I Passed for White

I Passed for White is a 1960 film directed and adapted for the screen by Fred M. Wilcox from a novel of the same name by Reba Lee "as told to" Mary Hastings Bradley. The film stars Sonya Wilde, James Franciscus and features Jimmy Lydon, Patricia Michon, and Isabel Cooley. It was released by Allied Artists on March 18, 1960.

Plot

Bernice Lee (Sonya Wilde) is a young woman of mixed African and European ancestry, living in Chicago with her family, who is mistaken for a purely white woman by a white man, who tries to hit on her repeatedly. Her brother, more obviously of mixed heritage, fights off the man. Bernice's grandmother consoles her when she confides her troubles.

After a failed attempt at looking for employment as a black, she decides to leave town, use the name Lila Brownell and live as a white woman. On the plane to New York City she meets and eventually marries the man of her dreams – Rick Leyton (James Franciscus) – only she hasn't told him she is part black. He and his rich family and friends are white. Her white friend Sally (Patricia Michon), and black maid Bertha (Isabel Cooley) both advise her not to tell him. She becomes pregnant, and fears the child will have black features or coloring – and gets a book to read about this unlikely possibility, which she hides. Rick eventually discovers it, although their maid claims the book belongs to her.

Lila goes into premature labor and has a stillborn child, but cries out "Is the baby black?" after she awakens from anesthesia. This leads Rick to suspect that his wife has been unfaithful. Eventually, she and her husband divorce without Bernice ever having revealed her true name or past. She then returns to her family in Chicago and her original identity.

Cast

See also

• List of American films of 1960
• Tragic mulatto

References

Notes

External links

• I Passed for White at the Internet Movie Database