Darryl F. Zanuck, the visionary man of the movies, was way ahead of his time when he decided to bring the Cid Ricketts Sumner's book of the same title to the screen. Mr. Zanuck took a gamble with this film that presented the ugly side of racial prejudice still rampant in the land when this 1949 movie was made.

John Ford had been slated to direct, but obviously, he decided not to continue with it. Elia Kazan, the distinguished theater director, was brought on board to substitute for Mr. Huston. It was a good decision because Mr. Kazan was a man with the heart into the right causes who had seen a lot as a struggling man starting in the movies. The screen play by Philip Dunnne and Dudley Nichols was excellent.

At the center of the story we find Pinky, a "colored woman", to utilize the term of used in the film, who is, for all accounts a white person. The fact, is promptly revealed as Pinky, who has graduated as a nurse in a Northern college, returns to her home town to see her grandmother, Granny, as everyone calls her. Right away she is the victim of the hatred so prevalent in that part of the country against people of color.

Pinky is asked to help the dying Ms. Em, Granny's one time employer, who lives in a huge old house nearby. Me. Em is alone and has no one to care for her. Granny shames Pinky into accepting, telling her how Ms. Em, in turn, had taken care of her when she was sick and had no one herself to turn to, something unheard of in those days.

At the same time, Pinky, is of two minds. Her boyfriend, the dashing Dr. Thomas Adams, comes looking for her and learns her secret, but he appears not to care for the fact that she is not white. Pinky's relationship with the old woman is not a happy one, as Ms. Em is hard on her, or so it appears. The only thing that is not made clear in the film, by what happens later on, is how Ms. Em decides to leave the house and her belongings to Pinky in a surprise move that stuns the young woman, her distant relatives and the town, other than to spite everyone and show her gratitude to Granny.

The three women in the principal roles are the best reason for watching the movie. Jeanne Crain, with her beautiful looks, makes an effective contribution as Pinky, the girl that gets much more than what she bargained for. Ethel Barrymore is regal as Ms. Em, the no nonsense Southern woman who sees in Pinky a woman to carry on her dying wishes. Ethel Waters has a much smaller part, but as usual, she does an amazing job as the wise old grandmother.

"Pinky", ultimately, was one of Elia Kazan's best works in his early days as a film director. Although it appears somewhat dated, as racial prejudice is no longer as prevalent as it once was, the film still shows a shameful page of the American history because of the discrimination the blacks suffered in those days.