Versatile director Roy Baker tackles the question of racial bias in this dated but effective drama, a working-class version of Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. Jacko Palmer (John Mills) is a dedicated, talented union leader who manages to mediate an upheaval over a black foreman at work and prevent a strike. Meanwhile, Palmer's daughter Kathie (Sylvia Syms) has fallen in love with a schoolteacher colleague of hers, Peter Lincoln (Johnny Sekka), who happens to be black. The couple plan on marrying, and that creates havoc in the ...
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Versatile director Roy Baker tackles the question of racial bias in this dated but effective drama, a working-class version of Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. Jacko Palmer (John Mills) is a dedicated, talented union leader who manages to mediate an upheaval over a black foreman at work and prevent a strike. Meanwhile, Palmer's daughter Kathie (Sylvia Syms) has fallen in love with a schoolteacher colleague of hers, Peter Lincoln (Johnny Sekka), who happens to be black. The couple plan on marrying, and that creates havoc in the Palmer home where Kathie's mother throws a fit. The full gamut of racial prejudices unfolds, while the father tries to reconcile his own feelings and root out any biases that lurk there. Johnny Sekka might be better known to U.S. audiences as Dr. Benjamin Kyle in the TV series, Babylon 5. Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
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Seller's Description:
John Mills, Sylvia Syms, Brenda de Banzie, Earl Cameron, Johnny Sekka. Run time: 93 mins. Aspect ratio: 2.35: 1. Originally released: 1961. Language: English. Factory Sealed Brand New DVD A grittier, British inspiration to Stanley Kramer's Oscar winning Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. Set amidst the backdrop of working class London, Flame in the Streets takes a hard look at racial prejudice. Ted Willis adapted his own successful stage play, Hot Summer Night, for the big-screen and director Roy Baker (A Night to Remember) pulled no punches and bruised many a liberal's sensibilities in delivering what he termed 'a harsh picture. ' John Mills plays a liberal-minded union leader in a London factory, who fights against the discrimination that is rampant in his multiracial workforce. His actions prevent a bitter strike, when the union becomes outraged over the promotion of a Jamaican to a much higher position in the factory. His victory is sweet but short, as he now turns his attention to home where he must fight his own deeper prejudices, when he finds his daughter is planning to marry a Jamaican teacher.
