Native Son (1951 film)

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Native Son
Native Son (1951) US-release poster.jpg
American-release 2-sheet film poster
Directed byPierre Chenal
Screenplay byRichard Wright
Pierre Chenal
Based onNative Son
1940 novel
by Richard Wright
Produced byWalter Gould
James Prades
StarringRichard Wright
Gloria Madison
Willa Pearl Curtis
Jean Wallace
George Rigaud
CinematographyA.U. Merayo
Edited byGeorge Garate
Music byJohn Elhert
Production
company
Distributed byArgentina Sono Film
Release date
1951
Running time
104 minutes
CountryArgentina
LanguagesEnglish
Spanish

Native Son, also known as Sangre negra, is a 1951 Argentine black-and-white drama film directed by French filmmaker Pierre Chenal. The film is based on the novel Native Son by American author Richard Wright, who also starred in the film. Actor Canada Lee was scheduled to play the role but had difficulties with his visa while filming Cry, the Beloved Country in South Africa and had to decline.[1]

Due to its controversial plot, it received an edited version in the United States, which removed 13 minutes. A restored cut premiered on Turner Classic Movies on February 20, 2021, for its 60th anniversary.

Synopsis[]

A young black man, Bigger Thomas, is hired as a chauffeur for a progressive, affluent white family living in Chicago in the early 1940s. That evening, he drives their teenage daughter Mary into town to meet left-wing sympathizers. Their attempts to befriend Bigger are baffling to him because no white person has ever been kind to him and reflect how oblivious they are to the reactions of the black man.

Mary gets so drunk with her boyfriend, Jan, that she passes out. Bigger takes Mary home and carries her to bed. Mary makes advances to Bigger so he kisses her. Mrs. Dalton, who is blind, suddenly opens Mary's door. Bigger panics and covers her mouth with a pillow. Mary cannot breathe, and he accidentally smothers her to death. Mrs. Dalton merely thinks that Mary has passed out from being drunk and leaves the room. Bigger moves the body and puts her in the basement furnace, trying to cover up what happened.

A group of reporters, relegated to the furnace room of the house, notice fragments of bone and an earring in the ashes, prompting Bigger to flee in terror. He joins his girlfriend Bessie, a nightclub singer, in an abandoned building, but when she goes to a drug store for liquor and a sweater for him, Bigger thinks she has conspired with another male to put the police onto him, and he murders her, throwing her body into an elevator shaft. He flees the building, but the police give chase, turning a hose on him and forcing his surrender.

He is defended by a leftist lawyer with support from Jan, who worked with Mary toward racial equality. Max, the lawyer, fails to overcome the racism of the judge and jury and Bigger is sentenced to death. When Max tearfully says goodbye to Bigger for the last time, Bigger asks him to "say hello to Mr... to Jan". Bigger had found two white people capable of kindness to him; all the others put him to death.

Cast[]

While Bigger is 20 in the novel, he is about 25 in this version.[2]

Americans were the primary actors while Latin Americans of African descent had smaller roles.[3]

Film journalist Anna Shechtman wrote in The New Yorker that the "amateurism" in the portrayal of Bigger by Wright "almost works" due to the "slow and stilted" voice "as though he’s speaking to people in a language they don’t know—which, partly, he was."[3] Film critic J. Hoberman in The New York Times argued that the attempt to age Bigger in the film does not help the portrayal and that "Although Wright’s delivery is forceful and his looks camera-friendly, he can’t avoid seeming inauthentic in a T-shirt and baseball cap, playing a man half his age."[2]

A 1951 review in The New York Times described many of the actors as also being amateurish.[4]

Development[]

Wright rejected an MGM proposal for a film with an all-white cast and a Harold Hecht proposal to have the film focus on a white man of an oppressed ethnic background rather than a black man. Wright ultimately agreed to a proposal by Pierre Chenal to film his version.[3]

Chenal filmed in Buenos Aires because the film boards in France and Italy, Chenal's first choices, felt the subject matter was too risky because the two countries were receiving financial assistance from the United States government. Shechtman wrote that the process of making Buenos Aires look like Chicago occurred "without too much difficulty".[3]

Wright played Bigger because his first choice, Canada Lee, who had portrayed the character in a Broadway play, was not able to do so.[3] The role of Mary required the white actress to touch a black man, so multiple actresses were unwilling to take the role.[5]

The initial American distribution was heavily edited by distributor because of U.S. censors.[3] About 30 minutes of film were excised as per the direction of the .[5]

Release[]

Despite the editing, multiple U.S. states made it illegal to show the edited film.[5]

In 2012, an in-progress restoration of the original aired in the New York Film Festival. The fully restored uncut film, stitched together from an Argentine print and a print in the Archivo General de Puerto Rico intended for non-United States markets, premiered in the United States at the Museum of Modern Art in 2016.[2]

Reception[]

Shechtman wrote that, in regards to the initial U.S. distribution, "Reviewers and theatre owners were encouraged to receive it as tawdry entertainment, and most did."[3] Chenal stated "We presented a perfectly massacred version of the film and they have the right to review it."[3] A review in an African American newspaper described the edited film as being similar to The Birth of a Nation; the review stated that the film was "leaving the audience with no choice but to condemn" Bigger due to omission of key characteristics.[3]

The 1951 review in The New York Times described the film as "a sincere but strangely unconvincing film".[4] The reviewer added "The stature of Native Son has been reduced with this exposure of film".[4]

Media studies professor Thy Phu stated that the film was "a commercial and critical disaster".[6] Film historian Aljean Harmetz wrote in The New York Times that the 1951 film was "criticized as amateurish and melodramatic".[5]

References[]

  • Phu, Thy (Winter 2010). "Bigger at the Movies: Sangre Negra and the Cinematic Projection of Native Son". . Indiana University Press. 2 (1): 36–57. doi:10.2979/blc.2010.2.1.36. JSTOR 10.2979/blc.2010.2.1.36. S2CID 145403035.

Reference notes[]

  1. ^ Native Son at Cinema of the World
  2. ^ a b c Hoberman, J. (2016-02-10). "A 'Native Son' Film Version, Now Complete and Unfiltered". The New York Times. Retrieved 2021-02-22.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Shechtman, Anna (2019-04-04). ""Native Son" and the Cinematic Aspirations of Richard Wright". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2021-02-21.
  4. ^ a b c "THE SCREEN IN REVIEW; Richard Wright Plays Hero in Movie Adaptation of His Novel, 'Native Son'". The New York Times. 1951-06-18. Retrieved 2021-02-22.
  5. ^ a b c d Harmetz, Aljean (1986-12-23). "PROBLEMS OF FILMING ' NATIVE SON'". The New York Times. Retrieved 2021-02-21.
  6. ^ Phu, p. 36.

Further reading[]

External links[]


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