The White Girl

My review was written in February 1990 after a screening on Manhattan's Upper Westside.

A public service announcement masquerading as a feature film, "The White Girl" is anti-drug propaganda aimed in condescending fashion at educating black audiences. It has zero crossover potential.

Shot in 1987, pic was shown last year at fundraisers and it waves its "good cause" flag wildly; an opening credit card declares it the "first buy-freedom motion picture". Why black people should be shamed into attending a lecture is not clear or fair.

Debuting filmmaker Tony Brown, who hosts the tv interview show "Tony Brown's Journal", tries here to fight drugs and raise black consciousness. His oft-repeated message for his constituency is "Don't try to be white".

While trying to avoid the cliches of early '70s blaxploitation pics (except for directing O. L. Duke's overplayed stereotype of a pimp/pusher), Brown unwittingly reaches back to '30s exploitation film modes. Structurally and in terms of content, film often resembles Dwain Eper's "Maniac" or the more famous "Reefer Madness".

Lovely Troy Beyer toplines as a college student hooked on cocaine (her parents told her it was okay "for recreational use") who seems headed for recovery when fellow black student (at an integrated Southern college) DiAnne B. Shaw and heartthrob Taimak befriend her. Unfortunately, gorgeous roommate Teresa Yvon Farley keeps offering her "the white girl" (punning slang for the dreaded powder).

Worse still, Farley is sleeping her way to the top in hopes of a news anchor position at the local tv station, and even has promised to deliver Beyer's body for sexual favors to the evil white tv producer (Mike Deurloo).

Brown interrupts this barnstorming dramaturgy with even more overt devices, such as assemblies at the black student union where enlightened German student Don Hannah (Daryl's brother in an okay performance) tells us that Ludwig van Beethove was "of African origin". He even throws in a segment on tv of "Tony Brown's Journal" wherein comedian George Kirby recites his poem "King Heroin" to warn how drugs affected his life.

Cast is well-chosen though sabotaged by the strident script. Beyer and Taimak are beautiful to look at in an endless stream of costume changes while Farley steals the show in pic's most dramatic role. Decent support is offered by Petronia Paley as a friendly psychologist, and Kevin Campbell might have an Elisha Cook Junior career ahead of him on the basis of his bug-eyed, drug-crazed white lecher assignment here.

Released in February of 1990,in selected markets,THE WHITE GIRL is mostly one of those anti-drug messages about the dangers of abuse of drug substances that was focused among the youths of the urban streets and suburban America. Directed by talk-show host Tony Brown,who also served as producer,the film tells the tale of a young college girl who succumbs to the dangers of drugs,preferably cocaine. Actress Troy Beyer (who was Diahann Carroll's daughter on television's Dynasty)stars as Kim,the black girl whose parents want her to "grow up white," where she is a full-time college student at the nearby university. Brown,who also produced and wrote the screenplay,sets-up all the minor characters that make it all seem "arranged" here despite its anti-drug message and book-by-the-number characters. From Kim's scheming roommate,Vanessa(Teresa Farley)who is hooked on cocaine and success,to the sinister Nicky(who is the neighborhood dope dealer and supplier and is one bad dude who never smiles and wears dark glasses)pushes people around for money,gets them high on his supply,and eventually,of course down on his own luck.

Kim has a bad habit. She's on academic probation from the university when she falls into the hands of the villainess Vanessa,who tempts whose only sin is "an occasional extra glass of white wine" who tries to lead Kim into a web of self-destruction and mayhem into the cycle of abuse along with Nicky who becomes Kim's supplier to addiction to dope and other substances. In one of the least believable of many unbelievable scenes in this film,Kim's mother discovers that her daughter's boyfriend is black and immediately accuses him-with her daughter lying near death-of not trying to marry above himself. Here Brown is heard preaching her to sniff and says:"If you're poor and black,there's no better escape. This will make you feel like a rich white girl." What this deadly,habit-forming drug does is shake Kim's life to its roots while taking her down a path through pure hell. She has been brought up essentially to despite her black background and heritage. Her black friends have thought her nothing more than an "incognegro",while her white friends have drifted away. Kim is trying to find acceptance for belonging with someone that is in a white powder out of a bottle. She also encounters a huge amount of the black racism that prevalent within her own family and friends.

She is also in love with an all-American boy Bob(Taimak from The Last Dragon),through the mouth of one of his characters who doesn't know what to think of Kim,and he sees her go down a path of self-destruction by hanging with the wrong kind of friends determined to bring her down. The ending of this film brings Kim and Bob together as Kim goes into rehab to cure her addiction while her friends(or she thought they were her friends,including Vanessa)have gone beyond the valley of no return.

The film was made during the fall of 1987,and was filmed on location in North Carolina. It was made on location in Durham,North Carolina on the campuses of both North Carolina Central University and Duke University and other locations within the greater Triangle area. The best reason why you should see this film is because of the anti-drug message that is there or in any way tempted to do drugs and other substances. The drug scenes here are authentic and graphic. The risks are plainly,but the cost is spelled out for all to see thanks to actress Troy Beyer's electrifying performance as the young Kim. Not to mention the anti-racism message concerning black people. This needs to be out on DVD!