SAPPHIRE (1959)

In London, two children find a dead body in the woods, a young woman with the letter "S" sewn on her clothes. The police identify her as Sapphire Robbins, an outgoing and well-liked music student. An autopsy shows she was pregnant. Her boyfriend David, who was out of town at the time of her murder on Saturday night, claims she had told him about her pregnancy, and that he was happy with the news and proposed marriage. But the investigating police officers, the older Hazard and the younger Learoyd, discover hidden family conflicts when they learn that Sapphire's older brother, a doctor, is Black. Both children of mixed race, Sapphire could pass for white and did. Even so, when people discovered her racial background, old prejudices came into play, especially from landlords who would find out about her secret when her brother visited. Sapphire was also leading a secret life, socializing at a Black jazz club and seeing Black men, though she made no secret of having "a yen to marry light." David's mother, father, and adult sister express racist sentiments but insist that they ultimately were OK with David's decision to marry her. In addition to the race issue, however, a wedding would likely have scotched David's plans to study abroad on a music scholarship. Then David's alibi for being out of town on Saturday night falls apart. Inspector Learoyd has to fight his own prejudices to work on the case; his discovery that Sapphire was part Black causes him to assume she was promiscuous. But Hazard brings Dr. Robbins to visit David's family and slowly the family members' racism is found to be more ingrained than they would admit.

I appear to be on a Michael Craig kick lately. I reviewed SEA OF SAND a few months ago and movies featuring Craig, a respected character actor in England, are cropping up in my YouTube algorithm, so more reviews will be following. Though third billed behind Nigel Patrick (Hazard) and Yvonne Mitchell (Mildred, David's sister), Craig (as Learoyd) is really the focus of the film as he deals with his racial assumptions while trying to solve the case. He's good looking and charismatic which makes us assume that he will eventually overcome his beliefs, and, to some degree, he does. The killer is caught (a particularly nasty piece of work whose hidden hatred explodes violently at the climax) so the ending is satisfying on the crime film level, but the race prejudices don't disappear at the end. Even a Black club owner says this about Sapphire, passing for white and dancing at the club: "No matter how fair the skin, they can’t hide that swing!" The film was critiqued by some at the time for failing to take on racism more directly, but it was popular and won the BAFTA award for Best British Film. Craig and the low-key Patrick have a realistic chemistry. There is strong support from Yvonne Buckingham, who plays Sapphire in flashbacks, Paul Massie as David, Bernard Miles as David's father, and Harry Baird as a would-be boyfriend of Sapphire's from the jazz club. Earl Cameron, who was still acting in the 2000s, is especially good in the relatively small role of Sapphire's brother. At the end, Hazard tells Learoyd that, though they've brought the killer to justice, they haven't really solved anything, a verdict on society that remains viable today. Pictured are Patrick and Craig. [TCM]