Divorcée with a five-year-old daughter falls in love with a co-worker and remarries, is later dragged into court by her first husband who thinks his little girl is living in an unfit home. The reason for all this melodrama: the woman is white and her new husband is black. Released by the independent Lion company three years before the slick and glossy "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" hit theaters; it is almost difficult to imagine today the social and legal ramifications this picture likely kicked up in 1964. Debuting director Larry Peerce does surprisingly sensitive work here (particularly in comparison to his bombastic later output),and leads Barbara Barrie and Bernie Hamilton are very fine in their roles, yet the heated tone of the piece is expended all on Richard Mulligan's estranged father. Mulligan, acting like he's on the stage (or perhaps a TV soap opera),is allowed to sound off with disgust about his happy, content child's situation, waving his arms about for emphasis. His discontent causes the interracial couple to freeze up (and indeed, we are shown no signs of affection between the two once they are married). Preconceived as a heart breaker, the movie is steered (gently) towards an emotionally tumultuous finish, which leaves the viewer with a lot to think about but doesn't allow us to see into the futures of its characters. As a result, the finale is rather a slap in the face to those who have invested their interest in the couple, with statistics at the very end which fail to provide us with closure. **1/2 from ****

Continuing to review African-Americans in film in chronological order for Black History Month, we're once again in 1964 when another independent film is made to address the issues of the day, this time being about controversial interracial marriage and the ramifications of an ex-husband wanting custody of a child because of it. Dark-skinned Frank Richards (Bernie Hamilton) falls for Caucasian Julie Cullen (Barbara Barrie) and her little girl Ellen Mary (Marti Mericka). Though his parents William (Robert Earl Jones) and Martha (Vinnette Carroll) have warned him what to expect, Frank goes through with the plans. Then when Julie's former spouse Joe Cullen (Richard Mulligan) shows up and he finds out what's what, he decides for himself what's best for Ellen Mary despite not having seen her in four years. The final decision is left to Judge Powell (Harry Bellaver). I'll stop there and just say that this is a very compelling drama about a real-life issue at the time. The only flaw I can think of is we're never really shown how much Ellen Mary loves Frank despite her saying so to Joe who first appears bringing a Teddy Bear and playing shoot-'em-up with her despite his being a stranger at the time. Every cast member is excellent and how funny is hearing that familiar voice of James Earl Jones coming from his father, Robert! So on that note, One Potato, Two Potato comes highly recommended. P.S. Among the players from previous movies I so far reviewed for this month: Hamilton from The Jackie Robinson Story and Take a Giant Step, Robert Earl Jones from Lying Lips and Odds Against Tomorrow, and Harry Bellaver from Sidney Poitier's No Way Out. Oh, and Ms. Barrie and Mr. Bellaver are from my birth state of Illinois, Barbara from Chicago and Harry from Hillsboro.

"One Potato, Two Potato" is a very low budget production that made a bit of commotion back when it debuted in 1964. Despite its lowly pedigree (it was filmed in the Cleveland area and the actors were mostly unknowns at the time),the lead actress (Barbara Barrie) received the Best Actress award at Cannes and the film was nominated for an Oscar (Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen). Sadly today, it's a pretty obscure picture.

Julie (Barrie) is a divorced mother of a young girl. The father abandoned them years ago and Julie works at the company where Frank (Bernie Hamilton) works. The meet and through the course of spending time together, they find that there is an attraction. Eventually, they decide to get married--even though they realize it might cause a few heads to turn. After all, she is white and he is black. Despite a bumpy start, things work out and the young family prospers and grows. Things look pretty good, right? Well, they do until the child's biological father shows up unexpectedly. Now the man (?) wants his daughter--mostly because his ego cannot stand that his ex- is with a black man.

This is a well made film but I must warn you that it will rip your heart out. This is NOT a complaint. Heck, back in 'the good old days', it was STILL illegal for blacks and whites to marry in many southern states and in others it was quite possible to lose custody of a child simply because you married someone of another race. Crazy...and pretty stupid. So, it's great that the movie draws attention to it. My only complaint is that the film, while very interesting, is way underplayed--too underplayed. Some more emotion in the acting and relationship between Frank and Julie would have made the movie better overall.