Brother John

Sidney Poitier gives an exemplary performance in a film in which the viewer is kept in suspense as to why and who. Right to the very end, the viewer never knows for sure what the visitor to a small town really is. The supporting cast is excellent and Will Geer and Sidney Poitier are outstanding.

No doubt about it this may be the strangest role Sidney Poitier ever took on. But at the same time he did a haunting performance as Brother John whose arrival in town for his sister's funeral is cause for speculation in the southern town he hails from.

Will Geer the town doctor upon hearing Poitier is in town says that Poitier has never returned but for family members when they die, both parents and now his sister. He keeps in no touch, but always knows.

He muses out loud to his district attorney son Bradford Dillman who in turn talks to redneck sheriff Ramon Bieri and let's say they perform their own highly illegal investigation because this man hasn't done anything. But he's a well dressed black man with good speech and manners so who knows what he could be up to. There's a strike going on in town at a factory which is their largest employer and he could be some leftwing agitator, a communist who knows.

Poitier isn't getting along any better with the black people he grew up with. They think he's a snob and the girl he dated at one time Beverly Todd can't figure him out.

Poitier is one of those humans who apparently has been granted certain insights the rest of us don't have. It's not in their nature to make really close friends. We've seen this in several films, two I can cite are The Passing Of The Third Floor Back with Conrad Veidt and one who was granted a bit more than insight to is Michael Clarke Duncan in The Green Mile.

The beautiful thing about a film like Brother John is that you can put almost any kind of interpretation on it. Watch it and create your own.

I found the movie thought provoking when I first saw it. So much so, I purchased and read the book. Will Geer gives a performance that should have gotten him at least an oscar nomimation. The conversations between Poitier's character and Geer's are simple yet profound in what they imply. Not an action movie, more of a prophetic drama. Not a lot of people I have talked to have seen it but of those who have seen it, they have liked it. Its a great discussion group movie.

In a Southern town, kindly old Doc Thomas is giving an elderly woman what appears at first to be a routine examination. But then he must tell her, in his caring way, that she is too far gone and while they can try, she needs to prepare for the worst.

The woman's brother John cannot be found. And yet somehow he has always managed to show up when someone he cared about died. This time is no exception; while the family wonders how to contact him, John is already in his sister's hospital room.

After the funeral, John stays around for a while, which is unusual for him. He entertains a group of school kids by telling about his adventures in Africa and showing them the culture of the people he met. The kids' teacher seems to be an old girlfriend, and the possibility exists of the romance rekindling.

Doc Thomas should probably give up his practice, and the townspeople know this. He may not be senile yet, but he is showing a decline.

Meanwhile, the union at an area factory appears ready to strike. The black workers aren't treated well, and some of the cops in town are racist. There may be trouble. Will John's presence help or hurt the situation?

Sidney Poitier gives his usual masterful performance. And Will Geer does an outstanding job overall, even holding his own with the great Poitier in a powerful scene near the end.

We never really learn what John does or why he seems to have supernatural abilities. All we know is that he is very intelligent and has lived many places and done many things.

There are plenty of other good performances and good writing.

It's worth seeing.

This film begins with a small-town doctor known simply as "Doc Thomas" (Will Geer) advising a young woman named "Sarah" (Lynn Hamilton) to check into the local hospital for some tests. Although he advises her not to worry, he fully realizes that she has a terminal case of cancer and as such she doesn't have long to live. Prior to her leaving, however, he asks whether she has spoken with her brother "John Kane" (Sidney Poitier) who left town years ago and seems to have completely disappeared. After replying that she doesn't even know where he lives, she then leaves the clinic and checks into a hospital. The scene then shifts to a demonstration being held outside of a local factory where some of the workers are trying to form a union. With tensions running high Doc Thomas' son--the conservative District Attorney "Lloyd Thomas" (Bradford Dillman)--advises his law enforcement officials to be on the lookout for suspicious strangers appearing hoping to further inflame the situation in the union's favor. Not long afterward, John Kane just happens to appear right before his sister dies. Even so, Lloyd and the county sheriff "Ramon Bieri" (Orly Ball) become convinced that he's also there to stir up trouble. Doc Thomas, however, is not convinced and marvels at the fact that John seems to have an uncanny knack for mysteriously showing up whenever one of his family members is dying. What he suspects-and nobody else seriously considers--is that there is more to John than meets the eye and death always seems to follow him wherever he goes. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that I liked the performances of both Sidney Poitier and Will Geer along with those of Beverly Todd (as "Louisa MacGill") and the always underappreciated Paul Winfield ("Henry Birkardt"). I also liked the manner in which the overt racism endemic in the South was exposed for all to see. That said, however, I must admit that I would have preferred a more heightened sense of mystery combined with a bit more suspense than what was displayed. Be that as it may, I still enjoyed this film for the most part and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly above average.