It's hard enough to make it in this world as a white man without money, let alone being a black man on the outside looking in. For the superb Sidney Poitier, he's imploding inside his insecurities of being a failure in the eyes of his family and be able to truthfully call himself a man. He's married to the hard working Ruby Dee who loves him with all her soul, but a distance she doesn't understand has grown between them. Poitiers's sister (the enigmatic Diana Sands) is also striving to better herself, attending medical school and trying to "express herself" with a variety of hobbies she dumps once bored with them. A slap across the face from family matriarch Claudia McNeil after taking the Lord's name in vain only briefly wakes her up. This is a black family in changing times losing their way, and it's up to the no-nonsense McNeil to bring them all back together.
Repeating her Broadway role and commanding every moment on screen, Claudia McNeil is award worthy as the heart and soul of her family. She loves her two children unconditionally but no longer understands them. That's why she has made Dee her confidante and training to take over as head of the family. A scene where she sentimentally talks about her dead husband reveals the truth inside the soul, admitting the man's imperfections, but loving him long after he's dead just the same.
The plot line surrounds the fight over an insurance check McNeil is waiting for, with Poitier spending somebody else's money even before they get it. Poitier wants to buy a liquor store, while McNeil wants to buy a house so the family (which includes Poitier and Dee's young son, Stephen Perry) can move out of the slums. But this creates many issues, not of which the least is the white neighbor's desperate attempts to prevent them f on moving in.
A timeless tale of how dreams exist in everybody's life, no matter the age, this has had two hit Broadway revivals since the beginning of the millennium, spawned an unofficial sequel ("Claybourne Park") and even been musicalized. It is a powerful character drama where a man is revealed to have not really grown up, the women who strive to help him even when it seems that he's beyond help. McNeil may not like what her children become, but her nurturing heart pulls the family together. A climactic breakdown in Poitiers's character may be the wake-up call he needs to become a real man, just like a wake-up call that sobers up a drunk. This is one of the all time classics and one that deserved more award attention in 1961 than it got.
Repeating her Broadway role and commanding every moment on screen, Claudia McNeil is award worthy as the heart and soul of her family. She loves her two children unconditionally but no longer understands them. That's why she has made Dee her confidante and training to take over as head of the family. A scene where she sentimentally talks about her dead husband reveals the truth inside the soul, admitting the man's imperfections, but loving him long after he's dead just the same.
The plot line surrounds the fight over an insurance check McNeil is waiting for, with Poitier spending somebody else's money even before they get it. Poitier wants to buy a liquor store, while McNeil wants to buy a house so the family (which includes Poitier and Dee's young son, Stephen Perry) can move out of the slums. But this creates many issues, not of which the least is the white neighbor's desperate attempts to prevent them f on moving in.
A timeless tale of how dreams exist in everybody's life, no matter the age, this has had two hit Broadway revivals since the beginning of the millennium, spawned an unofficial sequel ("Claybourne Park") and even been musicalized. It is a powerful character drama where a man is revealed to have not really grown up, the women who strive to help him even when it seems that he's beyond help. McNeil may not like what her children become, but her nurturing heart pulls the family together. A climactic breakdown in Poitiers's character may be the wake-up call he needs to become a real man, just like a wake-up call that sobers up a drunk. This is one of the all time classics and one that deserved more award attention in 1961 than it got.