Some might initially be disappointed by the lineup of the Sidney Poitier Collection. Most of Poitier's landmark films were released by United Artists or Columbia Pictures (In the Heat of the Night, A Raisin in the Sun, Lilies in the Field, The Defiant Ones, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, To Sir, With Love, etc.). And since this is a Warner Bros. package, one could feel inclined to pass it up and hope for a different set to be released in the future. But while two of the films included in this collection lack greatness, the other two belong in the library of any avid film lover, whether you like Poitier or not (but who doesn't?). And since all of these films were difficult (if not impossible) to find on DVD before now, it's worth the purchase. Reviews of the four films follow:
SOMETHING OF VALUE
A dramatization of the real life events of the Mau Mau revolution, this film opens with the statement, “When we take away the customs, culture and religion of a people, we better replace it with 'something of value'.” Its epilogue features the Winston Churchill quote, “The problems of East Africa, are the problems of the world.” In between, you get what you'd expect from such noble but inflated messages. Something of Value is an earnest and well-intentioned effort, but lacks character depth and concedes too much ground to self-importance. It calls for tolerance and brotherhood, but in every way that it succeeds, it comes up short somewhere else.
Peter (Rock Hudson) and Kimani (Poitier) treated each other as brothers as they were growing up, but as adults things have changed. Kimani, tired of being treated by others as a lesser, escapes to the wild lands and joins a group of rebels seeking to rid Africa of European settlers. Naturally, Peter and his fellow white colonialists come to odds against the rebels, leading to the expected dramatic tensions. The history lesson, no matter how glossed over and simplified it might be, is still detailed and intriguing enough to garner the audience's attention, especially when it concentrates on Kimani's burdensome conflict of conscience as he strikes back against people he once considered to be a second family. Brutal scenes of massacre are surprisingly potent considering the film's age and Poitier and Juano Hernandez (as one of the rebel leaders) are very good in deeply layered roles.
The other side of the conflict is less compelling. Peter is given little moral complexity; he might as well be elevated to sainthood. His fiancée, Holly (Dana Wynter), is a role more obligatory than enriching—she looks pretty but hardly has a thought in that pretty head. And Michael Pate plays Joe Matson, whose very role comes with the subtitle “Vengeful White Settler.” We know too little of him to make him an effective villain, so instead he's just a hissable cardboard cutout. Wendy Hiller has a few good scenes as a grieving widow trying to retain her dignity, but she's mostly forgotten when off screen.
The uneven dynamic between the two opposing forces creates little dilemma for the viewer; while the movie is never preachy, there's no doubt how the filmmakers want us to feel. (SPOILERS) And sadly, the finale doesn't succeed entirely because Poitier's character is let down by the script's requirement for him to be too irrational in his fury. It lets Peter off the hook for fighting Kimani—there's no potential damnation of his “white knight” role after Kimani dies. It might have also been more effective if we'd seen more scenes early on between Hudson and Poitier, so the sundering of their friendship would have gripped our emotions better. Its lack renders the confrontation standard issue. (END SPOILERS)
A flawed motion picture, it is still worth watching to see Poitier play an African (instead of an African-American) and for the segments among the Mau Mau and the surprisingly grim action sequences. But consider this a missed opportunity with the weight of bookending words seeking a firmer, more complex treatment.
A WARM DECEMBER
A Warm December is the collection's only entry to also be directed by Poitier, and the only one filmed in color. Unfortunately, it's also easily the weakest. Poitier plays a widowed doctor who moonlights as a motorcycle racer (seriously) spending time in London with his young daughter, Stefanie (Yvette Curtis). While in London, he meets the mysterious Catherine (Esther Anderson) and they fall in love, only for Poitier to discover she has sickle cell anemia. Cue the waterworks.
Actually, it's not as soppy as it could have been, but minimal chemistry between the stars and an uneven tone elicits more yawns than sobs. It also starts out like an espionage-happy Hitchcock potboiler as Poitier observes several men following Catherine around and she continually appears and disappears from his life. But all of the barely-there suspense is a red herring as her predicament is practically routine—she's just being followed around by doctors and assistants to her ambassador uncle, and she's simply keeping him at arms length because she knows she probably has little time left.
Poitier is disappointingly bland (especially for someone playing a doctor, motorbiker and widow), Anderson is lovely but miffs most of her big scenes and Curtis is merely okay even for a child actor. There's little doubt that the screenplay was heavily inspired by Love Story, and I also suspect that Poitier's interest as both an actor and director for the project was inspired by the film's “lesson” about sickle cell anemia. But its sentiment is as old-fashioned as the very 70s wardrobe, hairstyles and score. Not a total disaster, but it's the only one in the box set that can be skipped entirely.
A PATCH OF BLUE
Just as it's a thin line between clever and stupid, so too is the line separating sentiment from overripe melodrama. A Patch of Blue treads that line very carefully, but not once does it stumble onto the unbearable side. Elizabeth Hartman stars as Selina, a blind 18-year-old girl living with an oppressive, abusive bigot of a mother named Rose-Ann (Shelley Winters) and her drunk grandfather (Wallace Ford). Selina's life is confined to the crummy apartment she lives in, never given the education or experience to enter the outside world in her condition. But when she's allowed to spend a day in the park by herself (slaving over necklace threading, no less), she makes the acquaintance of Gordon Ralfe (Poitier). Selina and Gordon begin a tentative friendship that blossoms into more. What could easily have devolved into histrionic goop emerges as the set's most winning surprise.
Gordon is cautious about his new friend while Selina plunges headlong into it—she's so happy to find someone who is kind to her that natural defenses refuse to rise. But the screenplay is delicate about Selina's flowering. When Gordon gives her a pair of sunglasses to hide her scarred eyes, what might have seemed a superficial act of vanity turns into an opportunity for her self-esteem to grow: she becomes considerably more confident upon such a small act. And Gordon's defensiveness is altogether human. When Gordon's brother asks him about her, he says that he's helping her because he pitied her, refusing to acknowledge that he's come to care for the girl. And while Selina falls for Gordon far before he does, the protectiveness and fatherly role he initiated gradually turns to one of more equal devotion. The scene where he learns that she was raped by one of her mother's friends is difficult to bear, but both of the performances sell each nuance, both in confiding and reacting.
Rose-Ann and Ole Pa (the grandfather) could have easily become caricatures, but the actors find the root of their deplorable views and play them perfectly. Winters won an Academy Award as the vicious shrew, but we sense that her cruelty stems less from ignorance and mindless hatred than it is to the sick, self-aggrandizing lift afforded someone who belittles others. She and the grandfather are, quite frankly, “white trash,” so they bully Selina so they can feel superiority. Ole Pa is a defeated man, one who spends as much time in the bottle as out of it, and while he's far gentler than Rose-Ann, the malice of disinterest can be just as powerful as that of scolding.
Released in 1965, A Patch of Blue was likely considered a very provocative film. It features one of the earliest onscreen interracial kisses, and while the camera shows only what's needed, the scene where young Selina is blinded (by a bottle thrown by Rose-Ann that missed its target) and raped are stark and chilling. The film's tagline, “Love is color-blind,” refers to the relationship's symbolic treatment. Selina doesn't know that Gordon is black, so she can learn to love him free of prejudice. But Gordon's recognition of others glaring at them when the two are seen in public influences his hesitance. (SPOILERS) At the end, after he's arranged for her to be entered into a school for the blind, he promises that he will visit her, all the while fearing that they can never be happy together so long as the streets are full of despicable racists. It makes the concluding moments bittersweet and hopeful even as we know that the ending doesn't suggest a likelihood of happiness. Interestingly, the book on which this film was based ended very differently. When Selina discovers that Gordon is black, she rejects him, giving the message an entirely different, archly pessimistic spin. Considering how the film had been played up to that point, preserving the original ending would have ruined the film. But a movie with a slightly different tone could have sold the caustic original, allowing for a rare instance where a skewed remake might be truly rewarding. (END SPOILERS)
EDGE OF THE CITY
Edge of the City is the second jewel of the box set, a gritty drama about fear, unlikely friendship and corruption. John Cassavettes stars as Axel North, a man running from his past who ends up working on the NYC waterfront as a stevedore. As a longshoreman, he encounters a hard-nosed, degenerate foreman (Jack Warden) and an optimistic, friendly worker named Tommy (Poitier). Axel resists Tommy at first, but he's worn down by the man's charisma, charm and generosity. As their friendship grows, so does the animosity of the corrupt foreman. As tensions grow at work, Axel slowly reveals his past to Tommy, explaining why he's on the run. And as Axel finds his life settling comfortably, even tentatively approaching a romance with a woman named Ellen (Kathleen Maguire), we know that things are about to reach a feverish boil.
There's little doubt that the script was inspired in some way by the classic, On the Waterfront. Both deal with union corruption and the final confrontation echoes the earlier film quite closely. In fact, every time the foreman was called by name (Charlie), I couldn't help but think of Brando and Steiger. There's even the eerie parallel between the directors: Waterfront's Elia Kazan was known to have cooperated with HUAC; Edge's Martin Ritt was blacklisted. But both films stand on their own quite well, and while Waterfront can't be touched, Edge of the City remains a tense, sobering and very believable drama. The acting is excellent across the board, including Ruby Dee as Tommy's wife, and a memorable fight between workers brandishing hooks in the warehouse is appropriately intense.
While not flawless (the final shot wanted more, or at least something more satisfying), it's still a superb effort that deserves a wider audience. And perhaps most astonishingly, Poitier's status as an African-American is usually only subtly referred to. Charlie the foreman may dislike Tommy because of his race, but the growing hatred comes about because Tommy plays it so easy and carefree. That a film in the 50s could feature such a fine friendship between a white man and black man without striking explicit nerves is a noteworthy feat. Nevertheless, integration remains a point of interest, one that is treated with looks more than words. A movie that can move you both quietly and aggressively is one to be treasured.
DVD Bonus Features
The set's extras are rather stingy. Three of them only feature a trailer and English and French subtitles. A Patch of Blue contains a trailer, stills gallery, an edited filmography and essay about Poitier, and a list of awards, as well as commentary by director Guy Green (and English/French subtitles). But the four features will keep you so busy, you'll hardly care.
"Sidney Poitier Collection" is on sale February 3, 2009 and is rated . Drama. Directed by Guy Green, Martin Ritt, Richard Brooks, Sidney Poitier. Written by Richard Brooks, Robert Alan Arthur, Guy Green, Lawrence Roman. Starring Dana Wynter, Elizabeth Hartman, Esther Anderson, Jack Warden, John Cassavettes, Juano Hernandez, Kathleen Maguire, Rock Hudson, Ruby Dee, Shelley Winters, Sidney Poitier, Wallace Ford, Wendy Hiller, Yvette Curtis.
