Pinky (1949)

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PINKY (1949), starring Jeanne Crain, Ethel Waters, Ethel Barrymore, William Lundigan

“Pinky”, the story of a light-skinned black girl who comes home as a nurse after passing as white for years, is an interesting film that explores the nature of identity and environment, while lightly touching on the kind of racism that exists within the same culture. The fact that the actress who plays the title role (Best Actress Oscar Nominee Jeanne Crain) happens to be white doesn’t seem to have taken the venom out of her performance. Her Pinky is angry at the very same white world she simultaneously wishes to be a part of, a conflicted emotion that lends Crain a compelling edge to work with. The Hays code prevented portraying miscegenation on-screen at the time of this film’s release so it’s difficult to imagine how Lena Horne or one of the other actresses of color considered for the lead might have performed with the same material.

Its Ethel Waters’ (Best Supporting Actress Nominee) performance as Pinky’s grandmother, Dicey Johnson, that is truly incandescent. Never lapsing into the stereotypical Mammy role, her character is gripping, complicated, and heartbreaking. John Ford, originally slated as the director for this picture, was eventually replaced with Elia Kazan by producer Daryl Zanuck, partly because of his incompatibility with Ethel Waters, whose supporting role is crucial to the success of the film. Ford had a tendency to transform all older black women into Aunt Jemimas, a fact that threatened to ruin the idea of the humanity behind these kinds of stereotypes. Ethel Barrymore (Best Supporting Actress Nominee), as always, is wonderful as the matriarchal Miss M, whose contentious relationship with Pinky underlies a deeper trust.

A fairly random courtroom scene closes up the film and there is a nice tidy ending. Watch for the virulent Evelyn Varden (from The Bad Seed) as Barrymore’s cousin. Her confrontation with Pinky in the general store highlights the second-class treatment of black people in the South.

A fairly engaging story that obviously had a lot of social relevance back in the day.

*** out of ****