In continuing to review African-Americans in film in chronological order for Black History Month, we're back in 1950 when a young 22-year-old actor named Sidney Poitier makes his feature film debut in a major motion picture with Richard Widmark as his co-star. Poitier is Dr. Luthur Brooks, who is just starting his practice in the county hospital. Widmark is Ray Biddle, a racist criminal who blames Dr. Brooks for killing his brother in front of him when in reality he was trying to save him. Instead of revealing any more about the plot, I'll just say what great dramatic tension comes whenever these two are together especially when they come to a head at the end. Also adding greatly to the proceedings are Linda Darnell as Ray's brother's former wife who goes back and forth on her loyalties, Stephen McNally as Luthur's superior-Dr. Wharton, Harry Bellaver as George Biddle-Ray's other brother who's deaf and dumb, and Dot Johnson as orderly Lefty Brooks who tells a compelling reason to Poitier why he's attending a riot with his fellow dark-skinned brothers against Ray's fellow white bigots. Even today, No Way Out can fill one with shock at what is said and done here. So on that note, that's a high recommendation. P.S. Among the other people of color in the cast: Mildred Joanne Smith in her only film appearance as Luthur's wife Cora, J. Louis Johnson as an elderly man who also works at the hospital, husband and wife Ossie Davis (in his film debut) and Ruby Dee as brother John and sister Connie Brooks, Maude Simmons as the mother of all three Brooks siblings, and Amanda Randolph as Dr. Wharton's housekeeper Gladys. About the last one, I've now seen this sister of Lillian Randolph-one of the players of my favorite movie, It's a Wonderful Life-in such black-oriented fare as The Black Network, Swing!, and-just several days ago-in Lying Lips not to mention in several eps of "Amos 'n' Andy" as Sappire's mama. And now, for the past few days and hours, I've also seen Dot Johnson and J. Louis Johnson in Reet, Petite, and Gone not to mention Ruby Dee in The Jackie Robinson Story. I've also looked at the list of movies many of them made after this one that I plan to review the rest of this month and am now looking forward to anticipating whatever surprises await when the time comes. It should be interesting, that's for sure!

Whether you like Mankiewicz or not (generally, I find his films too melodramatic), this one is very worth watching just as a window into the past.It was released in 1950, and gives a fascinating critique of race in America when Martin Luther King, Jr., was still in Divinity School. The resentments and misconceptions of the various characters -- the white hospital administrator who believes graduating black doctors will increase funding, the black elevator operator who believes black doctors have to pass tests white doctors don't. Then there is the depiction of racism as virulent, irrational, and pathological -- Widmark takes the bus to crazy-town and doesn't take a transfer for the return trip. But the one character that holds everything together is Linda Darnell's Edie Johnson. She's the character who develops -- everyone else is basically static. She's a lot like Widmark's Ray Biddle. As a woman from the wrong side of the tracks, she's not gotten a lot of breaks. So she's prey to his "blame-the-negro" rhetoric. But the best scene in the movie is one in which she is in her apartment with Biddle's brother George. She hears a domestic dispute out the window, and maybe it is a coincidence, but it spurs her to action -- and the action she takes is the hinge for the end of the movie. So while this movie had a lot of Drama (Widmark chews the scenery in a way the more understated Poitier is generally able to avoid), it was truly fascinating.

This is truly a remarkable, outstanding film dealing with racism at its worst.Richard Widmark, as the racist hoodlum, delivers a walloping performance.By the way, Sidney Poitier, as the black physician who is unfortunate enough to have Widmark's brother die while being examined, is the real star of the movie. While this was his first film, how come in the cast he was placed in the opening credits in the supporting division? They should have at least said and introducing Sidney Poitier as Dr. Brooks.Widmark, the epitome of racism here, is so bigoted that he will not even accept an autopsy result showing that his brother had a brain tumor. AS a result of this, we have a race riot on our hands.Linda Darnell is Widmark's former sister-in-law who comes to realize that such hatred gets one nowhere. I've never seen Darnell so good in a film role.The ending does show us some racial toleration, but it all shows the terrible outcome of racial prejudice. Factors including ignorance bringing about such hatred are vividly shown here.An absolutely fabulous film. Unfortunately, we don't hear much about this movie. We even see levels of institutionalized racism at the hospital where the head doctor, Stephen McNally, is warned that they (the hospital) shouldn't lose funding because a black doctor was involved in the person's demise.

I saw this for the first time on Turner Classics, and was really impressed. I had read about it before, but didn't know much about it. For the time it was made, it's courageous, tough and hard-hitting. The frequent use of the n-word and the vicious racism is a very realistic portrayal of the times. It's a very unusual movie because it doesn't follow the usual clean white Hollywood formula of the day. The scene in which the old white lady spits on Sidney Poitier is about as mean and ugly as it gets. For African-Americans who lived through the era when that kind of sheer hatred was common in many parts of America, this would not be surprising. Lynchings, segregation, and the total lack of civil rights for millions of black Americans was the reality, especially in the south. This movie foreshadowed the tremendous upheaval that would follow in the years to come. What an exceptional debut for Poitier, and you can see why he went on to become such a legend.