Margot Seaton (Dorothy Dandridge) is a self-confident drugstore salesgirl who is invited to crash a Government House reception by her labour-leader-politico boyfriend, David Boyeur (Harry Belafonte).
Before the evening is over, her charm bowls over the Governor’s dashing military aide, Captain Denis Archer (John Justin).
The following day, he makes a toothbrush purchase as an excuse for calling at her counter to find out whether she would be attending the nurses’ dance.
At the dance, Boyeur is keenly stung as Margot curtly acknowledges his greeting and proudly passes on to join the Governor (Ronald Squire) and his entourage.
She wheedles a steno-typist job out of the Governor, giving her plenty of time for love-making with Archer, who eventually marries her when the Governor is called back to England because of his handling of a local labour situation.
Against this romantic background moves a fierce rivalry in the local political arena between Boyeur and Maxwell Fleury (James Mason), who represents the incorrigible plantocrat.
Fleury, out of a mistaken jealousy over his wife (Patricia Owens), murders a club-mate (Michael Rennie) in an alley.
The pressure of the crime, his exposure as a “passing” white by a visiting American journalist and the close trail being kept on him by the Chief of Police (John Williams) make Fleury a very harried man.
His utter mental collapse occurs at an electioneering meeting, which he strives to address but is ridiculed by the mob at the prompting of Boyeur, who also has a personal score to settle for Maxwell’s jibing at his having been worsted by a white man for Margot’s hand.
Joan Fontaine as Mavis Norman, the world-weary woman who wakes to the meaning of life too late, shades the intensity of her love for Boyeur with a keenly etched understanding of what such a love would mean to this type of person.
This daring and controversial (at the time) film is based on Alec Waugh’s best-selling novel, which had a long and involved plot of racial intermarriage, murder, and disintegration of the human spirit too long accustomed to easy living.
The suggestion of a romance between the characters played by Belafonte and Fontaine caused a near riot in America’s deep South, causing several cinemas to cancel some showings.
Maxwell Fleury
James Mason Mavis Norman
Joan Fontaine Margot Seaton
Dorothy Dandridge Jocelyn Fleury
Joan Collins Hilary Carson
Michael Rennie David Boyeur
Harry Belafonte Mrs Betty Fleury
Diana Wynyard Colonel Whittingham
John Williams Euan Templeton
Stephen Boyd Sylvia Fleury
Patricia Owens Julian Fleury
Basil Sydney Denis Archer
John Justin Governor Templeton
Ronald Squire Bradshaw
Hartley Power
Director
Robert Rossen
Video
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The following day, he makes a toothbrush purchase as an excuse for calling at her counter to find out whether she would be attending the nurses’ dance.
Joan Fontaine as Mavis Norman, the world-weary woman who wakes to the meaning of life too late, shades the intensity of her love for Boyeur with a keenly etched understanding of what such a love would mean to this type of person.
