Main Cast: Beatrice Pearson, Mel Ferrer, Richard Hylton, Susan Douglas, Canada Lee
Release Year: 1949
Country: US
Run Time: 99 minutes
Plot
Until the House Un-American Activities Committee horned in, several postwar Hollywood films dealt with touchy "liberal" subject matter. Lost Boundaries stars Mel Ferrer as a light-skinned African-American, whose family is "passing" in an all-white New England community. When the truth comes out, the more bigoted neighbors demand the expulsion of Ferrer and his family. Considered pretty potent stuff in 1949, Lost Boundaries appears fairly conventional today, especially in its reluctance to cast a genuine black actor in the lead. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Rev. Robert Dunn - Rev. John Taylor; Grace Coppin - Mrs. Mitchell; Carleton Carpenter - Andy; Seth Arnold - Clint Adams; Wendell Holmes - Mr. Mitchell; Parker Fennelly - Alvin Tupper; William Greaves - Arthur Cooper; Leigh Whipper - Janitor; Alexander Campbell - Mr. Bigelow; Edwin Cooper - Baggage Man; Royal Beal - Detective Staples; Emory Richardson - Dr. Howard; Margaret Barker - Nurse Richmond; Peter Hobbs; Morton Stevens - Dr. Walter Brackett; John Gerstad - George Turner
Credit
Herbert Andrews - Art Director, Alfred L. Werker - Director, Dave Kummins - Editor, Louis Applebuam - Composer (Music Score), Jack Shaindlin - Musical Direction/Supervision, William J. Miller - Cinematographer, Louis de Rochemont - Producer, Eugene Ling - Screenwriter, Charles Palmer - Screenwriter, Virginia Shaler - Screenwriter, William L. White - Book Author
The film is based on the book by William Lindsay White, relating the true story of Dr. Albert Chandler Johnston, a graduate of Rush Medical College whose family passed for white while living in New Hampshire. The characters of Scott Mason Carter (Mel Ferrer) and Marcia Carter (Beatrice Pearson) are fictionalized name changes of the actual subjects.
