SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 25 - FACING RACISM 5 Films 8:00 p.m. (ET)/5:00 p.m. (PT) THE DEFIANT ONES (1958) The second feature in a quartet of racial prejudice-themed films by director Stanley Kramer (The other titles include Home Of The Brave (1949), Pressure Point (1962) and Guess WhoÕs Coming To Dinner(1967), The Defiant Ones (1958) is an unlikely buddy film. Sidney Poitier stars as Noah Cullen, an educated black convict in a chain gang whose "other half" is John ŌJokerÕ Johnson, a white, Southern bigot played by Tony Curtis. The two men, shackled together with chains, decide to escape when their prison truck crashes on the highway, providing them with a chance for freedom. As they take to the back roads, their hostility and distrust of one another eventually gives way to mutual respect as they dodge sheriffs, hunting dogs, lynch mobs, and gun-wielding youths together. The Defiant Ones marked a significant turning point in Sidney PoitierÕs career. Since the mid-fifties, Poitier had become a spokesperson for black empowerment due to his intelligent and uncompromising characterizations in such films as The Blackboard Jungle (1955) and Edge of the City (1957). In a time of heightened racial tensions and a virtually nonexistent black presence in Hollywood, PoitierÕs Cullen was an inspirational figure to African-American moviegoers who rarely saw issues of skin color or racial prejudice addressed in contemporary movies. In his autobiography, This Life, Poitier recalled his involvement in The Defiant Ones: "As I saw it, in my career there was a real beginning for a break-through - not only for me but for other blacks in films. Suddenly decisions of a very political nature were on my doorstep. Was it important to carry on? Was it important for me to carry on? Naturally I felt I had certain things to offer, since I had begun to work with some regularity and had generated what I thought to be good vibrations spreading around the industry. The Defiant Ones, speaking directly to the point of how black people want to see themselves on the screen, would be a hell of a shot for us. And the role of Cullen would represent for me and other black actors a step up in the quality of parts available to us, and at the same time afford the black community in general a rare look at a movie character exemplifying the dignity of our people - something that Hollywood had systematically ignored in its shameless capitulation to racism." Though Marlon Brando was reportedly KramerÕs original choice for John ŌJokerÕ Johnson, Tony Curtis diligently proved himself the better choice in the role. In his autobiography, Curtis recalled, " At first they said I was too good-looking for the part; I didn't look enough like the a**hole "n*gger-hater" I was supposed to play. So I wore a false nose and made myself look uglier. I felt pretty strongly about wanting to do that movie....I had a double named Bobby Hoy, an excellent stunt man who looked like me and did some of the water scenes, but most of it was done by me. It was a physically exhausting picture." When the film was completed, Curtis paid tribute to his co-star in a unique way. Poitier said, "Tony performed the most generous act I ever received from an actor in my life. My contract called for me to be listed among the supporting actors. Tony had top billing alone, but he went to Stanley Kramer and said, 'I want you to put Sidney's name up there with mine.' And that's exactly what happened. That's how I got top billing for the first time in my life. I think that speaks a lot of him." After its premiere, The Defiant Ones became the most talked about film in Hollywood and eventually garnered eight Academy Award nominations including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress, Film Editing, Best Cinematography and Best Writing (The latter two won in their respective categories). Unfortunately, because Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier split the vote for Best Actor, David Niven walked away with the statuette for his performance in Separate Tables(1958). Director/Producer: Stanley Kramer Screenplay: Harold Jacob Smith (screenplay), Nedrick Young (story) Cinematography: Sam Leavitt Music: Ernest Gold Art Direction: Fernando Carrere Principle Cast: Tony Curtis (John Jackson), Sidney Poitier (Noah Cullen), Theodore Bikel (Sheriff Max Muller), Charles McGraw (Captain Frank Gibbons), Lon Chaney Jr. (Big Sam), King Donovan (Solly), Claude Akins (Mack), Lawrence Dobkin (Editor) BW-97m. Letterboxed. By Kerryn Sherrod & Jeff Stafford 10:00 p.m. (ET)/7:00 p.m. (PT) ODDS AGAINST TOMORROW (1959) Three men - an embittered ex-con (Robert Ryan), a former cop (Ed Begley) who was fired from the force for illegal activities, and a chronic gambler (Harry Belafonte) - try to change their lousy lot in life by forming a partnership in crime. But a plan to heist a payroll from a small-town bank in upstate New York is doomed from the start because of the racial tensions within the group. Odds Against Tomorrow (1959) is often acknowledged as one of the last films to appear in the film noir cycle which reached its height in the post-World War II era. However, this crime thriller is much more complex than the standard genre entry. While it's certainly gritty and downbeat in the best noir tradition, it also works as an allegory about greed as well as a cautionary tale about man's propensity for self-destruction. Financed by Harry Belafonte's own company, Harbel Productions, Odds Against Tomorrow allowed Belafonte to exercise complete creative control over the film's conception and to handpick an expert cast and crew to bring his project to the screen. In an article in the New York Times, Belafonte said, "The character I play is not thrown in for a racial thesis, but because the bank robbers - played by Ed Begley and Robert Ryan - need a Negro who can enter the bank as a colored delivery man. While Robert Ryan hates the Negro, it is not merely a racial antagonism. He hates everybody, and the Negro is no stereotype of sweetness and light either. No brotherly love saves everyone here. Their hatred destroys them both." Robert Ryan gives one of his finest performances here as the pathetic, venom-spewing racist Earle Slater. Off screen, Ryan was a compassionate activist who was committed to such liberal causes as SANE and the ACLU but on-screen he was often cast as angry, misanthropic characters who occasionally expressed themselves through violence. Crossfire (1947), Beware, My Lovely, and On Dangerous Ground (both 1952) are probably the best examples of this typecasting. Shelley Winters and Gloria Grahame also have minor supporting roles in Odds Against Tomorrow but while their scenes are brief, they both make indelible impressions. You can also spot Cicely Tyson, Wayne Rogers, and Zohra Zampert in tiny roles. Odds Against Tomorrow was filmed on location in a small town in the Hudson River Valley, New York City, and at the Gold Medal Studios in the Bronx. Director Robert Wise completed the film between his Oscar-winning productions of I Want to Live! (1958) and West Side Story (1961). The screenplay was written by Nelson Giddens, blacklisted writer Abraham Polonsky (who wasn't allowed to accept an onscreen credit until 1968), and black novelist John O. Killens, who later penned the revisionist antebellum drama Slaves (1969). The latter film also provided work for former blacklist victims, director Herbert J. Biberman and his wife, actress Gale Sondergaard. The moody, evocative jazz score is by John Lewis, the pianist for the Modern Jazz Quartet. Director: Robert Wise Producer: Robert Wise, Phil Stein (associate) Screenplay: Abraham Polonsky, Nelson Gidding, John O. Killens, William McGivern (novel) Cinematography: Joseph C. Brun Music: John Lewis Art Direction: Leo Kertz Principle Cast: Harry Belafonte (Johnny Ingram), Robert Ryan (Earl Slater), Shelley Winters (Lorry), Ed Begley (Dave Burke), Gloria Grahame (Helen), Will Kuluva (Bacco), Kim Hamilton (Ruth Ingram) BW-97m. By Jeff Stafford 12:00 a.m. (ET)/9:00 p.m. (PT) SYMBOL OF THE UNCONQUERED (1921) Symbol of the Unconquered (1921), a silent Western produced by black filmmaker Oscar Micheaux for black audiences, also featured an all-black cast headed by Iris Hall as a beautiful woman who travels West to inspect an inherited gold mine. Kicked out of the communityÕs only hotel, she is cared for by a prospector (Lawrence Chenault) whose life she later saves. Producer-screenwriter-director Micheaux (1884-1951), the most prolific of black film pioneers who created an "alternate" cinema, made some 40 feature-length films during the period 1919-1948. Many have since been lost. He was the first African-American to produce a feature-length film and the first to produce a sound film. Producer-writer-director-actor Robert Townsend has described Micheaux as "my idol. He inspired me to do my first film." Filmmaker Spike Lee also frequently credits Micheaux as an inspiration. The son of freed slaves, Micheaux was raised in poverty and had little formal education. His entrepreneurial career began when he published his own novels and traveled about the country selling the books and shares in his small publishing firm. He financed his early films by securing advance bookings from theater managers to whom he showed fabricated "stills." In his films, Micheaux seldom addressed the problems of the ghetto and focused on the black middle class. Still, he dealt with controversial subjects including lynching, white-on-black crime, corrupt clergymen, and intra-racial discrimination. Micheaux described his films as "propaganda" designed to "uplift the race." His films represented a radical departure from HollywoodÕs portrayal of blacks as servants and brought diverse social issues to the screen for the first time. In probably his best-known work, Body and Soul (1925), Micheaux introduced the great singer-actor Paul Robeson to movie audiences. Leigh Whipper (1876-1975), who appears as an Indian Fakir in Symbol of the Unconquered, was the first black member of Actors Equity and the founder of the Negro Actors Guild. A highly regarded Broadway actor, he memorably played Crooks in Lewis MilestoneÕs film version of Of Mice and Men (1939). WhipperÕs other screen credits include Road to Zanzibar (1941), Undercurrent (1946) and The Young DonÕt Cry (1957). Director/Producer: Oscar Micheaux Screenplay: Oscar Micheaux Principle Cast: Iris Hall (Eve Mason), Walker Thompson (Hugh Van Allen), Lawrence Chenault (Jefferson Driscoll), Mattie Wilkes (Mother Driscoll), Louis Dean (August Barr), Leigh Whipper (Tugi), E.G. Tatum (Abraham) BW-59m. By Roger Fristoe 1:30 a.m. (ET)/10:30 a.m. (PT) THEY CALL ME MISTER TIBBS! (1970) 1967 saw Sidney Poitier in In The Heat of the Night, a groundbreaking Sixties film with Poitier as Lieutenant Virgil Tibbs, a Philadelphia detective sent to investigate a murder and butt heads with a small-town Southern police chief (Rod Steiger). Faced with racially-charged hostility and resentment, Tibbs pursued the facts of the case doggedly and won the grudging respect of his law-enforcement counterpart Chief Gillespie. By 1970, TibbsÕ situation had changed somewhat; the policeman had relocated to San Francisco and was faced with problems at home, with a rocky marriage and a rebellious adolescent son. When heÕs assigned to the murder of a prostitute, all the evidence points towards his friend, Reverend Logan Sharpe (Martin Landau). They Call Me MISTER Tibbs! dispenses with much of In The Heat of the NightÕs racial complexities (with no Steiger to serve as PoitierÕs foil), and winds up more along the lines of a pure action picture. With Quincy JonesÕ funky score and TibbsÕ early-Seventies fashions, it almost has the feel of a 'blaxploitation' film from the period. Director Gordon Douglas, veteran of films like SlaughterÕs Big Rip-Off (1973), Robin and the 7 Hoods (1964) and the Fifties big-bug saga Them! (1954) provided plenty of punch for TibbsÕ action segments. DonÕt go in expecting a great deal of social commentary, and They Call Me MISTER Tibbs! delivers a satisfying bill of goods. Director: Gordon Douglas Producer: Herbert Hirschman, Walter Mirisch (executive) Screenplay: Alan Trustman, James R. Webb Cinematography: Gerald Perry Finnerman Music: Quincy Jones Art Direction: Addison Hehr Principle Cast: Sidney Poitier (Lieutenant Virgil Tibbs), Martin Landau (Reverend Logan Sharpe), Barbara McNair (Valerie Tibbs), Anthony Zerbe (Rice Weedon), Edward Asner (Woody Garfield), Jeff Corey (Captain Hank Marden), Norma Crane (Marge Garfield) C-108m. By Jerry Renshaw 3:30 a.m. (ET)/12:30 a.m. (PT) A PATCH OF BLUE (1965) After becoming the first African-American performer to win a Best Actor Oscar, for his performance in Lilies of the Field (1963), Sidney Poitier had emerged as such a box-office force that MGMÕs Pandro S. Berman declared he would produce A Patch of Blue (1965) only if Poitier agreed to play the leading role. Based on a novel by Australian novelist Elizabeth Kata, the script told of a friendship between a black man and a young white woman who has been blinded by her sadistic, bigoted mother and is therefore unaware that her new friend is of a different race. Once Poitier had committed to the project, he worked with Berman and writer-director Guy Green in updating the screenplay and making it more attuned to his onscreen personality. In the novel, the girl shares some of her motherÕs prejudices and reacts traumatically when she discovers the truth, pushing her newfound friend into the hands of racist vigilantes. "Nothing of that kind was left in the picture, the meaning of which depended on the fact that she did not mind discovering her friendÕs Negro origin," Berman commented. Thus, as re-envisioned by Poitier and his associates, the story takes on a much more optimistic tone; even though the friends eventually part, each has benefited from the relationship. MGM tested 150 unknowns before signing Elizabeth Hartman as PoitierÕs costar. "I believe I was lacking the things they wanted an actress to lack," the Youngstown, Ohio native modestly commented to Sidney Skolsky at the time. The columnist observed that the 24-year-old Hartman was "shy, timidÉ She always takes her Raggedy-Ann doll to bed with her." Although she would appear in a half-dozen other films, Hartman grew increasingly reclusive with the years and died at 45 in a fall from her fifth-floor apartment, an apparent suicide. Shelley Winters, cast as the monstrous mother, said in interviews that it was very difficult for her to speak the racial epithets used by her character in A Patch of Blue. "IÕve always found something to like in the characters IÕve played, but not this time," she said. "I really hate this woman." Despite her animosity toward the part, Winters won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her shrewish performance. The film also was nominated in the categories of Best Actress (Hartman), Art Direction/Set Decoration, Black and White Cinematography and Original Score. Although neglected this time by Oscar, Poitier won a nomination for a British Academy Award as Best Foreign Actor. A Patch of Blue proved a box-office winner, even in the South. In Atlanta, its first two weeksÕ grosses broke a record held by Gone With the Wind (1939). Old taboos still held, though; a modest, eight-second kiss between the leading characters was cut for Southern audiences. Poitier, meanwhile, had become frustrated by the limitations imposed upon his screen romances: "Either there were no women or there was a woman, but she was blind, or the relationship was of a nature that satisfied the taboos. I was at my witÕs end when I finished A Patch of Blue." Director: Guy Green Producer: Pandro S. Berman, Guy Green, Kathryn Hereford (associate) Screenplay: Guy Green, Elizabeth Kata (novel Be Ready With Bells and Drums) Cinematography: Robert Burks Music: Jerry Goldsmith Art Direction: George W. Davis, Urie McCleary Principle Cast: Sidney Poitier (Gordon Ralfe), Shelley Winters (Rose-Ann D'Arcey), Elizabeth Hartman (Selina D'arcey), Wallace Ford (Ole Pa), Ivan Dixon (Mark Ralfe), Elisabeth Fraser (Sadie), John Qualen (Mr. Faber), Kelly Flynn (Yanek Faber) BW-106m. Letterboxed. Closed captioning. By Roger Fristoe