and her work. Waters gives a powerful performance. Her character has accepted her lot in life but sacrifices everything so that her grandchild can have a better one. In her world, white men have the power, and you can clearly see her belief manifested in her courtroom demeanor.

The casting of Jeanne Crain is a sticking point here but not really when looked at in the context of the 1940s. Even with this casting, this is a bold movie, uncompromising in its depiction of white attitudes and racial slurs. It is just a pity that at the time of the filming, Fredi Washington was 45 years old and actually no longer in films. Washington looked so white that she was told by producers that if she would agree to "pass" and play white roles, she could have a career equal to that of Norma Shearer. She refused, and in order to play black women, she had to darken her skin. 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 immensely satisfying as I found the entire experience of watching this truly classic film, "Pinky."