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Purlie,
1981, 99 minutes, Not Rated
By Carla Robinson
It's
always fun to revisit classic African-American performances and
stories and Ossie Davis' Purlie Victorious is no exception. The
history of the piece speaks to its particular charm and appeal. The
story was written by Davis in 1961 and began its life as a play. This
initial incarnation starred the author; his wife, Ruby Dee; Godfrey
Cambridge; Alan Alda and Beah Richards.
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In 1963, Davis adapted the play for film
and its title was changed to Gone Are the Days! Later, in an attempt
to capture a wider audience, The Man from C.O.T.T.O.N. was used as an
alternate title. The latter was a twist on the TV show "The Man
from U.N.C.L.E.," which was popular at the time. In 1970, the
story met with its greatest success as Purlie!, a revamped Broadway
musical for which Melba Moore won a Tony Award. Moore's performance as
Lutiebelle Gussie Mae Jenkins, along with Robert Guillaume's as the
title character and Sherman Hemsley's as Gitlow, can be seen in Purlie
(1981), a staged-bound performance captured for television.
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In this version, as in the original
story, Purlie Victorious, a young, idealistic preacher, returns to the
plantation where he grew up. He brings with him his soon-to-be
fiancée, Lutiebelle, and a dream of securing his family's rightful
inheritance from the plantation owner, the died-in-the-wool-racist Ol'
Cap' Stonewall Jackson Cotchipee, whose characterization foreshadows
"All in the Family's"Archie Bunker. Purlie's plan is to pass
Lutiebelle off as his cousin in order to get Ol' Cap' to sign over the
deed to a battered old barn that Purlie wishes to turn into a church.
Purlie's initial plan is foiled, but he eventually gets the property.
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While Guillaume's portrayal of Purlie is
solid, it's Moore's Lutiebelle that makes the piece remarkable.
Showing more early promise than her career would bear out, Moore takes
Lutiebelle, who could easily come across as merely dimwitted and
childlike, and turns her into a full-out woman with her own motives
and sharp motherwit. Sure, Purlie wants Lutiebelle for his own ends,
but Lutiebelle knows exactly how to keep his interest and to ensure
that, in the end, it's only love that moves him. Moore acts, sings,
and dances the role of Lutiebelle with skill, gusto, and a keen sense
of joy. Another performance worth watching is Sherman Hemsley's. As
Gitlow, a slick character who has no qualms about donning the Uncle
Tom mask when it suits his motives, Hemsley is George Jefferson at his
best. This might be typecasting, but it's hard to imagine that Godfrey
Cambridge did Gitlow a better turn.
Watching Purlie, it's clear that Ossie Davis was offering American
audiences something they may not have been ready for in the early
sixties. The play purposefully uses familiar, overwrought stereotypes
in an attempt to get audiences to examine the nature of prejudice and
the pointlessness of racial segregation, particularly in a place as
interrelated as the American south. Although its humor is somewhat
dated, the piece is no less poignant and, certainly, no less
entertaining.
M
January 2002
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