LOST BOUNDARIES

US, 1949, 99 minutes, Black and white.
Beatrice Pearson, Mel Ferrer, Susan Douglas, Carleton Carpenter.
Directed by Alfred L. Werker.

A very sincere film on race prejudice in the United States. It is melodramatic - perhaps in The Reader’s Digest vein and therefore aimed at a very popular, and undemanding, audience. Critic Gavin Lambert remarked, "It cannot be said to betray its subject, but is, rather, unequal to it". It was produced by Louis de Rochemont, the man behind the March of Time series. He had produced some excellent semi-documentary features like Thirteen Rue Madeleine and The House On 92nd Street.

This film portrays a black family passing for white in a New England town. Eventually they are confronted by their own timidity, the pressures of racial prejudice in the United States. There is an atmosphere of overwhelming sincerity and a cast including Mel Ferrer, Carlton Carpenter and Canada Lee do their best with this material. It is of interest as an echo of film makers trying to deal with racial themes at the time. Comparisons might be made with Mark Robson's Home Of The Brave and Elia Kazan's Pinky and Joseph Mankiewicz’s No Way Out which brought Sidney Poitier to the screen.

1. The importance of having this kind of film theme, treatment for the widest possible audience? Entertainment? Moralising value? Racial prejudice in the United States and its stances in the forties and early fifties? How persuasive is this kind of film ? what lasting influence?

2. The documentary-like production values? The generally little known cast? Black and white photography, musical score? An attempted atmosphere of realism? Reader's Digest popularity and communication?

3. The structure of the screen play: the narrative and memoir and its impact on an audience responding? The flashback technique? The cumulative effect of portrayal of character and incidents over a long period? The build-up to climax and antagonism? The war setting and American patriotism? The echoes of films like The Long Weekend for the moment of truth? The film's indication of racial themes for the future?

4. The background of race relationships in the United States? Traditions, the South, the changes in the North, the Civil War? The reality of prejudice? Its bases? the sincerity within prejudice? the bitterness in prejudice? The passivity of so many black families? Silence in the face of prejudice and bigotry? The arrogance of bigotry? The repressed emotional involvement in such experiences? The breaking out? The changes necessary on both sides? The status of American Law as exemplified in the Navy and the need for official changes?

5. The background of the twenties, the medical students, the joyful atmosphere of graduation, the details of internship, the results of prejudice in applications for work, the nature of jobs, the writing of letters and applications? The difficulties for Scott? The encouragement of Charles Howard?

6. The family background and the preparation for the marriage to Marcia? Graduation, wedding? The questions of employment and decisions about race and passing for white? Scott's difficulties? His integrity in training and internship? His acceptance of the job in the New Hampshire town? The decision to pass as white? His time of helping in the black hospital? The lurking prejudice? The shock when it finally manifested itself, especially to the children?

7. Mel Ferrer's portrait of Scott: integrity, his helping people especially at the lighthouse job? His moving to the town, succeeding the revered doctor, the people testing him, the establishing of relationships, the support of John Taylor, the long history of esteem and service in the town? The Navy and the crisis during World War II? The revelation of his black background? The dilemma as regards publicly admitting this and fear of repercussions? The effect on his son and daughter? his decision to tell them? The effect on Shelley and her tears? Sharing the prejudice? His son and his leaving, the return? The family facing the future?

8. The portrait of Marcia - her stands within her family and against her family, her love for Scott, devotion to him, her place in the town and in the society of the town? Bringing up her children? The pain of the revelations? her role in the solutions?

9. The son and daughter and their growing up? Their assuming that they were white? The wisdom of their parents leaving them in ignorance? The son and his music, friendship with Cooper? Dancing? The build-up to the Navy and the revelation of the truth? His grief and the importance of the sequence of his wandering the New York streets? The squalid aspects of racial prejudice in the city? His confrontation with his father and learning of his work for the blacks? The reconciliation? Shelley as the nice girl in the town, her boyfriend, singing and dancing, her reaction to the news, her wandering the town? The church sequences? Their feeling the prejudice? how much in them, how much in the whites?

10. The resolution of the dilemma? The role of government and changing legislation? the tribute from the minister to the family? The decisions to stay? The final church sequence? How persuasive? The Reverend Taylor and. his helping the family?

11. The quality of the film as drama, melodrama? Its sincerity versus the ordinariness of its screenplay and characterisation? The historical insight from the film? this kind of film echoing the attitudes of the forties?