{"id":47581,"date":"2016-06-12T01:06:34","date_gmt":"2016-06-12T01:06:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=47581"},"modified":"2017-06-02T18:53:20","modified_gmt":"2017-06-02T18:53:20","slug":"the-agonies-of-passing-considering-the-murder-mystery-sapphire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=47581","title":{"rendered":"The Agonies Of “Passing” – Considering the Murder Mystery ‘Sapphire’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Agonies Of “Passing” – Considering the Murder Mystery ‘Sapphire’<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

IndieWire<\/a>
\nJuly 2014<\/p>\n

Sergio<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

The Agonies Of “Passing<\/a>” – Considering the Murder Mystery ‘Sapphire<\/a>‘<\/em><\/p>\n

Starting in the late 1940\u2019s, and continuing through to the end\u00a0of the \u201850\u2019s, Hollywood<\/a> seemed to be obsessed with the concept of \u201cpassing\u201d \u2013light skinned black people passing for white<\/a>. Though it wasn\u2019t new, of course, somehow it\u00a0caught Tinseltown\u2019s<\/a> attention and a slew of films were made, almost all them dealing\u00a0with women in particular, who passed for white and the tragedies and sorrow\u00a0that they encountered.<\/p>\n

Elia Kazan\u2019s<\/a> “Pinky<\/a>,” “Lost Boundaries<\/a>,” “Imitation Of Life<\/a>,” “Band\u00a0of Angels<\/a>,” “The Night of the Quarter Moon<\/a>,” “I Passed for White<\/a>,” and the would-be “Gone with the Wind<\/a>” rip-off, “Raintree County<\/a>,”\u00a0with Elizabeth Taylor<\/a> and Montgomery\u00a0Clift<\/a>, which, technically may not be a “passing” movie, though it deals with a\u00a0pre-Civil war<\/a>, antebellum Southern belle<\/a> (Taylor), who goes slowly insane\u00a0because she believes her real mother was a slave, who was her father\u2019s lover (turns\u00a0out that she wasn\u2019t, but Taylor dies anyway for all her grief).<\/p>\n

But, for my money, the real doozy of the passing-for-white\u00a0films wasn\u2019t from Hollywood, but came\u00a0instead from the U.K.<\/a><\/p>\n

I\u2019m referring to the 1959 British mystery detective film “Sapphire<\/a>,” directed by Basil Dearden<\/a>, who specialized, during the late 50\u2032s and 60\u2032s, in films\u00a0with controversial subject matter, such as his 1961 film “Victim<\/a>,” which dealt with a\u00a0successful and closeted gay barrister who is being blackmailed, and fights back\u00a0against his tormentors. It is credited for being the first movie in which the\u00a0word “homosexual” was actually used in a film.<\/p>\n

But “Sapphire” is in another realm altogether…<\/p>\n