ofpsmith No Way Out was Sidney Poitier's debut film it he sure benefited from beginners luck. Dr. Luther Brooks (Poitier) is an African American doctor who is assigned to treat two white trash robbers in the prison ward, brothers Johnny (Dick Paxton) and Ray Biddle (Richard Widmark). While Luther is tending to Johnny's wounds Biddle jeers at Luther and shouts racial slurs. When Johnny dies of a brain tumor Biddle starts holding Luther responsible because of his ethnicity. Although Luther had no part in Johnny's death, Biddle insists that it was him. Dr. Dan Wharton (Stephen McNally) Luther's superior believes Luther and so do the rest of the hospital staff, but Biddle tells his white trash friends and a big race riot erupts in the city. This overall is a great movie and I highly recommend it. Poitier would prove himself time and time again after this film.

tavm 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!

Steffi_P Hollywood, for all its reputation as a bastion of mainstream conservatism, could often be quite a forward-thinking institution. Years before the Civil Rights movement, long before it became trendy or even widely discussed, a major studio could produce an A-feature that dealt candidly and incisively with the issue of race.What is really surprising about No Way Out, is not that it is in an anti-racist picture from the 1950s, but that its attack on racism is incredibly mature. Even into the 1970s pictures that looked directly at race could be woefully patronising and heavy-handed. No Way Out however is clear in presenting the Sidney Poitier character as a central player in the drama who is able to act for himself, rather than having justice handed down to him by charitable white people. It actually pre-empts tokenistic attitudes, with the MD character claiming "If anything I'm pro-Negro", to which Stephen McNally rebukes "I'm just pro-good doctor".But it is not enough to simply make statements for equal ability – it is equally important to show it, and this is where Sidney Poitier comes in. With his calm, professional manner – the very antithesis of the servile stereotypes you see in 1930s cinema – Poitier makes a mockery of white supremecism. He takes the character beyond being a token black doctor dreamt up for the purposes of an anti-racist drama, and presents him as a doctor first and foremost. This was Poitier's first credited role, and although he still has a way to go he is clearly an actor to be reckoned with, showing all the powerful expressiveness in his face that would always be his best asset. It's rather neat that Poitier's antagonist here is Richard Widmark. Widmark makes his character utterly odious, often hysterical, yet still recognisably human. He is Poitier's opposite in every way, yet both actors have such a great depth and naturalism that they make perfect co-stars.But No Way Out is more than just an intellectual sermon. It is also a taut and gripping thriller. Writer-director Joseph L. Mankiewicz had recently won Oscars for writing and directing A Letter to Three Wives, and was about to pull off the same trick this year with All About Eve. No Way Out is a slightly simpler job than those other pictures, and does not feature quite the same detail to visual information that was Mankiewicz's forte. Instead, he appears to have focused more on pacing. Many of the simple exposition scenes move at a speedy lick, with actors travelling from room to room as they talk, and shots beginning and ending with movement. This has the duel purpose of stopping these scenes being too static, and at once establishing a frantic, unsettled atmosphere. But here and there these hurried sequences give way to scenes of slow drawn-out tension, in which Mankiewicz ekes out a sense of danger with the power of suggestion, often in simple set-ups and long takes.And this brings us onto what is perhaps the most refreshing thing about No Way Out. It is not just that this is a thought-provoking anti-racist drama which engages its audience. It is the fact that a black actor could play a lead role in such a serious picture, on equal footing (if not billing) with his white co-stars. Granted, much of the plot is revealed through the eyes of Linda Darnell's character, especially in the latter half of the film, identification with a female lead being very much a Mankiewicz trademark. However Sidney Poitier is not the object or the catalyst or the victim of the story – he is the hero of No Way Out.

dbdumonteil Another menacing portrayal by Richard Widmark,another strong performance by the great actor.Although the other stars (Poitier,Darnell,McNally) are quite good,he steals every scene he is in,and the scenes in which he does not play seem weaker by comparison. What Biddle can't forgive Brooks ,it's to be an educated man ,to have been able to become a doctor whereas he has remained a crude brute ,reading comics (so does the deaf-dumb)and still leaving in a lousy part of the town.Look at his face when Brook is examining his brother:if looks could kill,his probably would.Biddle's hatred knows no bounds and is impervious to any straight thinking.Mankiewicz's directing is not as inventive as in previous ("THe ghost and Mrs Muir" )or later ("Suddenly last summer" "sleuth" ) works,but Widmark makes it all worthwhile.