Will Pinky, a light-skinned black woman who returns home to Mississippi after attending nursing school in the North, return to where she can live a lie as a white woman and be treated with respect? Or will she stay in the South and be subjected to cruel behavior, the fruit of double standards of inequality? Pinky's script develops a strong moral dilemma, but it hasn't worn very well. Its historical importance must be pointed out in that there's no overlooking the fact that it confronted controversy. It's reflective of those times (1949) that a black actress was by no means considered for the protagonist. I am not a great admirer of Pinky - it might perhaps have been braver, although considering the times it did take a lot of courage from producer Zanuck. It's neither as powerful nor gutsy as other Kazan essays., but quite possibly played a small part in the progress of equality acceptance as we see it today. Jeanne Crain was far from ideal as Pinky, though she gave the performance of her career in the role. She's supposed to be someone who has unquestionably passed as white after she left her home town. Her boyfriend never questions or even thinks about her being anything other than white. Cast alternatives such as Lena Horne, Dorothy Dandridge or Nina Mae McKinney didn't look white (and McKinney was almost 40). Maybe Linda Darnell or someone like that could have been more believable, looks-wise, than Crain, who was a blue-eyed redhead. But the movie is black & white. if they had really wanted to cast a black actress, they'd have had to search for one who might truly pass as white, which would not have been easy. Anyway, all that fuss and... Bother - Pinky still has some power to raise the emotions present in the story, in the interesting characters, and in the courtroom scene - incidentally as good as any.
