Nothing But a Man

This raw, unsentimental 1964 drama presents a fully textured microcosm of the African American community of the early 1960s, not only detailing the era's depressing racism, but also outlining how within the black community disparate social and economic levels created miniature versions of segregation within the suffocating confines of the Jim Crow South. Central to the film is the uneasy romance between Duff (Ivan Dixon) a railroad worker who courts and marries the schoolteacher Josie (Abbey Lincoln), whose preacher father abhors the idea that his college educated daughter is in love with a rough laborer. Duff, however, has his own emotional baggage: an illegitimate son by a previous affair and a dying father who succumbed to alcoholism. Duff's attempts to gain higher-paying work inevitably fail due to his refusal to play the subservient fool to his white employers, and he tragically takes out his frustrations on his sympathetic wife. This heartbreaking and hypnotic feature is beautifully anchored by Dixon's magnificent acting as a man at war with the world and himself, but the real surprise is the against-type casting of the vivacious jazz singer Lincoln in a decidedly unglamorous role. Sadly, neither actor would ever find other roles equally challenging and both would pursue other endeavors: Dixon as a highly regarded director and Lincoln as one of the great singers of our time. Boasting a solid transfer, DVD extras here include interviews with cast and crew, the short profile "Portrait of Abbey," and extensive liner notes. Highly recommended. Editor's Choice. (P. Hall)