In 1940s Chicago, a young black man takes a job as a chauffeur to a white family, which takes a turn for the worse when he accidentally kills the teenage daughter of the couple and then tries to cover it up.
Acting
Wright's raw, untrained fury—he IS Bigger, no performance.
Direction
Chenal's cramped framing traps you in Bigger's panic.
Writing
Wright adapting his own novel, softening nothing.
Director
Pierre Chenal
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Banned in several US cities; distributor burned prints rather than face censor boards. The surviving cut is missing 30 minutes.
Wright hadn't acted before and never acted again. Studios wanted Sidney Poitier; Wright refused. He died in Paris three years later.
US
