A five year old black girl falls into a well on her way to school and precipitates a near-total societal breakdown in her typical American small town circa 1952.
Although some of this is dated now at the time it was a daring, hard-hitting drama that looked directly at the time bomb of racism in our culture. In a mere 45 minutes of screen time the scenario leads one step at a time to a full blown race riot with mobs of blacks and whites running all over town hunting each other.
It then changes course when the girl is found and they all bind together to construct an elaborate rescue. But the scars from the breakdown will last.
The patch-up was a little glib but this film was a landmark at the time...I saw it then and never forgot it. It deserves to be seen and remembered.
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