A sincere courageous film which depicted the apartheid society in South Africa ( instituted in 1948,abolished in 1991)at the beginning of the fifties.

It depicts the different paths of two men :a black minister , Stephen Kumalo ,and a wealthy landlord, James Jarvis ;two paths which will cross each other in tragic circumstances.

Kumalo is a country priest,Johannesburg town is a world he does not know at all ;his arrival ,when he's fooled by the young man, is revealing ; his faith will be put to the test during the ordeals and trials he will have to cope with....many exploited black men do not think that pie in the sky is enough now...

Jarvis is a good husband and a proud father ,but he's also a ruthless rich ,who has no pity on the tenant farmer who cannot pay anymore; he too,will experiment tragedy but his son's progressist ideas (the reading of his manifesto is one of the great moments of the film,summing up the plight of black people in admirably succint style) will make him a brand new man.

Sidney Poitier ,who paved a reliable way for today's black stars , makes all his scenes count ,though he does not play the lead.

This is a sobering and disquieting saga translated from the pen of Alan Paton to the big screen. It does not blink in taking a good hard look at the price South African citizens are forced to pay in misery due to the institution of Apartheid being held in force in their country. There is a documentary feel to this story as it is told straight forward without any flashy effects and builds slowly to its tragic conclusion. I felt more like I was looking at real people grappling with having their best efforts to improve their community thwarted by a time honored system of racism whose corrupting influence was not above destroying in spirit, mind and soul the future of its country. This film suggests that human social progress, unlike technological revolutions, advances more often by small steps in fits and starts, rather than in the quantum leaps of innovators and inventors.

The history of this production reveals that this was a dangerous and difficult film to make. I have read that the director Zoltan Korda along with Sidney Poitier and Canada Lee, could have been arrested and jailed without a trial, but for cooking up the scheme whereby they told South African immigration authorities that Poitier and Lee were not actors, but actually Korda's indentured servants. This was the first time a major film was shot in the racially divided country of South Africa. Canada Lee planned to make a full report about life in South Africa after this. He was even called before the House Un-American Actvities Committee to explain his actions, but before he could testify died of heart failure. So beyond being a statement advocating for social justice put before the conscience of the world, this film required real acts of courage that put even its participants in some personal risk.

The great Canada Lee, inspired and influenced by the liberal revolutionary Orson Welles, gives his last unforgettable performance here as Reverend Stephen Kumalo. Sidney Poitier hits the streets with him as Reverend Msimangu and we begin to see flashes of that surly brilliance that would be his hallmark in films like MARK OF THE HAWK (1957), and IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT (1967). Coming from the back country of South Africa, Reverend Kumalo journeys to Johannesberg to experience and witness first hand how the squalid conditions of Big City life breed crime and prostitution that refuse to spare even members of his own family. He has little inkling of the personal tragedy that awaits him, but a grim foreboding begins to hover like a growing spectral cloud over his quest to find first his missing sister and finally his missing son. The fated reunion reveals these family members wallowing in the moral depths of a system where the poverty of their urban community offers them no honorable or dignified way out.

The irony and paradox of this drama seems to suggest that apartheid has a godlike presence in the lives of its citizens, preying impartially on black and white alike, neither the self seeking or the well-meaning community minded are spared from its grim edicts. The system appears to be all, and its seems to render the efforts of James Jarvis as played by Charles Carson, and particularly his son, as well as Reverends Kumalo and Msimangu, pathetic and futile. But the fathers Kumalo and Carson reach through their pain and anguish to keep pecking and chipping away to sculpt a better South Africa in their wake. Their quiet resolve to work together to do this, is humbly heroic. But finally, Stephen Kumalo is left alone to climb a mountain into the sunlight to face the tolling bells in unspeakable grief...

This film was remarkable for its time; having the main characters be black, while the supporting characters are white. The reverse is true for the movie posters that promote the movie. But it is enough that Canada Lee continues the tradition of the great Ira Aldridge in agitating for new understandings of the freedoms possible in human relationships and in the world. Both gentlemen, along with Sidney Poitier, deserve a serious examination of their adventuresome and colorful lives by future filmmakers. However, the struggle it took to make this work of Alan Paton a valid social statement that a popular audience could embrace, will always be a milestone that stands and shines brightly on its own.

British social drama from the book by Alan Paton, from London Films and director Zoltan Korda has Reverend Kumalo (Canada Lee) living and working in a small farming village in South Africa. When he receives word that his sister is ill in Johannesburg, he journeys there and learns some terrible truths about not only his own family, but his nation as a whole. Kumalo is assisted by Johannesburg priest Msimangu (Sidney Poitier), and his Kumalo's discoveries bring him into contact with James Jarvis (Charles Carson), the wealthiest white farmer near Kumalo's church. Also featuring Geoffrey Keen, Joyce Carey, Vivien Clinton, Michael Goodliffe, Albertina Temba, Edric Connor, and Lionel Ngakane.

This was a shocking look at apartheid conditions in South Africa, a situation that wasn't widely known or discussed in Europe or the U. S. Stage star Canada Lee is heartbreaking as a good man facing miserable truths. Lee died soon after filming from a heart attack after being summoned to testify at the HUAC hearings. Many of the local performers were non-professionals, and it shows, but the film gains a sort of Italian neo-realist vibe. I've also see the 1995 film version featuring James Earl Jones and Richard Harris. That's worth seeing as well, but making it wasn't a possible legal problem for the participants, unlike the 1951 version.