Cry, the Beloved Country (1951) Online

Cry, the Beloved Country (1951) Online

In the back country of South Africa, black minister Stephen Kumalo (Canada Lee) journeys to the city to search for his missing son, only to find his people living in squalor and his son a criminal. Reverend Misimangu (Sidney Poitier) is a young South African clergyman who helps find his missing son-turned-thief and sister-turned-prostitute in the slums of Johannesburg.

The film was shot in South Africa. Since the country was ruled by strict apartheid (enforced racial separation) laws, Sidney Poitier and Canada Lee and Producer and Director Zoltan Korda cooked up a scheme where they told the South African immigration authorities that Poitier and Lee were not actors, but were Korda's indentured servants; otherwise, the two black actors and the white Director would not have been allowed to associate with each other while they were in the country.

At about eighteen minutes into the movie, the song "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" (a.k.a. Wemoweh and Mbube) is sung behind the dialogue. Its use is possibly the earliest mass release version ever of the song, predating The Weaver's release of Wemoweh by at least a year.

The blacklisted Screenwriter John Howard Lawson was not given an on-screen credit until after his death.

Alan Paton's acclaimed novel was the basis for the Broadway musical, "Lost in the Stars".

Original author Alan Paton was a strong opponent of apartheid. His book saw him put under house arrest and his passport removed in his native country. Sadly Paton died before the fall of apartheid in South Africa.

The last film of Canada Lee, who died suddenly of a heart attack the following year.

Shot on-location in Natal and the slums of Johannesburg, as well as in studios in England.