Mi sangre me condena

If "I Passed For White" was released today it would stur up quite a storm! Imagine not knowing what race to identify yourself with? The character of "ETHEL" gives a touching performance as a GAL that just does not know which way to turn! A B movie that few have seen this classic is alot of fun!

Fred M. Wilcox's claim to fame is having directed several classic MGM movies: "Lassie Come Home", "The Secret Garden" and "Forbidden Planet", but this final movie, made for Allied Artists. Is a quite well-made drama with that exploitation movie title "I Passed for White". Writing, producing and directing, he does a fine job with the material.

His script weaves together two major themes: the endemic racial prejudice that continues to exist in America (see: the way jerks like Trump and Vance ridicule Kamala Harris due to her mixed-race status) and more significantly what happens when one lies about oneself instead of finding strength in one's true identity.

Sonya Wilde impresses in the difficult title role, as Wilcox carefully details her problems growing up in a world that's anxious to pigeonhole her. She looks 100% Caucasian but is a member of a Black family, with both her kindly grandma and jazz saxophonist brother identifying as Negro. Tired of being picked on, she heads for Chicago to try a new life on her own, and is fortunate (?) enough to be seated on the plane next to dreamboat James Franciscus.

Growing up I was a big fan of Franciscus, enjoying him as star of "Naked City" and especially "Mr. Novak", and later thrilled (literally) when he starred in Dario Argento's "Cat O' Nine Tails". He was virtually an identical movie type to his contemporary Robert Redford, whose stardom came later and clearly has overshadowed Jim's 100%.

Sonya's inability to stay true to herself in Chicago is quite believable, and once she tries to pretend she's not a Negro in order to make a living and have friends, the lies expand and multiply, and poor Sonya is doomed to suffer.

Franciscus is quite convincing as the too good to be true ideal husband with the kicker that both he and Sonya are genuinely in love. But... society and its pressures intervene.

One interesting fact is that the original score is by "Johnny Williams", one of his first movie assignments, including plenty of excellent jazz music by the future wunderkind of film music. This is a classy, A-movie all the way, with only Wilcox's version of the usual (fake) Hollywood happy ending giving the wrong message in an otherwise sincere drama.

Viewed 60 years later, this 1960 movie raises so many questions that it's hard to know what to make of it. It's not even clear if this is supposed to be a satire or a serious exploration of important issues. But it shows how much has changed since then.

A young, light-skinned African-American woman, tired of discrimination, decides to move away from home and pass for white, as the title says. With lightning speed she gets married to a wealthy white man, but, predictably, gets tied up in knots trying to hide her past. Her new in-laws get suspicious about the fact that they never get to meet her family, or even talk to them on the phone--not even after she gets pregnant. Things get worse when everybody notices that she's too good a dancer for a white woman, or, um, maybe "good" isn't really the word for what she does on the dance floor. And why, O why does she always seem to be on such good terms with all those traveling "" jazz musicians, who aren't allowed to fraternize with the white customers in the jazz clubs she keeps dragging her husband to?

But, of course, the biggest tension in the film is her increasing anxiety about what color the baby's going to be. We all know what it would do to an upper-class white family if their white daughter-in-law, who inexplicably knows too many jazz musicians, had a black baby . . . .

But the greatest mystery of all is: How do you get to a happy ending out of all this? And did she? Hmmm . . . .

I PASSED FOR WHITE, one of those title-says-it-all kinda movies, is much better than you'd think. Thanks to the gorgeous Sonya Wilde, who has wonderful acting skills... what a shame she only appeared in a handful of television guest spots thereafter, mostly playing Native Americans on Westerns.

Wilde plays Bernice Lee - her hip brother blows sax at a club and her grandmother has words of wisdom, but no real answers, for what's really troubling Bernice. She can't keep a job when the employers find out she's part black... It was the early sixties, after all.

She decides to become Lila and, on a plane to another state and another life, she meets handsome businessman James Franciscus as Rick Leyton. After a windswept romance they get married. Of course he doesn't realize her secret and the rest of the film has the John "Johnny" Williams's score blasting whenever anyone almost discovers her ruse: especially Rick's pesky mother, continuously asking to meet Bernice's parents.

Wilde handles the melodrama perfectly and reaches for lies about her phantom family better than a lifelong politician. The tension builds nicely between the newlyweds, who make real sparks when times are good. Although Wilde looks so white, the audience won't always share in the controversy of a mixed couple relationship. If it weren't for that pounding soundtrack you might forget what she's so worried about in the first place.

I Passed For White seems to be a hidden gem like its leading lady Sonya Wilde. Her voice & sweet personality mixed with innocent xensuality reminded me of a young Marilyn Monroe. I began watching this sometime back, months ago on YouTube, & finally got back to it, after it came to mind yesterday. There's been a lot of focus on African-Americans pasing for Caucasion but some in various areas of the US have also passed themselves off as Native Americans, without a drop of Native American blood, when their ancestors were found listed as a person of color. That's the case with some so-called tribes of the South.

No matter what they passed as to avoid racism, it's a ugly blemish on a huge part of American society, that can't live & let live, & feel it's their right to punish people who not only don't look white, but even those known to have non-white ancestry.

This movie showcases that ignorance perfectly. My only complaint is the ending which made it feel unfinished. I for one wanted more.