****SPOILERS*** Murder in 1950's London England that turned out to have deep racial overtones in who the victim was. Found with her throat slit in a deserted park the lily white looking Miss. Sapphire Robbins, Yvonne Buckingham, is soon to be discovered to be black in her Negro bother Dr. Robbins,Earl Cameron, showing up at the police station to identify her. This throws the whole case into limbo in that it was very probably her being discovered to be black not white that lead to her murder! It's Sapphire's white boyfriend David Harris, Paul Massie, who becomes the #1 suspect in her murder who was planning to marry her which at the same time could disqualify him from his hard earned scholarship to attend Oxford. That for not only being married by marrying someone outside his own race!
As police superintendent Robert Hazard, Nigel Patrick, and his sidekick inspector Phil Learoyd,Michael Craig, check out where Sapphire spent the last few hours of her life they soon realize that those of the black community in the night and dance clubs that she spent her time in knew that she was black or one of them! And her about to marry a white man, David Harris, is what may have triggered a black boyfriend of her to murder Sapphire in a jealous and violent fit. As for the devastated David Harris he seemed to know the reason why Sapphire was murdered and even more important who murdered her! But in is keeping his mouth shut he may very well ends up paying with his life, by being arrested convicted and hanged, for it!
****SPOILERS**** Down to earth and not so self conscious and apologetic of race issues, like later likewise movies about race, "Sapphire" sticks more to finding Sapphire's killer then trying to make a politically correct case out of it. There are a number of black suspects, who were anything but boy scouts or altar boys, also involved in Sappire's murder who for the most part were shown to have deep seeded racial prejudices as well. Not only against whites like David Harris and the white police but against Sapphire herself. For the "crime" of passing herself off as white and planning to marry a white man making the reason, in racial terms, for her murder cut both ways! The film didn't have the usual cop-out ending that you would have expected in Sapphire's killer being both close to home and at the same time it wasn't race that was the main reason for murdering her. But mostly for status in the community and economic freedom & security instead!
As police superintendent Robert Hazard, Nigel Patrick, and his sidekick inspector Phil Learoyd,Michael Craig, check out where Sapphire spent the last few hours of her life they soon realize that those of the black community in the night and dance clubs that she spent her time in knew that she was black or one of them! And her about to marry a white man, David Harris, is what may have triggered a black boyfriend of her to murder Sapphire in a jealous and violent fit. As for the devastated David Harris he seemed to know the reason why Sapphire was murdered and even more important who murdered her! But in is keeping his mouth shut he may very well ends up paying with his life, by being arrested convicted and hanged, for it!
****SPOILERS**** Down to earth and not so self conscious and apologetic of race issues, like later likewise movies about race, "Sapphire" sticks more to finding Sapphire's killer then trying to make a politically correct case out of it. There are a number of black suspects, who were anything but boy scouts or altar boys, also involved in Sappire's murder who for the most part were shown to have deep seeded racial prejudices as well. Not only against whites like David Harris and the white police but against Sapphire herself. For the "crime" of passing herself off as white and planning to marry a white man making the reason, in racial terms, for her murder cut both ways! The film didn't have the usual cop-out ending that you would have expected in Sapphire's killer being both close to home and at the same time it wasn't race that was the main reason for murdering her. But mostly for status in the community and economic freedom & security instead!