#problem pictures

John Collier (1850–1934) The Laboratory (1895) Source

The year 1949 brought “Negro Problem Pictures” that, according to the book Hollywood Black by Black film historian extraordinaire Donald Bogle, “... had compromises. In a covert manner they still relied on modified stereotypes such as the tragic mulatto and the mammy.” After Black soldiers returned from WWII, expecting a somewhat equal slice of the American pie, the American film industry attempted to reflect what was thought to be a truer to life depiction of the Black experience. According to the Christopher John Jones’ article “Image and Ideology in Kazan’s ’Pinky’”:

“The culmination of the trend toward black realism in the American cinema of the forties awaited the year 1949 with its unique cycle of pictures that tackled the race problem of America.”

The blacklisted director Elia Kazan was no stranger to controversial subjects, and PINKY (‘49) certainly was not his only contentious film. Films in 1949 like PINKY, HOME OF THE BRAVE, INTRUDER IN THE DUST and LOST BOUNDARIES, based on a real-life tale, were brought to the big screen in an effort to create a more appropriate depiction of the Black demographic, that was somewhat reluctantly evolved from the stereotypical roles of the prior years. Directed by Elia Kazan, PINKY is a film about a fair-skinned mulatto woman who is able to pass as white and the cast includes a cast of exceptionally talented Black performers.

Ethel Waters

The second Black actress to be nominated for an Academy Award for her performance in PINKY, “Sweet Mamma String Bean” Ethel Waters endured a harsh childhood and rose to become the most famous Black female performer of her era. She crossed over into white venues that allowed for massive exposure. During the 1930s, Waters became the highest-paid performer of both the Cotton Club and Broadway, as well as the first Black woman to star in a weekly television series, Beulah. In the film PINKY she portrays the long-suffering role of Dicey Johnson, the grandmother of Pinky portrayed by Jeanne Crain, a white actress. Known for her lilting vocals, distinct laughter, religious fervor and disagreeable temperament, Waters’ “Stormy Weather,” one of her most famous songs, was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1993. However, her performance of “Supper Time,” first performed in 1933’s AS THOUSANDS CHEER, is emotionally haunting. The song is about a woman who has just learned her husband has been lynched while preparing the dinner table for her children.

Frederick O'Neal

Frederick O’Neal was quite the antithesis of the character he portrays in PINKY: Jake Walters, a smooth-talking innocuous scoundrel. With his brooding, stalky 6-foot frame, O'Neal was well known for his mild-mannered and amiable disposition. O'Neal, along with colleagues, organized the Black theatrical group the Aldridge Players in 1927. In 1940, he became the co-founder of the American Negro Theatre, located in Harlem, producing and performing in the play Anna Lucasta, which later became a film in 1958 starring Sammy Davis Jr. and Eartha Kitt. A political activist and staunch supporter of the arts, O’Neal’s viable efforts through the American Negro Theatre constructed a path for such actors as Sidney Poitier, Harry Belafonte and Ruby Dee during the Black Art Movement of the 1960s. O’Neal would go on to become the first Black president of the Actors' Equity Association from 1964 to 1973. In addition to PINKY, O'Neal’s other film credits included SOMETHING OF VALUE (‘57), FREE, WHITE AND 21 (‘63) (a telling title) and TAKE A GIANT STEP (‘59).

Nina Mae McKinney

Petite, angelically beautiful and best known for her role in one of Hollywood’s first all-Black films HALLELUJAH (‘29), Nina Mae McKinney was approached by MGM's King Vidor after being seen in the chorus line of the play Blackbirds, which earned her the leading role in the film. Dubbed in Europe “The Black Garbo,” McKinney’s subsequent Hollywood roles were stereotypically devised and her talents were underutilized, as with most Black actresses of her time. Her role in PINKY as Rozelia, Jake Walter’s feisty girlfriend, was more than likely McKinney’s “most notable role” notes Donald Bogle. She found more success on the American stage and even further success, as did the majority of Black artists, performing throughout Europe.

Juanita Moore

When Juano Hernandez is on screen, your eyes are on him. The Afro-Puerto Rican actor has a commanding presence, and the characters he portrayed are memorable long after the film ends. “He also has one of the great faces ever in films,” said the late Robert Osborne, former Turner Classic Movies host and historian. “Once you see him, you never forget him.”

Hernandez’s first credited film role came in 1932, but it was in 1949 when he had his breakout role with INTRUDER IN THE DUST, his first film with a major Hollywood studio. In the 1930s, Hernandez primarily starred in “race films” produced between 1914 and the 1950s outside of major Hollywood studios and starring all-Black casts for segregated audiences. From 1932 to 1940, Hernandez starred in four race films, some of which were directed by Oscar Micheaux. INTRUDER IN THE DUST was his first film in nine years.

INTRUDER IN THE DUST is a film adaptation of William Faulkner’s 1948 novel. Hernandez plays Lucas Beauchamp, a Black man accused of shooting a white man in the back in a small southern town. Lucas looks to a white teenager, Chick Mallison, played by Claude Jarman Jr., for help. Lucas says Chick is still uncluttered of the notions older white men have. Chick, his friend Aleck and elderly Miss Eunice Habersham help discover what really happened.

Released by MGM, INTRUDER IN THE DUST is a captivating film disguised as a whodunit crime drama, and it explores racism in a small town. As the confident Lucas, Hernandez walks proudly through the town wearing a long dark coat, black hat and toothpick hanging from his mouth. Historian Donald Bogle calls Hernandez’s Lucas “one of the strongest Black male characters you will see in Hollywood movies, up to that time.”

Lucas is proud and won’t act subservient. He initially angers Chick because Lucas treats him like an equal. But Lucas also asks Chick to help him and to convince his uncle John (David Brian) to act as his lawyer. Reluctant to take the case, John says, “Has it ever occurred to you if you just said ‘mister’ to white people and said it like you meant it, you might not be sitting here now?” Lucas replies from his jail cell, “So I’m to commence now? I can start off by saying ‘mister’ to the folks that drags me out of here and builds a fire under me?”

During an interview with Robert Osborne, Bogle said, “It is a highly distinctive character. The character is proud and there is a kind of defiance he has. He has so much pride that he doesn’t care to prove anything to the whites in his community. He becomes a focal point for them, because he’s a Black man who will not play the role of one of their subservient figures.”

White characters in INTRUDER IN THE DUST view Lucas as haughty, and MGM studio heads felt similarly about the character. According to producer Dore Schary’s autobiography, Mayer felt that Hernandez’s character was “too uppity.” Mayer also complained that “He ought to take off his hat when he talks to a white man” and “he didn’t even say thank you to the lawyer.” Mayer wasn’t keen on veteran director Clarence Brown’s project , but Schary championed it. This was a departure for Brown from the ultra-glamourous, glittering films that Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was known for.

INTRUDER IN THE DUST was filmed on location in segregated Oxford, Mississippi. The racism Lucas experiences onscreen was similar to what Hernandez experienced while making the film. Hernandez and the other Black actors had to live in a separate area from the rest of the cast. Hernandez stayed with a local undertaker, according to a 1949 New York Times article. While author William Faulkner coached Puerto Rican-born Hernandez with his southern accent and appreciated his performance, Faulkner did not invite Hernandez to dinner at his home, Rowan Oak, with the rest of the cast and crew. Hernandez also refused to go into any Oxford businesses that required only Black patrons to remove their hats when they entered.

Initially, the cast and crew were viewed with skepticism, because of the topic of the film. In order to be more welcome in the town, Clarence Brown had to charm the people of Oxford, cast some as extras and champion the economic development the picture would bring, according to Brown’s biographer Gwenda Young.

INTRUDER IN THE DUST was one of four movies dealing with racism released in 1949, but it was still unusual to highlight the issue in American films during this time. “Messages against racism were virtually nonexistent in 1940s Hollywood,” Claude Jarman Jr. wrote in his autobiography. “… [The film] may seem like a primitive step today, but in a time when racist attitudes were prevalent, making a movie of INTRUDER IN THE DUST was akin to taking a first step on the moon.”

To be sensitive towards the topic of racism, Schary consulted NAACP president Walter White, who praised the script but warned against the use of derogatory racial slurs used by some of the characters. The final product was an intriguing film with stunning cinematography by Robert Surtees and deft direction by Brown. Unfortunately, Mayer didn’t promote INTRUDER IN THE DUST, and Brown discovered race “problem pictures” were doing poorly in the box office, according to his biographer.

“L.B. predicted the film would be a dismal flop at the box office. I predicted it would be viewed in years to come as one of the best. We were both right,” Schary wrote in his autobiography. Critics provided mixed reviews, with southern critics largely praising the film while ignoring the racial issue.