{"id":68746,"date":"2021-02-03T05:00:03","date_gmt":"2021-02-03T13:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/?p=68746"},"modified":"2021-02-03T05:34:49","modified_gmt":"2021-02-03T13:34:49","slug":"sidney-poitier-marathon-edge-of-the-city-1957-something-of-value-1957-band-of-angels-1957-the-mark-of-the-hawk-1957","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2021\/02\/sidney-poitier-marathon-edge-of-the-city-1957-something-of-value-1957-band-of-angels-1957-the-mark-of-the-hawk-1957.html","title":{"rendered":"Sidney Poitier marathon: Edge of the City<\/i> (1957) – Something of Value<\/i> (1957) – Band of Angels<\/i> (1957) – The Mark of the Hawk<\/i> (1957)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The latest in a month-long series of re-posts from my Facebook marathon in April 2020.<\/i><\/p>\n

\u2013<\/p>\n

Sidney Poitier marathon part 4 (1957):<\/b><\/p>\n

Poitier\u2019s big-screen career took a big leap forward in 1957, as the actor \u2014 who had never been in more than one movie per year before \u2014 suddenly found himself in four<\/i> big-screen movies in a single year. And what a mix of movies they are. He played supporting roles opposite some fairly big movie stars, and he took leading roles in smaller films. He worked with directors at the very beginning of their careers, and he worked with directors who were near the end of their careers. He played reasonably happy characters, and he played very angry characters. He was in movies that took aim at the hypocrisy of western religion, and he was in movies that celebrated the triumph of western religion over pagan superstition.<\/p>\n

The year began with Edge of the City<\/i> (1957)<\/b>. The main character is a man with a secret, played by John Cassavetes, who gets a job as a longshoreman and is befriended by Poitier, a fellow longshoreman who helps Cassavetes find a place to live and a woman to date. Poitier\u2019s character is defined by his sense of humour, and for the first hour or so the film is a reasonably upbeat depiction of an interracial friendship (how many films had done this at the time?). But things turn tragic when Cassavetes\u2019 racist boss, played by Jack Warden, objects to their friendship and gets into a fight with Poitier.<\/p>\n

I had never seen this movie before, but something about it seemed familiar to me\u2026 and then I realized that Robert Jewett devoted an entire chapter to this film in his 1999 book Saint Paul Returns to the Movies: Triumph over Shame<\/i>. That book had a huge<\/i> influence on my theological outlook at the time, and this was one of two films analyzed in that book that I had never seen at the time. Well, it took me a while, but I have finally taken care of that<\/i> gap in my film literacy.<\/p>\n

Poitier is very good in this film, but it\u2019s really Cassavetes\u2019 story, and the Poitier character\u2019s death is ultimately a catalyst for character growth on Cassavetes\u2019 part. That makes this the first film in which Poitier becomes a Christ-figure of sorts (which is one of the reasons the film figures so prominently in Jewett\u2019s book), but it also leaves the film open to the charge that it\u2019s one of those movies in which a minority-identified person dies so that a majority-identified person can benefit somehow. (Was this already a cliche then, though? Or did it become one later?) Still, Poitier is so good in the role \u2014 the film is so clearly interested in his character for his own sake \u2014 that the film transcends those concerns, I think.<\/p>\n

A few other quick points about this film:<\/p>\n

\u2014 It was the first movie to be directed by Martin Ritt, who went on to make 1963\u2019s Hud<\/i>, 1970\u2019s The Molly Maguires<\/i> and 1979\u2019s Norma Rae<\/i>. Cassavetes would soon direct his own first film, 1958\u2019s Shadows<\/i>, just one year later.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Poitier would go on to work with Ritt and Cassavetes again. This film also marks the third time he worked with Ruby Dee, following 1950\u2019s No Way Out<\/a><\/i> and 1954\u2019s Go Man Go<\/a><\/i>; they would go on to make three more films together.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Edge of the City<\/i> was a remake of a teleplay that Poitier had starred in two years earlier, and Poitier was the only actor who appeared in both versions of the story. The 1955 teleplay was Poitier\u2019s last TV gig until the 1990s; his big-screen career would keep him busy for the next few decades.<\/p>\n

The three films that followed all have lower profiles now, but are interesting in their own ways.<\/p>\n

Something of Value<\/i> (1957)<\/b> stars Poitier and Rock Hudson as a black tribesman and a white farmer who grew up together as friends but now find themselves on opposite sides of the Mau Mau uprising, which began in 1952 and had not quite ended yet when this film came out (though the main leader of the uprising was captured and executed just a few months before the film\u2019s release).<\/p>\n

This film is remarkably ambivalent about the effect of British colonialism in Africa. Some of the white characters openly ask what good it does to ban tribal dances and female circumcision (!) if the Africans aren\u2019t given something else \u2014 something of value, as the title puts it \u2014 that can replace the old religion and the traditions that went with it. When Poitier\u2019s father has Poitier\u2019s newborn son smothered to death for being \u201ccursed\u201d \u2014 i.e. for being born feet first \u2014 the British put Poitier\u2019s father on trial for murder, and this becomes just one more example of the cultural insensitivity that drives Poitier to turn against Hudson and his fellow whites. (Poitier\u2019s puzzled father explains to the court that, as far as his culture is concerned, it\u2019s not \u201cmurder\u201d if the child is not yet one year old.)<\/p>\n

The film ends on a tragic note, as Poitier, who now has another newborn son, falls into a Mau Mau trap during a scuffle with Hudson. With his dying breath, Poitier asks Hudson to bury him with his son, but Hudson declines, opting instead to raise Poitier\u2019s son alongside his own son, in the hope that the next generation will find the redemption that eluded his own generation. And I have to say, this is a striking note to end the film on, given that it was white attempts to rescue black babies from their (grand)parents that had sparked the narrative conflict in the first place.<\/p>\n

And yes, this is the second film in a row in which the Poitier character dies tragically, leaving the white protagonist to learn from Poitier\u2019s death and\/or to hope for a better future.<\/p>\n

A few other quick points about this film:<\/p>\n

\u2014 It was the second of two films that Poitier made with director Richard Brooks, who had previously directed him in 1955\u2019s Blackboard Jungle<\/a><\/i>.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Poitier is clearly a supporting actor here, but one sign that Poitier\u2019s star was on the rise is that he gets one of those prominent \u201cand so-and-so\u201d credits at the end of the opening credits.<\/p>\n

\u2014 The \u201cintellectual leader\u201d of the Mau Maus is played by William Marshall, who would go on to play the computer scientist Richard Daystrom in a 1968 episode of Star Trek<\/i>; he then went on to star in 1972\u2019s Blacula<\/i> and its 1973 sequel. The Mau Mau \u201coath giver\u201d is played by Juano Hern\u00e1ndez, who went on to play a Christian minister opposite Poitier in 1957\u2019s The Mark of the Hawk<\/i>. And Rock Hudson\u2019s fiancee is played by Dana Wynter, of 1956\u2019s Invasion of the Body Snatchers<\/i>.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Some of the British characters are quite willing to accommodate the \u201cwitchcraft\u201d of certain African tribal customs if they can find a scientific explanation for those customs, e.g. the practice of finding a liar from a line-up of suspects by applying a hot sword to each man\u2019s tongue; the Brit explains that the liar\u2019s mouth dries up from nervousness, so he reacts to the heat in a way the others don\u2019t. I\u2019m wondering now if this is an actual Kenyan practice or if it was made up by the writers.<\/p>\n

\u2014 The image of an angry Poitier throwing an empty rifle at a white racist and then shooting him dead with a handgun, all while holding a baby in his other hand, is quite striking if you\u2019re mainly familiar with Poitier from his later good-role-model roles.<\/p>\n

Next up: Band of Angels<\/i> (1957)<\/b>, starring Yvonne De Carlo as a Southern belle who learns, after her father dies, that her mother was a slave and therefore she is legally a slave too. After a horrifying interlude in which a slave trader comes thisclose to raping her, she is bought at an auction by Clark Gable, who proceeds to woo her as historical events intercede.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s right, it\u2019s another Civil War movie starring Clark Gable; like 1939\u2019s Gone with the Wind<\/a><\/i>, it even has music by Max Steiner! Poitier plays a black man who works for Gable and seems friendly enough at first, but about half-way through the movie he reveals that he hates Gable for being so kind to him (at least when a man uses a whip, you know what to fight against, says Poitier). Poitier also objects to the way De Carlo can pass for white and the way she tries to resume her old life.<\/p>\n

One of the recurring motifs of this film is that it doesn\u2019t matter how nice<\/i> a master or slave-owner appears to be, the mere fact that they operate within a slave-owning system<\/i> means that abuse is always just around the corner. De Carlo\u2019s father was a super-nice master who never sold any of his slaves to anyone, but the moment he died, all of his slaves were treated as mere property to be sold off to pay his debts \u2014 and that included De Carlo herself, once it was revealed who and what her mother was. Similarly, Gable is depicted as a super-nice master \u2014 his slaves literally greet him with song when he comes home \u2014 but he eventually reveals that he was once a slave trader who was just as nasty as any of them, and he says he\u2019s been trying to make up for it ever since.<\/p>\n

The big plot twist at the end comes when Gable reveals that Poitier is actually his son, and that it was the murder of Poitier\u2019s mother \u2014 by a native African who had supplied Gable with slaves \u2014 that prompted Gable to quit the slave trade. So, just as De Carlo learned she was the daughter of a black mother, so too Poitier learns that he is the son of a white father. And this paves the way for all three to be reconciled.<\/p>\n

A few other quick points about this film:<\/p>\n

\u2014 This was one of the last films directed by Raoul Walsh, who had been directing movies since 1913. As an actor, he had also played John Wilkes Booth in D.W. Griffith\u2019s 1915 film The Birth of a Nation<\/i>, which gives this Civil War movie another interesting connection to Civil War movies of the past.<\/p>\n

\u2014 This is the first Poitier film to be shot in colour, rather than black and white.<\/p>\n

\u2014 While the film is critical of slavery, even the \u201cgood\u201d kind, it is also very negative in its depiction of at least some aspects of the anti-slavery forces. One of De Carlo\u2019s beaus \u2014 before she learns she is part-black \u2014 is an abolitionist preacher who is involved with Abraham Lincoln\u2019s election campaign and objects to forms of music that can excite \u201cbaser desires\u201d. When he meets De Carlo again several years later, he says he was a fool to be so uptight\u2026 and he promptly tries to molest her or worse, which causes her to flee and denounce him as a \u201chypocrite\u201d. Meanwhile, Gable says the Union Army has no interest in liberating slaves but is planning on \u201cconfiscating\u201d them instead and sending them to \u201ccarpetbagging plantations\u201d where they will be beaten but receive no wages.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Gable goes on to say, \u201cIf we could live another hundred years, we\u2019d probably see white justice for blacks\u2026\u201d This scene is set in 1865, and the film was made in 1957. Do the math.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Wikipedia says Poitier had difficulty getting ahead in black theatre groups at the start of his career because, \u201ccontrary to what was expected of black actors at the time, Poitier\u2019s tone deafness made him unable to sing.\u201d There is a scene in this film in which Gable asks Poitier to sing a sea shanty, and Poitier obliges\u2026 and it is so, so obvious that Poitier is being dubbed.<\/p>\n

Finally: The Mark of the Hawk<\/i> (1957)<\/b>, which casts Poitier as a politician newly elected to a position within a colonial African government. Poitier is working for change from within the system, but his brother is part of a revolutionary group and accuses Poitier of being an \u201cUncle Tom\u201d \u2014 and of course, the authorities are suspicious of Poitier because<\/i> of his brother\u2019s activities.<\/p>\n

In sharp contrast to Something of Value<\/i>, which was skeptical of British colonialism, and Band of Angels<\/i>, which was skeptical of Christian abolitionists, The Mark of the Hawk<\/i> is so boldly positive in its treatment of Christian missionaries that I wonder who really produced it. It was the only feature film directed by Michael Audley, who spent most of his career as a dialogue coach and has a writing credit on 1961\u2019s Constantine and the Cross<\/i>; and it was the only feature film written by Lloyd Young or H. Kenn Carmichael, though the two writers did collaborate on a short film called The Saint of Devil\u2019s Island<\/i> which was also released under the name Seventy Times Seven<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Anyway. Juano Hern\u00e1ndez, the Afro-Puerto Rican actor who played the pagan \u201coath giver\u201d in Something of Value<\/i>, here plays a Christian minister who gives a robust defense of the church and its influence in Africa, saying it brought medicine and a belief in the equality of races, among other things.<\/p>\n

A white American missionary also comes along to remind the other white characters that Christianity was once revolutionary itself, and he says it\u2019s unfortunate that Christianity is now considered a defender of the status quo. He also talks about how he doesn\u2019t want the church to make the same mistakes in Africa that it made in China, where it was recently expelled.<\/p>\n

And, along the way, it is this white missionary who dies to effect a change in Poitier\u2019s heart, which is a reversal of what happened between Poitier and the main white character in Edge of the City<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Two other quick points:<\/p>\n

\u2014 This film was shot partly in Nigeria, and apparently it was shot there before<\/i> Universal stepped in to become the film\u2019s distributor. Again I wonder: who initiated<\/i> production of this film?<\/p>\n

\u2014 This is the second Poitier film to be shot in colour.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Poitier\u2019s wife is played by Eartha Kitt. It was the only film they made together.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Were the producers unsure as to how quickly Poitier\u2019s star was rising? He gets fourth billing in the opening credits but second billing in the closing credits. (Kitt comes first in both cases.)<\/p>\n

\u2013<\/p>\n

The image above shows Sidney Poitier and John Cassavetes in <\/i>Edge of the City.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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