Cry, the Beloved Country | |
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![]() U.S. theatrical release poster | |
Directed by | Zoltán Korda |
Written by | Alan Paton (novel & screenplay) John Howard Lawson (screenplay) originally uncredited |
Produced by | Zoltan Korda Alan Paton |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Robert Krasker |
Edited by | David Eady |
Music by | Raymond Gallois-Montbrun |
Production company | |
Distributed by | British Lion Films (UK) Lopert Films (US) [1] |
Release dates | 23 January 1952 (US) 25 April 1952 (UK) |
Running time | 103 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Box office | £95,433 (UK) [2] |
Cry, the Beloved Country is a 1951 British drama film directed by Zoltán Korda and starring Sidney Poitier, Charles Carson and Canada Lee, in his last film role. The film is based on the novel of the same name written by Alan Paton.
From the back country of South Africa, black minister Stephen Kumalo journeys to Johannesburg to help his sister, who has been reported to be ill, and to search for his son, who left home and has not kept in contact. He is also asked to visit the daughter of someone who has not heard from her for some time. With the help of fellow minister Reverend Msimangu, Kumalo discovers that his sister, a prostitute with a young son, left home to find her husband but failed to find him and has been incarcerated in prison. He discovers that his son has impregnated a young girl and is a thief and murderer. Both live in a poverty-stricken urban community. The ministers confront the harsh reality of apartheid and its inimical effects on the country.
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Cry, the Beloved Country was the first major film shot in South Africa, with interiors filmed in the UK at Shepperton Studios. [3] As South Africa was under apartheid, stars Sidney Poitier and Canada Lee and producer/director Zoltan Korda informed the South African immigration authorities that Poitier and Lee were not actors but were Korda's indentured servants. After his work on the film, Lee planned to prepare a full report about life in South Africa. He was called to appear before the House Un-American Activities Committee to explain his actions but died of heart failure before he could testify.
The film holds an 89% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. [4] Those praising the film included Bosley Crowther in The New York Times , who stated: "It is difficult to do proper justice to the fine qualities of this film or to the courage and skill of Mr. Korda in transmitting such a difficult and sobering theme." [1]
Sidney Poitier was a Bahamian and American actor, film director, and diplomat. In 1964, he was the first black actor and first Bahamian to win the Academy Award for Best Actor. He received two competitive Golden Globe Awards, a competitive British Academy of Film and Television Arts award (BAFTA), and a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album. Poitier was one of the last major stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood cinema.
Alan Stewart Paton was a South African writer and anti-apartheid activist. His works include the novels Cry, the Beloved Country and Too Late the Phalarope.
The Defiant Ones is a 1958 American adventure drama film which tells the story of two escaped prisoners, one white and one black, who are shackled together and who must co-operate in order to survive. It stars Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier.
Lost in the Stars is a musical with book and lyrics by Maxwell Anderson and music by Kurt Weill, based on the novel Cry, the Beloved Country (1948) by Alan Paton. The musical premiered on Broadway in 1949; it was the composer's last work for the stage before he died the following year.
Lionel Ngakane was a South African filmmaker and actor, who lived in exile in the United Kingdom from the 1950s until 1994, when he returned to South Africa after the end of apartheid. His 1965 film Jemima and Johnny, inspired by the 1958 "race riots" in Notting Hill, London, won awards at the Venice and Rimini film festivals. In the 1960s, Ngakane was a founding member of the Pan African Federation of Filmmakers (FEPACI) and Fespaco, the Panafrican Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou (FESPACO).
Cry, the Beloved Country is a 1948 novel by South African writer Alan Paton. Set in the prelude to apartheid in South Africa, it follows a black village priest and a white farmer who must deal with news of a murder.
Zoltan Korda was a Hungarian-born motion picture screenwriter, director and producer. He made his first film in Hungary in 1918, and worked with his brother Alexander Korda on film-making there and in London. They both moved to the United States in 1940 to Hollywood and the American film industry.
A Kid For Two Farthings is a 1955 film, directed by Carol Reed. The screenplay was adapted by Wolf Mankowitz from his 1953 novel of the same name. The title is a reference to the traditional Passover song, Chad Gadya, which begins "One little goat which my father bought for two zuzim". At the end of the film, Mr. Kandinsky softly sings fragments of an English translation of the song.
All the Young Men is a 1960 Korean War feature film directed by Hall Bartlett and starring Alan Ladd and Sidney Poitier dealing with desegregation in the United States Marine Corps. Poitier plays a sergeant unexpectedly placed in command of the survivors of a platoon in the Korean War. The film explores the racial integration of the American military, centering on the African-American sergeant's struggle to win the trust and respect of the men in his unit.
Cry, the Beloved Country is a 1995 South African-American drama film directed by Darrell Roodt, based on the novel Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton. It stars James Earl Jones and Richard Harris.
Darrell James Roodt is a South African film director, screenwriter and producer. He is probably most well known for his 1992 film Sarafina! which starred actress Whoopi Goldberg. Also regarded as South Africa's most prolific film director, Roodt has worked with the late Patrick Swayze in Father Hood, James Earl Jones in Cry, the Beloved Country and Ice Cube in Dangerous Ground.
There is a wide range of ways in which people have represented apartheid in popular culture. During (1948–1994) and following the apartheid era in South Africa, apartheid has been referenced in many books, films, and other forms of art and literature.
Too Late the Phalarope is the second novel of Alan Paton, the South African author who is best known for writing Cry, the Beloved Country. It was published in 1953, and was the last novel he published before Ah, but Your Land is Beautiful in 1981.
Lost in the Stars is the 1974 film version of the Kurt Weill-Maxwell Anderson musical adaptation of the Alan Paton novel Cry, the Beloved Country. The film was produced and released as part of the American Film Theatre, which adapted theatrical works for a subscription-driven cinema series.
Ah, But Your Land Is Beautiful is the third novel of Alan Paton, the South African author who is best known for writing Cry, the Beloved Country. Ah, But Your Land is Beautiful is an anti-apartheid novel, in a similar vein to Cry, the Beloved Country. It is a fictional reworking of Paton's own years working as a political activist and of the experience he gained working as the president of the Liberal Party of South Africa.
Edge of the City is a 1957 American film-noir drama film directed by Martin Ritt, starring John Cassavetes and Sidney Poitier. It was Ritt's debut film as a director. Robert Alan Aurthur's screenplay was expanded from his original script, staged as the final episode of Philco Television Playhouse, A Man Is Ten Feet Tall (1955), also featuring Poitier.
The Macomber Affair is a 1947 film directed by Zoltan Korda and distributed by United Artists. Set in British East Africa, its plot concerns a fatal love triangle involving a frustrated wife, a weak husband, and the professional hunter who comes between them. It stars Gregory Peck, Joan Bennett, and Robert Preston.
The 2nd annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from 12 to 25 June 1952. The FIAPF prohibited the festival from awarding any official prizes by a jury, instead awards were given by audience voting. This was changed in 1956 when the FIAPF granted Berlin "A-Status" during that year.
The Umzinto–Donnybrook narrow-gauge railway is a closed 2 ft narrow-gauge railway line in South Africa. It runs from Umzinto to Donnybrook, passing through Highflats and Ixopo, with a branch from Ixopo to Madonela. The line was built in 1908 and was 93 miles (150 km) in length.
Amok is a 1983 Moroccan drama film directed by Souheil Ben-Barka. It won the Golden Prize at the 13th Moscow International Film Festival. Borrowing heavily of Alan Paton's Cry, the beloved country but putting the action in the context of the Soweto uprising, it tells the initiating journey of an old teacher from a backward Natal village to the conflict-ridden modern Johannesburg.