Pinky (Jeanne Crain), a black woman who works as a nurse in Boston, finds she is able to "pass for white." Afraid her true heritage will be discovered, she leaves her white fiancé (William Lundigan) and returns home to Mississippi. There, she helps her ailing grandmother (Ethel Waters) by caring for her employer (Ethel Barrymore), an imperious plantation owner. When she names Pinky heiress to her estate, the community rises in resentment, triggering a sensational court trial.

Subject of landmark Supreme Court case in film censorship, this story about a mulatto woman's rights against prejudice, became itself, a battle for civil rights.
It used to be called "miscegenation," and it hasn't been a scandalous or taboo subject for several decades now. (Every other prime-time TV series seems to have an interracial romance going, and nobody bats an eyelash.) These welcome social changes have stranded Elia Kazan's 1949 weepie about a light-skinned African American woman (played less than convincingly by lily-white Jeanne Crain) who tries to "pass"---and falls in love with a white man. Director Douglas Sirk mined similar territory, and got a lot more juice out of it, in Imitation of Life. To his credit, perhaps, the director of On the Waterfront just doesn't have cheap soapsuds in his blood, and he makes the fatal mistake of taking a solemn and high-minded approach to this overheated material. The picture isn't even a hoot. Ethel Waters is the aunt who raises Pinky, while concealing her true lineage; it's a strong performance with a simmering subtext of anger. David Chute

Customer Rating:
Summary: Old-fashioned But Still Powerful
Comment: A good story and fine performances from two old stage pros (Ethel Waters and Ethel Barrymore). Jeanne Crain as a black girl strains credibility, no doubt. But the ensemble scenes of white bigots and the way a handful of whites stand up to them is very anticipatory of To Kill a Mockingbird. A powerful film in the end.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Pinky-The Movie
Comment: A very nice copy of an old classic. My mother called my daughter "Pinky" for years. I finally got saw the movie and saw what she meant. What an interesting movie which shows just how far America has come in her thinking since this movie was made. This movie and "Imitation of Life" are perfect rainy day movies!

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Customer Rating:
Summary: PINKY
Comment: THIS IS ONE OF MY ALL TIME CLASSIC FAVORITES!! I LOVED ETHEL WATERS & JEANNE CRAIN IN THIS BEAUTIFULLY CREATED MOVIE OF TRUE LIFE OCCURENCES! I LOVE THIS MOVIE, IT'S A TRUE CLASSIC!!
CECELIA P.
LOS ANGELES, CA.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: RedsBaby
Comment: Take you to a time where people look at you and judge, before knowing you. Which show us that much really hasn't change.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Interesting film for its time
Comment: Despite this film punching all my uncomfortable buttons, I can appreciate what the filmmakers were TRYING to do. There's no sense in me trying to get irate about how the African Americans in this film were portrayed because according to my grandmother's stories, the film is pretty accurate for that time and place in America history. I think the controversy of the time or even now was the fact that the lead was portrayed by a white woman. But then again so was Sarah Jane in the Imitation of life. Of course if a black actress could pass for white, the last thing she would admit to Hollywood directors was that she black. Did that make sense? Ethel Barrymore was just born to act. Her performance was great and of course it's great to see Ethel Waters as well-though I perfer to hear her sing. For me, the ending makes this a good film for me. Pinky opens a Nursing School for African Americans, and at least that's a positive thing.

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