This movie had so much to offer but ultimately disappointed. The storyline was an interesting one, but the execution was poor. Like the inhabitants of the play the children enact, "Sleeping Beauty," these people are not living in reality. Everyone is pretty happy, including the "troubled" young boy, C.T., who has repeated grades multiple times and the young, inexperienced teacher on her first assignment. The acting is fine, both Harry Belafonte and Dorothy Dandridge are attractive and engaging, but the story tries to go in divergent directions. The teacher puts the boy on the free lunch list because his student card says his father is not working. We do, however, see him in a clean, well-appointed home eating a nice big dinner. He is portrayed as troubled and alone, but he has a supportive, loving family. He seems isolated from his peers, yet he has a loving bond with a girl in his class. He does not complete school assignments, yet he clearly knows his math and is interested in the world around him and the mysteries of nature. The only real true chord was struck for me when C.T. asks the teacher (also teaching Sunday school), why, if God made man in his own image, black and white people cannot get along. She gives a rather stock answer which he absolutely doesn't buy and walks out of class.
It is also interesting to note that Dandridge had a mentally handicapped daughter about the same age as the children in her movie class. It must have been painful for her to see all these interactive, bright children and know her own was never going to be like them. Perhaps this contributed to her pained performance.
It is not clear what this movie was trying to say. It did not address any of the serious racial problems of the time with any realism. It seemed to want to portray these African-American people as fighting against insurmountable problems (as indeed was reality at the time) but did not actually want to show any of these problems, as if trying to avoid the historical portrayal of blacks as downtrodden and oppressed. But you can't have your cake and eat it, too.
Don't expect much from this movie. There is some nice singing by Belafonte and Dandridge. The children are entertaining. But ignore the story and simply enjoy the surroundings.
It is also interesting to note that Dandridge had a mentally handicapped daughter about the same age as the children in her movie class. It must have been painful for her to see all these interactive, bright children and know her own was never going to be like them. Perhaps this contributed to her pained performance.
It is not clear what this movie was trying to say. It did not address any of the serious racial problems of the time with any realism. It seemed to want to portray these African-American people as fighting against insurmountable problems (as indeed was reality at the time) but did not actually want to show any of these problems, as if trying to avoid the historical portrayal of blacks as downtrodden and oppressed. But you can't have your cake and eat it, too.
Don't expect much from this movie. There is some nice singing by Belafonte and Dandridge. The children are entertaining. But ignore the story and simply enjoy the surroundings.