La negra bianca

If "I Passed For White" was released today it would stur up quite a storm! Imagine not knowing what race to identify yourself with? The character of "ETHEL" gives a touching performance as a GAL that just does not know which way to turn! A B movie that few have seen this classic is alot of fun!

Just imagine that Sarah-Jane , Fannie Hurst's heroine , was able to marry Troy Donahue in Douglas Sirk's remake of "imitation of life"(1959) ;a light -skinned pretty girl like her,her desire was to escape from her condition ; and after marrying James Franciscus (replacing Donahue) ,then the problems begin : the screenplay is thoroughly implausible :how would snub bourgeois parents accept this union while swallowing the heroine 's never-to-be-seen background ?One should note that the denouement is downright reactionary (a person of mixed-race must know her place), but although immensely superior,Sirk's exponential tear-jerker was too (back where both girls belong).

The most interesting character is the husband :first acquaintance shows a very nice man , considerate ,with a beaming smile .But further acquaintance shows that he is the splitting image of his smug parents: he is a racist macho (scene of the meeting with the brother ) and he won't be the dashing attentive escort the viewer expects him to be :no rebellion against a rotten society .....

Fortunately ,things have changed ; more than in the rather bland "guess who's coming to dine" , the great Sidney Poitier,by marrying lovely actress Johanna Shimkus, showed the whole world that interracial unions were a most natural thing .

What makes this movie special is that it is a true story written by Mary Bradley about people known to her personally, Reba Lee and her mother. The ending was what really happened in real life and the book and movie were pretty much true to life, not "based on a true story" like so many other movies that end up paying only lip service to the true story. Reba Lee's mother was Mary Bradley's seamstress, so she got the story first hand from the people it happened to. To me, that makes the story even more meaningful than if the author had simply interviewed someone she didn't know and told the story from her own viewpoint. I saw the movie many, many years ago and I am not sure I remember details exactly, but it seems to me that the movie was pretty faithful to the book. If you can find either the book or the movie, it is well worth your time to read or watch it.

"Bernice" (Sonya Wilde) falls in love with, and marries, the well-to-do "Rick" (James Franciscus) and she soon becomes pregnant. Thing is, though, she has one hell of a secret. His entirely white family do not know that she is, well, not... His mother (Elizabeth Council) begins to suspect something is afoot when "Bernice" can't provide her family at the impending birth and, indeed, the only evidence of her mother's existence comes from a photograph that is less than convincing. As is always the case, the web of lies becomes more and more complicated and harder for her to plausibly sustain - especially when the baby arrives and her curious reactions seriously test her relationship with her husband. My problem with this is the underpinning story is really rather weak and the issues it presents us with are all enveloped in scenarios that are a bit contrived. Neither leading actor here really brings much to the party - in fact, it's really only Council who, briefly, engages. The contentious subject matter was clearly all that was on anyone's mind here - the production and delivery of that potentially potent analysis of racism and bigotry is, however, completely lacklustre and this really smacks of a mid-budget television movie.

I PASSED FOR WHITE, one of those title-says-it-all kinda movies, is much better than you'd think. Thanks to the gorgeous Sonya Wilde, who has wonderful acting skills... what a shame she only appeared in a handful of television guest spots thereafter, mostly playing Native Americans on Westerns.

Wilde plays Bernice Lee - her hip brother blows sax at a club and her grandmother has words of wisdom, but no real answers, for what's really troubling Bernice. She can't keep a job when the employers find out she's part black... It was the early sixties, after all.

She decides to become Lila and, on a plane to another state and another life, she meets handsome businessman James Franciscus as Rick Leyton. After a windswept romance they get married. Of course he doesn't realize her secret and the rest of the film has the John "Johnny" Williams's score blasting whenever anyone almost discovers her ruse: especially Rick's pesky mother, continuously asking to meet Bernice's parents.

Wilde handles the melodrama perfectly and reaches for lies about her phantom family better than a lifelong politician. The tension builds nicely between the newlyweds, who make real sparks when times are good. Although Wilde looks so white, the audience won't always share in the controversy of a mixed couple relationship. If it weren't for that pounding soundtrack you might forget what she's so worried about in the first place.