A 1964 drama which figures into the life of a struggling black man, played by Ivan Dixon (who I remember growing up on Hogan's Heroes), who works an okay job but when the powers that be find out he has intimations of unionizing, he gets canned for his efforts which strains his recent marriage w/a preacher's daughter, played by Abbey Lincoln, as he hits the streets to find another berth. Trying to hold his own in the white South of the 60's (where adversity is around every corner), Dixon tries to maintain but his son from a previous marriage, his father, played by Julius Harris, a constant drunkard down on his life, Lincoln's father who never accepted his marriage to his daughter all weigh on his mind. Will the insurmountable obstacles conquer him? Dixon, who has said in interviews this role justified his acting career, is excellent here as a man ready for change in a society that to this day still fights it as we see every slight, affront & outright insult or incitement to fight has to be subsumed w/Dixon being the better man at every turn. Also starring the late, great Yaphet Kotto as one of Dixon's workmates, the late, great Gloria Foster (the Oracle from the original Matrix films) as Harris' woman & blink & you may miss her the late, great Esther Rolle (from TV's Good Times) as a church parishioner. Cool fact Kotto & Harris would co-star as villain & henchmen in 1971's Roger Moore Bond outing, Live & Let Die.
Review of Nothing But a Man
