Julius-10

This film, which was a vehicle for Diana Ross's film career, harbors what could be described as some of the best performances put on screen. Diana's portrayal of Billie Holiday, Billie Dee Williams's acting, and Richard Pryor's performance were all Oscar calibur. This film is a gem and should have been given more attention by the Academy and by the film industry.

This film, however enjoyable, is quite hard to decipher. Between dirtying faces and powdering people, the underlying current of the film is very elusive-unless you can understand the jargon. there are quality performances from the actors all around.

This film is a typical pre-Sixties look at the Civil War. They are very progressive for the time, having one black actor in a major role and several in bit parts, but even still the film is startlingly unwitty. It would be great to study the politics behind this film. It follows the early Hollywood mode of having white actors play black roles, and I would not hesitate from assuming that they had Evon De Carlo to play the role because of the taboo of a black person kissing a white person on the screen. Sidney Potier delivers a fairly decent performance, while Evon De Carlo and Clark Gable could not get out of the Rhett Butler/Scarlett O'Hara mold. The film has some fairly good scenes, but overall it is just barely watchable.