Sapphire

Year of release : 1959

 

Run time : 1h28min

 

Genre : Thriller / Crime

 

 

The British movie was a progressive one for its time, as it focuses on the racism in London for the people from the West Indies.

 

Children playing find the body of a young woman who was stabbed.

The police go through her things, find a handkerchief monogrammed with S, and discover her name was Sapphire Robbins. She was a music student. They notify her brother, a doctor, and her fiance, an architecture student, with a bright future ahead of him.

Sapphire's autopsy reveals she was pregnant.

 

Sapphire's brother comes to talk to them, and they are shocked to see he's dark skinned. He tells them he and his sister were mixed race, but his sister could pass for white.

 

Investigating her life, the police find she used to go to dance clubs for dark skinned people, until she realized she could pass for white.

There are many suspects, starting with the fiance,the fiance's father, and other former boyfriends,but I assure you, the k1ller will come as a surprise!

 

The movie was good and entertaining, it keeps you guessing, and reveals the mindset of the society back then. Its subject reminded me a lot of The Human Stain, the novel by Philip Roth, and movie with Anthony Hopkins and Nicole Kidman, and it's easy to see why would anyone lie about the color of their skin who shouldn't govern over what people think about you.

 

The actors were good.

 

I hated the soundtrack which didn't match and was much louder than the rest.

 

The movie was a box office hit, as it earned over one million dollars against a budget of 400 million.

At the 13th BAFTA Awards, the movie won the Best British Film award. And the Mystery Writers of America awarded the screenwriter Janet Green ,the Edgar Award for Best Foreign Film.

 

You can watch the full movie here,for free : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HYYhQwYZEE&ab_channel=Retrospective-ClassicMovies

 

Rating : Worth a watch !