Lilies of the Field **** (1963, Sidney Poitier, Lilia Skala, Lisa Mann, Isa Crino) – Classic Movie Review 3422

Sidney Poitier doesn’t get enough credit as the game changer in the situation. He became the first African American to win the Best Actor Oscar and was only the second African American star to win an Oscar (after Hattie McDaniel in Gone with the Wind). Poitier is the main reason to watch this likeable, schmaltzy, uplifting comedy drama.

He plays Homer Smith, a travelling handyman heading west, who stops for water at a farm in the desert after his car overheats. He finds a group of East European nuns under the guidance of the strict Mother Maria (Lilia Skala). She believes God has sent Homer to put up their chapel in the Arizona desert for them.

Homer Smith gets building, and meanwhile teaches German-speaking Eastern European Catholic nuns (Lisa Mann as Sister Gertrude, Isa Crino as Sister Agnes, Francesca Jarvis as Sister Albertine, Pamela Branch as Sister Elizabeth) to speak American.

The advertising over-sells it something shocking: ‘Perhaps The Most Extraordinary Story Of Courage, Conflict And Devotion Ever Filmed’. For this is low-key, simple, heart-warming material. But it is a sweet, old-style movie, from an era when nuns were popular at the box office.

And it is skilfully made in 1963 by director Ralph Nelson, whose TV movie Christmas Lilies of the Field followed in 1979 with Lisa Mann returning as Sister Gertrude. Here he also appears uncredited as Mr Ashton. Also in the cast are Stanley Adams and Dan Frazer. The screenplay is by James Poe from the novel by William E. Barrett.

It was shot on location in the City of Tucson in Arizona in only 14 days. The church doors were borrowed from the Chapel in Sasabe, Arizona. Nelson put up his house as collateral, while Poitier gave up his usual salary and accepted a percentage of the profits.

The title of course comes from the Sermon on the Mount.

Poitier’s Best Actor Oscar for Lilies of the Field was the only one till Denzel Washington won ­for Training Day (2001), 38 years later. He was overlooked twice in 1968 with Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967) and In the Heat of the Night (1967). Washington won the Best Actor award the same night Poitier received an Honorary Oscar ‘for his extraordinary performances and unique presence on the screen and for representing the industry with dignity, style and intelligence.’

Sidney Poitier celebrates his 90th birthday on February 20 2017.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3422

Link to Derek Winnert’s home page for more reviews: http://derekwinnert.com/