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Pinky


by Joseph MacDonald, Harmon Jones, Darryl F. Zanuck, Cid Ricketts Sumner, Dudley Nichols, Philip Dunne
Directed by Elia Kazan, John Ford
Starring Jeanne Crain, Ethel Barrymore, Ethel Waters, William Lundigan, Basil Ruysdael
20th Century Fox

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Sales Rank: 20392
Release Date: January 10, 2006
Rated:  
Running Time: 102 minutes
Theatrical Release: December 31, 1969
Studio: 20th Century Fox


FORMATS

  • Closed-captioned
  • Color
  • DVD-Video
  • NTSC


EDITORIAL REVIEWS

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.


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 (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 35 reviews)

Old-fashioned But Still Powerful  
A good story and fine performances from two old stage pros (Ethel Waters and Ethel Barrymore). Jeanne Crain as a black girl strains credibility, no doubt. But the ensemble scenes of white bigots and the way a handful of whites stand up to them is very anticipatory of To Kill a Mockingbird. A powerful film in the end.
August 25, 2008

Pinky-The Movie  
A very nice copy of an old classic. My mother called my daughter "Pinky" for years. I finally got saw the movie and saw what she meant. What an interesting movie which shows just how far America has come in her thinking since this movie was made. This movie and "Imitation of Life" are perfect rainy day movies!
March 25, 2008

PINKY  
THIS IS ONE OF MY ALL TIME CLASSIC FAVORITES!! I LOVED ETHEL WATERS & JEANNE CRAIN IN THIS BEAUTIFULLY CREATED MOVIE OF TRUE LIFE OCCURENCES! I LOVE THIS MOVIE, IT'S A TRUE CLASSIC!!
CECELIA P.
LOS ANGELES, CA.
January 08, 2008

RedsBaby  
Take you to a time where people look at you and judge, before knowing you. Which show us that much really hasn't change.
November 22, 2007

Interesting film for its time  
Despite this film punching all my uncomfortable buttons, I can appreciate what the filmmakers were TRYING to do. There's no sense in me trying to get irate about how the African Americans in this film were portrayed because according to my grandmother's stories, the film is pretty accurate for that time and place in America history. I think the controversy of the time or even now was the fact that the lead was portrayed by a white woman. But then again so was Sarah Jane in the Imitation of life. Of course if a black actress could pass for white, the last thing she would admit to Hollywood directors was that she black. Did that make sense? Ethel Barrymore was just born to act. Her performance was great and of course it's great to see Ethel Waters as well-though I perfer to hear her sing. For me, the ending makes this a good film for me. Pinky opens a Nursing School for African Americans, and at least that's a positive thing.
September 10, 2007


SIMILAR PRODUCTS

Imitation of Life (Two Movie Collection) 1934/1959
Directed by John M. Stahl, Douglas Sirk
Starring Claudette Colbert, Warren William, Rochelle Hudson, Ned Sparks, Louise Beavers
Universal Studios

Stormy Weather
Starring Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson, Matthew 'Stymie' Beard, Ada Brown, Cab Calloway, Benny Carter
20th Century Fox

Cabin in the Sky
Directed by Vincente Minnelli, Busby Berkeley
Starring Ethel Waters, Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson, Lena Horne, Louis Armstrong, Rex Ingram
Warner Home Video

Imitation of Life
Directed by Douglas Sirk
Starring Lana Turner, John Gavin, Sandra Dee, Robert Alda, Susan Kohner
Universal Studios

The Green Pastures
by Hal Mohr, Edwin B. DuPar, Marc Connelly, George Amy, Roark Bradford
Directed by Marc Connelly, William Keighley, Roy Mack
Starring Rex Ingram, Oscar Polk, Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson, Frank H. Wilson, George Reed
Warner Bros. Pictures
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