'Raisin in the Sun' Makes Superb, Compelling Film By STANLEY EICHELBAl'M IT IS A RARE thing in-deed to sit through a movie that is so satifying. so intensely moving and so sensitively performed that one is emotionally drained by the experience. But that's exactly how I felt after seeing "A Raisin in the Sun." which came to the St. Francis yesterday. The film is an amazingly faithful reproduction of Lorraine Hansbcrry's admirable stage work, which was at the Geary only three months ago, and, happily, Miss Hansberry herself was allowed to write the screenplay. Though the story still contains too many exposed nerve endings and the characters are often over-sentimentalized, the movie is nonetheless magnificent. Most of the cast is from the original Broadway production and Daniel Pctrie, who directed, did a brilliant job of subduing the performances for the screen. THE DRAMATIC impact of the picture is staggering. Without a doubt, this is the frankest and most human exposition of the Screen: Russian Bill EISENSTEIN'S "Alexander Ncvsky," a spectacular depiction of the Russian defeat Negro's special problems ever filmed. It is an intimate ktudy of a family of extreme individualists on Chicago's South Side. They are superiorly intelligent people, all striving toward the same goal to improve their station in life by breaking out of the Negro slum in which they live and by keeping away from jobs that will make them servants in a white household. The matriarch of the Younger family is a domineering but likeable woman whose husband died, leaving her $10,000 in life insurance a sum that offers her brood the opportunity for advancement that she has so long desired. As we follow the progress of the Younger family's lives, we are given a superbly outspoken idea of the Negro viewpoint what he really feels his chances arc in today's world; what his attitude is toward white people; and perhaps most fascinating what he thinks about the different social levels within his own race. THE CHARACTERS are completely genuine and Man," which combines human drama with human comedy, is now in its third and final week at the Stage the plot, thoroughly engrossing. When the Young-ers are able to laugh at their own weaknesses, the film is hilarious; and, when I he story approaches tragedy, it is unbearably heartrending. If the situations become excessively supercharged, then one remembers that life is often melodramatic. You will have to wait quite a long time to see such remarkable acting again and the four principal performances are worthy of every cinema award. Sidney Poiticr, who plays the seething, unstable son, does his finest characterization, making a potentially unsympathetic role completely believable. Claudia McNeil, who was with the play at the Geary, is even more impressive in the film as the mother proud, pathetic and dignified. Poitier's wife is played by Ruby Dec. whose quiet, sorrowful portrayal is fantastically effective. And Diana Sands, as the medical student daughter, is one of the film's most charming and entertaining assets. The movie was produced by David Susskind and Philip Rose, who should be thanked for keeping it so like the original. And though we arc confined almost exclusively to the tiny Youngcrapartment, Charles Lawton's camera work avoids any feeling of claustrophobia.
