Kattiera Nana I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Curapedi I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Yash Wade Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

Fulke Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

LeonLouisRicci After the War, Hollywood and Americans in general were Feeling quite Proud. Recognizing the "Group" Effort it took to Defeat the Axis Powers, felt that it was time to address some of the Nation's "Sins".This Idealistic Persona that the United States experienced was Short Lived. As the 1950's emerged America, once again, became Insecure, Paranoid, and started Lashing Out at anything and anyone who was "Different", Racially, Philosophically, Politically, Culturally.So this Type of Film was Quickly Abandoned for about a Decade. It's obvious Cousin, "To Kill a Mockingbird", wouldn't be made until 1962. "Pinky" was a Product of that Initial Post War Optimism and Freedom from Winning the War.Jeanne Crain, a White Actress, Cast to Portray a Negro that could "Pass for White", gets a lot of ink because of the "Cross Casting". This was Inevitable and would not and could not have been done Any Other Way. An On Screen "Kiss" and Heated Romance between a Black Woman and White Man would have caused "Riots".The Film is Best when it Exposes the "True Life" Prejudices in small Scenes that Pepper the Picture as it Unfolds the "Bigger" Story. The Slapping Down, Near Rape, N-Word and the General Store, are examples. The Courtroom Scene is an example of the "Big Picture" of the Story and the Ending is part of that Aforementioned Optimism and National Pride. Unfortunately the Nation, Hollywood and the Liberals would have to wait 15 Years for the Tide to Change. That Tide is Still Wavering Today.Note…Ethel Waters as "Granny", Jeanne Crain, and Ethel Barrymore were Oscar Nominees.

Lechuguilla Racial issues overlay this B&W film about a young Black woman who returns to her roots, only to find that little has changed among the townsfolk or in the life of her poverty-stricken grandmother. The story makes Pinky (played by Jeanne Crain) a light-skin Black. Her attitude starts out bitter and resentful, but later changes.If the story were made in modern times, the racial message would be too heavy-handed. The villains are starkly obvious. But given the 1940s, the message probably was rather daring.The plot gets off to a slow start. And Pinky is not all that sympathetic. But the plot picks up later in sync with Pinky's evolving attitudes. I think the script could have done a better job of setting the story within a specific geographic locale. I don't recall any cues or dialogue that indicates exactly where the story is set. The script is actually rather weak; the viewer can easily pick apart the story's logic.Visually, the film is something of a dud. Although the B&W lighting is good, sets look cheap and minimal. One gets the impression that the film was shot entirely on Hollywood back-lots. There's no real sense of a Southern environment.That a White woman was cast as a Black woman was a convention that apparently continued even into the 1950s. Given the era's racial attitudes, I suppose that's the only way White viewers would accept Pinky ... how dreadful. Sixty years later, the casting of Jeanne Crain as Pinky is enormously distracting; it just doesn't work. Casting Ethel Waters as the grandmother makes her character something of a stereotypical Aunt Jemima, though Waters does a fine job in the role.Overall acting is above average. I've never understood why Ethel Barrymore gets such rave recognition. In this film, she's no better than other actors, including the quite effective Evelyn Varden as a greedy, prejudiced old White woman.Probably the best that can be said of "Pinky" is that the story was ahead of its time, for the 1940s. And that's saying a lot. But sixty years later, the film seems like something from out of the Twilight Zone, with that upside-down casting.

moonspinner55 Racial-issue melodrama has light-skinned black nurse (Jeanne Crain, improbably cast but doing good work) named a recipient in the will of a wealthy white southern dowager whom the nurse took care of in her final days; the will is contested by the deceased woman's greedy cousin, who is shown not only to be racist but a bigot and a liar as well. Atmospheric actors' piece, adapted from Cid Ricketts Sumner's book, allows white actress Crain to have a white boyfriend, but very little contact with the blacks on-screen (Pinky's own people!). There's a balky hesitancy detectable right from the start, and director Elia Kazan does very little to warm up the scenario. Still, the slim plot becomes absorbing by the second-half, with only the audience pulling for the resilient heroine. Crain has been directed to wear a racial chip on her shoulder with both pride and defensiveness (mostly she just looks unhappy). I didn't quite believe her relationship with laundress-grandmother Ethel Waters (who disappears after the courtroom sequence, one in which Pinky doesn't even take the stand in her own defense); however, Crain's misty-eyed, youthful determination brings out something extra in the role which neither the script nor the direction accounted for. She's tough, certainly, and stubborn, but she's also an intelligent presence--nobody's victim--and she garners our respect. Crain, Waters, and Ethel Barrymore (doing her usual dryly-bemused turn) all received Oscar nominations. **1/2 from ****

funkyfry While not a bad film by any means, Kazan's "Pinky" is guilty of over-reaching. There are simply too many elements in the dramatic stew. Pinky (Jeanne Crain) returns home from a long period of education and travel to stay with her kindly grandmother (Ethel Waters). While Pinky finds the Southern hospitality unbearable for one of her skin color, her granny convinces her to stay so that she can nurse the ornery local matriarch Miss Em (Ethel Barrymore) back to health. When Miss Em leaves Pinky her property, a bitter legal struggle ensues.The biggest problem with the film is the absurd casting of Jeanne Crain as the young protagonist. While I'm not against cross-racial casting and I don't consider it inherently wrong or in poor taste, I do think this was a film that could not work with that type of casting. It's simply impossible to take Jeanne Crain seriously when she's shouting things like "I'm a Negro!" or when she's talking about "my people." The two great Ethels try their best of course to lift the basic melodrama into some kind of rarefied Broadway territory, and halfway succeed. But the story itself is problematic in my opinion. We can't get any real sympathy for the boyfriend (William Lundigan), because he's such a stuffed shirt and he wants Pinky to continue playing white. Worse of all is the fact that the conclusion, where Pinky starts a nursing school, is ridiculously obvious halfway through the film yet it's treated as a great revelation.While raised to a certain point by the good performances and solid direction by Kazan, the film is mired in its own self-seriousness. The look of the film is cheap and stage-bound, recycling the manor house from "Gone With the Wind" and never opening up to anything cinematic. The best thing that can really be said for it, is that it taught Kazan some lessons about directing actors that he probably put to better use in subsequent films.