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50:169 Doctors in Film

Film Notes

No Way Out

"No Way Out" opened at the Rivoli Theater on August 16, 1950. Lesser Samuels wrote the story that Samuels and Joseph Mankiewicz developed into a screen play. In an article he wrote for the New York Times Samuels explained that his "sole object was to tell a dramatic story of the corrosive effect of hatred, especially as it pertains to the bitter, unreasoning animosity of the ignorant white man for his black brother living in a world that has been made impossible for him." He chose to "deal with the predicament of upper-level Negros in any city in the country - people who because of their talent or learning have proved their value to society only to be ostracized and frustrated simply because they are black." [Lesser Samuels, "No Place for Anger," New York Times, July 30, 1950. ]

In his review of the film, Thomas Pryor criticized Samuels and Mankiewicz for the "excess of contrived bitterness" demonstrated by the "Negro-baiter," played by Richard Widmark. "The authors, it seems to us, missed an important point by not bringing out the truth that some otherwise reasonable and intelligent people, including certain members of Congress, have a peculiar blind spot concerning Negros." Compared with "Pinky" (about passing), "Home of the Brave," (soldiers in the Pacific) and "The Jackie Robinson Story," (first African American major baseball player), however, Pryor praised the film for not being another "special problem picture." Those films focused on experiences shared by relatively few black Americans, while "No Way Out" dealt with the "animosities which most Negroes sense or experience sooner or later." [Thomas Pryor, "Racial Issue Film: 'No Way Out' Latest Chapter in Screen's Extended Study of Anti-Negro Bias," New York Times, Aug. 20, 1950.]

"No Way Out" deserves a much longer introduction, with a great deal more on what African Americans wrote about the film, where the movie was actually shown in the United States, and whether or not medical organizations took note of it. In the meantime, I've drawn on a few sources, especially Dietrich C. Reitzes', Negros and Medicine, Harvard University Press (1958), to provide some approximate context for viewing the film:

Sources: Dietrich C. Reitzes, Negros and Medicine, Harvard University Press (1958), 6-8; 87, 119, 185, 280, 331; Statistical Abstract of the United States, 2001 (*civilians only); AAMC, Data Warehouse, 1999-2001; Joseph L. Johnson, "The Supply of Negro Health Personnel - Physicians," The Journal of Negro Education, 18 (1949), 346-56.

More information:

Vanessa Gamble, Making a Place for Ourselves: the Black Hospital Movement, 1920-1945 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995).

Vanessa Gamble, Germs Have No Color Lines: Blacks and American Medicine, 1900-1940 (New York: Garland, 1989).

Marchall Hyatt and Cheryl Sanders, "Film as a Medium to Study the Twentieth Century Afro-American Experience," Journal of Negro Education 53 (1984).

Albert Johnson, "Beige, Brown or Black," Film Quarterly 13 (1959), 38-43.

Albert Johnson, "The Negro in American Films: Some Recent Works," Film Quarterly 18 (1965), 14-30.

Daniel J. Leab, From Sambo to Superspade: The Black Experience in Motion Pictures (1976).

Stephen Vaughn, "Ronald Reagan and the Struggle for Black Dignity in Cinema, 1937-1953," Journal of Negro History 77 (1992), 1-16.

Susan C. Lawrence

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