Rent Sapphire (1959)

Social Drama. - Sapphire review by Steve

Amazing that a film critiquing the racism in 1950s London should hit so relatively few bum notes when viewed from today. Basil Dearden and scriptwriter Janet Green examine prejudice and social injustice from multiple perspectives, only a year after after the Notting Hill riots.  And also tell a compelling detective story.

Sapphire is a young woman of mixed race who has been 'passing for white' in a society where being black imposes so many impediments. When she is found dead on Hampstead Heath, a conventional police procedural is set in motion, with racial hatred the likely motive.

The cast is uniformly superb, with Nigel Patrick as the (comparatively) liberal police inspector. Earl Cameron is a GP and the victim's more obviously Caribbean brother, and Yvonne Mitchell a lonely mother consumed by anger and resentment. Daniel Craig, normally a B picture romantic lead, plays the racist cop.

The cinematography is dynamic and John Dankworth contributes an exciting jazz score. And the suspense really pays off. Anyone determined to seek out dated attitudes to race will inevitably find them. But at the heart of this film, is huge compassion for the bigotry and poverty suffered by so many of the Windrush generation on arriving in the UK.