NATIVE SON (1951)

A narrator introduces us to Chicago, a beautiful city that nevertheless has its secrets, one of which is the "Black belt," a carefully circumscribed set of neighborhoods, behind "an invisible color line," where most of the Black populace lives. Twenty-five year old Bigger Thomas lives in a slum apartment with his mother and two younger siblings. Bigger has dreams but, we are told, must keep them locked in his heart. His girlfriend Bessie, a waitress, has been given the chance to sing at a club, even as Bigger and his friends plot the burglary of a pawn shop which they ultimately abandon when one guy opts out. A social worker offers Bigger a job as a live-in chauffeur for a rich white family, the Daltons. It's an uncomfortable fit, made more so by the good intentions of the Dalton daughter Mary, who immediately has Bigger drive her and her boyfriend Jan, a left-wing firebrand, out for a night on the town. They bring him into the clubs, and even visit the place where Bessie is singing ("All colored people are so gifted," Mary says on hearing her sing). At the end of the evening, Bigger has to get the seriously drunken Mary up to her bedroom, and as he tries to settle her in bed, her blind mother comes in to check on her. Bigger panics, afraid that she will know he's there, and he presses a pillow on Mary's face to quiet her. When the mother leaves, Bigger discovers that he has smothered Mary to death. Still in a panic, Bigger throws her body in the basement furnace. When no one can find Mary the next day, Bigger gets Bessie to help him in a blackmail kidnap scheme to get money out of the Daltons. Mr. Dalton, thinking Jan and his radical friends are behind it, has Jan arrested, but soon enough evidence of human remains are found in the furnace. Going on the run, Bigger kills Bessie, thinking she was going to betray him. After a rooftop chase, Bigger is caught and, after some political wrangling involving Jan, he is found guilty and sentenced to death.

This is an unusual film, an adaptation of Richard Wright's controversial bestseller from 1940 which was seen as a highly effective protest novel. Hollywood wouldn't touch it—one company wanted to make it but to have Bigger be Italian—but in 1950, it was made independently in Argentina by Belgian director Pierre Chenal with a cast of unknowns, and with Wright himself in the lead role after professional actor Canada Lee had to bow out. Wright was over 40, and Bigger's age was changed from 20 to 25, but still, Wright is unconvincing as a young man. He's also very much an amateur at acting. You can see he's earnest and he plays emotional scenes fairly well, but otherwise he is stone faced, at times looking stunned, like he can't remember his next lines. If Wright had been the lead with studio resources and a full cast of Hollywood players in support, things might have worked better. But the production is clearly low budget, though it is said that it was the biggest budgeted Argentine film up to that time. The tenement set is solid, the rest not so much. The actors all seem like amateurs, either underplaying (Gloria Madison as Bessie) or overplaying (Jean Wallace as Mary, Gene Michael as Jan). Based on the tone of their performances, it's difficult to tell if we're supposed to think that Mary and Jan are supposed to be respected or ridiculed (possibly both, I suppose). The exception is Willa Pearl Curtis who is quite good as Bigger's mother—she went on to a long career in mostly uncredited roles in movies and TV. Leslie Straughn as Bigger's younger brother doesn't have much to do but he seems less artificial than most of the other supporting actors. Good intentions do not necessarily make a good movie, and today's audiences might fault the film for having a simplistic view of race relations. Often censored in its time, and rarely shown for years, the movie has been restored and makes for an interesting period piece. Pictured are Straughn and Wright. [Criterion Channel]