Part of the post-war cycle of "social problem" films and one of the first Hollywood productions to tackle American racism head-on (but with a Hollywood casting compromise), Elia_Kazan's Pinky (1949) examines Southern bigotry through the experience of an African American woman who can "pass" for white. With Jeanne_Crain's Pinky caught between her love for a white Northern doctor and her allegiance to her grandmother Ethel_Waters, Kazan (taking over for John_Ford) schematically yet effectively depicts her fate in the South through drastic reversals in her treatment by police and shopkeepers, and a near-assault by two locals when she reveals the "truth" behind her pale complexion. The court battle over Pinky's inheritance of the remains of dowager Miss Em's plantation becomes a testament to color-blind justice. Despite the film's boldness in subject matter, 20th Century-Fox hedged its bets by casting a white actress in the lead, attesting to the feared limits of acceptance for an anti-racism drama. Still, though it was not quite as well-received as Kazan's similarly-minded anti-Semitism film Gentleman's_Agreement (1947), Pinky was a success, garnering Oscar nominations for Crain, Waters and the inimitable Ethel_Barrymore as the gruffly wise Miss Em. Lucia Bozzola, Rovi

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