My Baby is Black! (1961)
** (out of 4)
Francoise (Francoise Giret) is a white woman who is taken into a hospital where she goes into labor. When the doctor pulls out a black baby we then flashback to tell her story, which involves Daniel (Gordon Heath), a black man who is smart enough to know the downside of a mixed race relationship.
MY BABY IS BLACK! is the title this French film was given to give it a more exploitation feel. If you're going into the film expecting some sort of wild and crazy exploitation movie then you're going to be disappointed because this a straight drama from start to finish without a touch of exploitation. If you've seen the American poster then you realize that this was really sold as something it wasn't so I can't imagine how many people might have bought a ticket and felt cheated.
As far as the film goes, its subject matter is certainly ahead of its time and it's certainly something that wasn't being explored in the Sidney Poitier type of films of this era. Heck, GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER? wouldn't be released until seven years after this so that alone tells you how ahead of the game this was. The subject matter is certainly an interesting one for its era and we're given some interesting dialogue that captures the mood from both sides of the coin.
The problem with this movie is that it suffers from some really awful dubbing and this includes a white guy doing the vocal work for Daniel. Another problem is that the film is certainly poorly made and it just doesn't ring as striking as it should. There's some very frank and rough racial talk towards the end as well as another scene that shows some of the injustice towards black men that got its point across without being preachy.
MY BABY IS BLACK! is certainly worth watching as long as you know what you're getting yourself into.
