Something Of Value (1957)

Set in the British ruled Kenya of the 1940s, a white man (Rock Hudson) and a black man (Sidney Poitier) grew up as childhood friends. But after being slapped by a white man (Robert Beatty) for speaking his mind, the black man realizes that as long as Kenyans are in servitude to the white colonials, they will never be truly free. Based on the novel by Robert Ruark and adapted for the screen and directed by Richard Brooks (IN COLD BLOOD). This is a rather audacious film for the conservative fifties in its challenging look at colonial racism. Perhaps too challenging as it did poorly at the box office although its reviews were decent. The watered down "we are all brothers" THE DEFIANT ONES also starring Poitier did much better the following year. Hudson seems out of place here but Poitier gives a passionate performance as the frustrated African who joins the Mau Mau uprising as a way of getting his country back. Brooks doesn't downplay the violence and it still packs a wallop. The "score" is credited to Miklos Rozsa (BEN-HUR) but the score consists of source and native music. With Dana Wynter, Wendy Hiller, Juano Hernandez, Michael Pate, William Marshall and Juanita Moore.