A 1957 effort from Richard Brooks (Elmer Gantry/In Cold Blood) starring Rock Hudson & Sidney Poitier where childhood friends now adults in Kenya are forced to revisit their union when colonial racism starts to assert itself which leads to a Mau Mau uprising. Things come to a head when a Kenyan elder is jailed for putting a newborn to death (an accepted ritual since the infant was born feet first). Already salty from his run-in w/Hudson's brother (who smacks him as a result of a simple, playful demand), Poitier becomes the focus of the Mau Mau rein of terror against their white suppressors where lives are lost on both sides. Hudson, feeling he can reason w/Poitier, sets off on a quest to quell the violence even though by obvious factual episodes whatever ending is reached, ultimately it will be an empty one. Fine performances by both leads (even though Hudson is supposed to be a Brit & no accent is attempted) buoy the narrative (reminiscent of Poitier's breakthrough w/The Defiant Ones made the following year w/Tony Curtis) even though the censors of the day wouldn't let the full onslaught of race relations to be seen on film. Co-starring Dana Wynter, Juano Hernandez, Wendy Hiller, Ivan Dixon (from Hogan's Heroes) & William Marshall (Blacula himself).
Review of Something of Value
