Their scene together is possibly one of the first interracial kisses recorded on a film made for the British and American markets.
The other is Frank Silvera and the blond in "Killer's Kiss", except he was portraying an Italian, not African American.
If I'm not mistaken Dorothy Dandridge was portraying a Maori woman in this film, though I guess that also would count as interracial.
shareYou're correct, Dorothy does play a Maori, which is how the director tried to sneak in the then big deal of an interracial kiss. If she'd played a black character the kiss would have been a major no-no in 1958. Of course, almost everyone knew Dorothy Dandridge was black, so I'm not sure how much people were lulled into complacency about it, if race was an issue for them.
It's often claimed that the first interracial kiss between a white man and black woman was in 1957's Island in the Sun -- ironically, perhaps, also involving Dorothy Dandridge, with John Justin. But this is not so. The pair are lovers, they embrace a lot and finally run off together, but they're never once shown kissing.
For decades Hollywood allowed a white man to have a sexual relationship with a non-white woman (though not a black woman) because that was considered erotic, though such a woman was often played by a white actress anyway. But no non-white male (usually played by a white man) could ever have a relationship with a white female, which was considered tantamount to rape. In such cases the man was always cast in a bad light, as an evil schemer. But there too, he was usually an Asian or some other ethnic character besides a black man. Black/white was just too much of a hot-button issue for Hollywood and its audiences.
I have no clue what the OP means by considering an Italian kissing a blond in Killer's Kiss as being the screen's "first interracial kiss". They're both white, for goodness sake. That's just a bizarre and ridiculous comment.
Valid points all around. However, in defense of the OP, Frank Silvera was, and identified himself as, a black man of Jamaican heritage. He, much like his Hollywood predecessor Noble Johnson (and, to a lesser degree, Dandridge), had a long career playing Latinos, Arabs, Native Americans, Mediterraneans, South Asians, Pacific Islanders, and racially nebulous characters as well as black roles. So, regardless of the characters' ethnicities, Killer's Kiss could well qualify.
"Helga, I'm not mad at you; I'm mad at the dirt."
Yes, that's true, Killer's Kiss would qualify, since as I recall he does kiss her...more or less, anyway -- he forces himself on her.
shareI have no clue what the OP means by considering an Italian kissing a blond in Killer's Kiss as being the screen's "first interracial kiss". They're both white, for goodness sake. That's just a bizarre and ridiculous comment.
True, skin color has affected (or infected) lots of people's reactions to others, even within the same race -- white-on-white, black-on-black, and so on. I guess we're better than we used to be on such things but old attitudes sometimes do linger.
shareI'm from NC and the people here, real Americans, find all this very disturbing, like having that man in what used to be a White House.
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