One of the funny things about Purlie Victorious, which takes place at the time it was made, is that it's about oblivious racism. The racism in Stonewall Jackson Cotchipee (Sorrell Brooke), the big boss man of a Georgia plantation, is so ingrained that he scarcely notices it. Not only does this Colonel Sanders-like figure think his paternalism is benefiting the sharecropping cotton-pickers whom he keeps in permanent debt and permanent subservience to him, but he can't even tell that the times are a-changing, despite the integrationist views held by his son Charlie (Alan Alda, in his movie debut).
Boss Cotchipee is about to get his come-uppance with the return of the title character, Purlie Victorious Judson (Davis), a big-talking preacher who grew up on the plantation. Purlie arrives at the shack of his aunt Missy (Hilda Haynes) and uncle Gitlow (Godfrey Cambridge) with sweet young country girl Lutiebelle (Ruby Dee) in tow. Purlie has not only fallen for Lutiebelle, a former kitchen servant he's trying to get to stand up for herself, but he's also noticed her resemblance to a cousin who also long ago left the plantation. The cousin's late mother was left an inheritance that got as far as Boss Cotchipee, and no further. Purlie hatches a plan to have Lutiebelle impersonate the wayward cousin, wrest the $500 inheritance out of the boss man and use the money to reopen a local church and, as he says, "preach freedom in the cotton patch."
Role-playing is a central theme of Purlie Victorious, and a prime source of laughs. When Lutiebelle balks at carrying out Purlie's scheme, primarily because she's a simple country girl and the unseen cousin attended college, Purlie retorts with, "Some of the best pretending in the world is done in front of white folks." We get a great example of such pretending in the scene that really dunks the movie in comedy, and washes away any reluctance to laugh about its injustices. That's a scene between Cotchipee and Gitlow, who the boss thinks is the most loyal, appreciative person in the world. But Gitlow's "Uncle Tom" act is so transparent, and so in contrast to how he really feels, that it's hilarious that the boss man can't see through it. The whites who prosper through black labor are amusingly portrayed as being unable to tend for themselves (the boss) or generally unable to think for themselves (son Charlie).
The scene in which Purlie brings the "cousin" to see Cotchipee is another highlight. The boss is totally charmed with polite, play-acting Lutiebelle until she brings up the inheritance. When the boss suddenly gets disagreeable, Purlie distracts him by presenting him with an official-looking certificate proclaiming him "Great White Father of the Year." Boss man is flattered but, alas, the inheritance ruse doesn't work when Lutiebelle signs her real name on the receipt Cotchipee insists she sign. Purlie still has some tricks up his sleeve and a lot of unresolved hatred for the boss, and these matters take up the second half of Purlie Victorious.
The film version of Davis' play shows its stage roots. Big chunks of action take place at single locations like Aunt Missy's shack or the backroom of the Cotchipee company store. The cast sometimes inhabits exterior locations, but this was mostly done in the studio with Nicholas Webster directing (Webster's next movie would be the ultra-schlocky Santa Claus Conquers the Martians). Sometimes the meshing of stage sets and exterior shots is awkward and, cinematically, at least, Purlie Victorious is a rudimentary production.
But the movie lets us see Davis—who, it is rarely noted, was a semi-regular on TV's clever Car 54, Where Are You? around the time this movie was made—in one of his signature roles (his play would later be turned into the musical Purlie). As writer and actor, Davis gives Purlie a mix of righteousness and self-interest that makes us respect his quest to liberate his fellow blacks and laugh at his more big-headed moments. With most of the cast coming from the stage production, Purlie Victorious is a dream team of black actors, circa 1963. Dee, Davis' real-life wife, makes Lutiebelle amusingly naïve and convincingly sweet, and in addition to Cambridge (who'd star in another fun racism comedy, Watermelon Man), the cast also includes Beah Richards. And behind all the broad comedy, in which Sorrell Brooke caricatures pre-civil-rights Southern paternalism to the hilt, Purlie Victorious is still a celebration of black empowerment. Although delivered through the character of Purlie, Davis' big sermon at the end of the movie on that subject holds up out of context. Like the character himself, the sermon is part Elmer Gantry, part Martin Luther King, Jr.
The lone extra on MPI's Purlie Victorious disc is an excerpt from a 1972 TV interview with Davis and Dee. Although the movie and play come up, the discussion is mainly on more general topics concerning the couple's career and activism.
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by Paul Sherman
