One Potato, Two Potato

After her divorce, Julie, who is white, falls in love with Frank, a Black colleague at work, and marries him. Almost everyone around them is against it, from Frank’s parents to the local police. When her ex-husband reappears and sues for custody of her daughter, the matter goes to court, his only argument being that a mixed household is no place to raise a child. Larry Peerce’s low-budget black-and-white film was shot in a small Ohio town and sums up the prejudice of its moment in a single ruling from the bench. Barbara Barrie, who plays Julie, shared the best actress prize at Cannes in 1964 and the screenplay was nominated for an Oscar. It took the subject on three years before Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, and with far less softening.