La bambina nel pozzo

"The Well" is a seldom seen film about race that is incredibly daring and far ahead of its time. Fortunately, it's now on YouTube and I strongly recommend you give this movie a chance.

The movie is an independent film released through United Artists. Sometime this could indicate that a picture is cheap and shoddy...but this one is inexpensive but a quality film throughout. And, because most of the actors are unknown, the effort looks more real than a typical and glossy Hollywood picture.

It begins with a black 5 year-old being reported missing and the police investigate. Soon they uncover some witnesses who say they saw a white man with the child and soon the entire community starts jumping to conclusions. This ends up tearing the town apart and underlying racial issues come boiling to the surface and race riots soon begin. Once they find the white man, however, the problem isn't over as he insists he's innocent and you cannot help but think that he's telling the truth. What's next? See the film.

Let's get to the bad first. There really isn't much bad about the film. My only criticism is that the film is poorly paced. The first half is great and moves quickly (possibly a bit too quickly) but the second half is so long and drawn out that it seriously impacts the tempo of the film. Compacting the final portion would have improved the film a lot.

As for the good, there is so much to like. The acting and script are excellent and the director did a great job of getting the most from mostly small-time actors. One of the only recognizable faces is Harry Morgan as the accused...and this was well before he became a star. Also, when it came to race, the film is FAR more honest, daring and blunt than a typical race film of the era. In "The Well", folks use very harsh language that is shocking...and I like how the film didn't avoid showing the ugliness of racism. Movies today aren't this honest about race in many ways. Hard-hitting and well made, this is a really good film that needs to be seen.

As a boy growing up in the 1950's South being surrounded by racial and religious prejudices (My father made Archie Bunker seem like a bleeding-heart liberal.) I remember being impressed and educated by seeing two great little films. The Well was one and Storm Warning was the other. Both were made in 1951. I guess you could say that Storm Warning was an A-movie as it featured Ginger Rogers, Ronald Reagan, and Doris Day as the stars.

The Well was definitely a B-movie, but its subject matter gave it a step-up on most of the B-movies of the time. Keep in mind that this was a period in time in which people went to double features and the local movie house and drive-ins as television was just an infant and not available except to a few. B-movies were generally low-budget films cranked out for more or less mindless entertainment.

The plot is pretty standard. A little Black girl is on her way to school and wanders into a field to pick some flowers where she falls into an abandoned well. The search for the little girl is begun. A man in town to visit his uncle - a rich and powerful businessman - who was seen talking to the girl comes under suspicion. As he is "grilled" by the police, the uncle storms into the station and demands his release to no avail. As the uncle is leaving the station, he is questioned by the little girl's father who has heard of the nephew. There is a scuffle, and the uncle falls and is injured. As news of the incident is spread and embellished with false rumors, all hell breaks loose. Just as the town is on the verge of an all-out racial riot, a boy rushes in to announce that he has discovered the little girl's things next to the well. From that point on, all the town's energies are concentrated upon saving the little girl. The uncle provides heavy equipment from his business, and the nephew - who just happens to be a mining expert - is convinced to save the day.

All of this is carried out in over-the-top B-movie melodramatic fashion supported by just about every '50's cliché character including the strong lawman leader; his sensible love interest; the businessman who runs the town; the pleading, helpless mother; the racially biased beat cop; and young people of both races who run rampant destroying property and beating on each other.

So why the eight stars? The time. The content. The message. Since the beginning of film, movie makers have strived to bring education to their audiences through entertainment. This film surely deserves recognition for demonstrating the evils of racial prejudice and rumor in an effective and entertaining fashion.

A perennial late-night TV favorite during the 60s and 70s, THE WELL is a tense, sharply directed B programmer which denotes the gradual escalation of a racial conflict within a rural U. S. community, ignited by the suspicious disappearance of a little black girl. In truth, she had fallen into a deep forgotten well, trapped yet alive. During the ensuing police investigation, a misinformative detail leaked to the public leads to a series of progressively violent cross-racial confrontations which intensify until the missing child's true perile is learned. The film's concluding moments focus on her rescue mission, an enormous undertaking which draws the entire town to spectate. These scenes crackle with edge-of-your-seat tension, and are surprisingly well realized for such a modest production. Presumably, the key inspiration for this project was the heartbreaking Kathy Fiscus tragedy which occurred two years earlier, becoming a watershed moment in television broadcasting.

Though the grubbiness of underfunding is occasionally evident, this is a first-rate example of second-string cinema which bravely touches on sensitive sociopolitical issues nearly always skirted by Hollywood at the time. It's a great opportunity to see some of Hollywood's black performers of the period getting a chance to shine in dramatic parts beyond the one-dimensional maids, footmen, and dubious comic relief characters to which they were then so commonly relegated. THE WELL is often cited as a "film noir", though I'd personally disagree...stylistically, there are a few minor distinctions to that end, but the basal elements would render it an anomalous addition to the noir canon.

6.5/10.

A little black girl falls down a well. Police search for her to no avail. Soon it is discovered she was seen with an older white man that same day. All of this leads up to the man being arrested and racial tensions rising and eventually spinning out of control. Entirely believable for the time and era.

This terrific films studies the make-up of a small town and displays both the town at its ugliest(when the town so easily and realistically descends into a mob) and at its finest(when they discover the little girl's real whereabouts and set out to try and rescue her). The actors/actresses in this film are well-chosen as they look and act like real townfolk.

I saw this film a few times as a kid back in the 60s or 70s. I remember it as pretty good for its time. I also remember Harry Morgan from "Dragnet" as being the only cast member I recognized then or now. I was mostly caught up in watching how supposedly reasonable people in the grip of panic, impatience, and uncertainty make assumptions, point fingers, cast blame, and jump to conclusions. Misunderstandings pile up on top of each like a 10-car highway accident and push the town closer and closer to a dreaded race riot while the actual victim's plight seems all but forgotten.

For its time, I'm sure this movie was a bold move. It's a shame it hasn't been broadcast again recently. It's definitely worth a look.