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    Home»Movies»Movies by Decade»Movies - 1950s
    Movies - 1950s Movies - M 2 Mins Read

    Mark of the Hawk, The (1957)

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    Conflicting loyalties beset Obam (Sidney Poitier), an educated and idealistic African trade union leader and member of a colonial legislative council. He has been elected by a labour vote and feels that he must win freedom for his followers. But by instinct, he knows that progress must be made slowly.

    Eartha Kitt (in her film debut) plays Obam’s French-born wife, Renee, with gentleness and dignity.

    Obam’s brother, Kanda (Clifton Macklin) is a hothead who prefers violence to the slower peaceful methods. In terrorising white colonists, Kanda and his sympathisers use the symbol of a hawk, which is the meaning of Obam’s name in the native language.

    On the side of non-violence are native pastor Amugu (Juano Hernandez) and Bruce Craig (John McIntire), an American missionary newly arrived with his wife from China.

    White hothead Steve Gregory (Patrick Allen) believes that Obam is the real terrorist leader and has him expelled from their Christian church.

    Obam gets carried away by his zeal for freedom and almost falls in with Kanda’s plan to ambush and attack a plantation. But when Craig relates his experience in China to Obam (by means of a flashback sequence), Obam realises that he has misjudged the missionary.

    Craig is killed during the ensuing terrorist attack, and Obam is arrested.

    At Obam’s trial, Kanda’s admission frees Obam and the action slows with Obam’s speech admitting his own wrong in having failed to take the Christian approach toward winning freedom.

    Ultimately, the film could not have a strong conclusion because the problems it considers had not yet been solved. At best, The Mark of the Hawk was an affirmation of faith and hope.

    The heavy-handed Christian propaganda of the film is unsurprising given it was conceived, financed and written by ministers and church leaders. The executive producer, the Rev. W. Burton Martin, a Presbyterian clergyman and former missionary, supervised filming on location in Nigeria throughout 1956 and 1957.

    Obam
    Sidney Poitier
    Renee
    Eartha Kitt
    Amugu
    Juano Hernandez
    Bruce Craig
    John McIntire
    Barbara Craig
    Helen Horton
    Sandar Lai
    Marne Maitland
    Governor-General
    Gerard Heinz
    Steve Gregory
    Patrick Allen
    Prosecutor
    Earl Cameron
    Kanda
    Clifton Macklin
    Inspector
    Ewen Solon
    Magistrate
    Lockwood West
    Overholt
    Francis Matthews
    Ben
    Philip Vickers
    Fred
    Bill Nagy
    Dr Lin
    N.C. Doo
    Ming-Tao
    David Goh

    Director
    Michael Audley

    Video

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