No Way Out (1950)

Synopsis: In Sidney Poitier's feature film debut, racial tensions simmer, then flare into violence when two white criminals wounded in a shootout are brought into the care of Dr. Brooks (Poitier), the only... In Sidney Poitier's feature film debut, racial tensions simmer, then flare into violence when two white criminals wounded in a shootout are brought into the care of Dr. Brooks (Poitier), the only black doctor at a city hospital. When one brother suddenly dies, the surviving brother accuses Dr. Brooks of killing him and instigates slayings and racial rioting to get revenge. Provocative and nuanced, NO WAY OUT dramatizes the different threads of race relationships, from indifference to blind hatred, that are woven through American society. Starring black actors (it was also Ossie Davis's first film) and filmed at the very cusp of the civil rights movement, only 10 years after Hattie McDaniel became the first African-American actor to win an Oscar, NO WAY OUT was a leap ahead of the mainstream film industry in its head-on tackling of racial prejudice. The script, written by director Joseph L. Mankiewicz and Lesser Samuels, was nominated for an Oscar. [More]

Starring: Richard Widmark, Linda Darnell, Stephen McNally, Sidney Poitier

Starring: Richard Widmark, Linda Darnell, Stephen McNally, Sidney Poitier, Ruby Dee, Ossie Davis, Bill Walker, Mildred Joanne Smith, Harry Bellaver

Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz

Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Screenwriter: Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Lesser Samuels
Producer: Darryl F. Zanuck
Composer: Alfred Newman

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