One Potato Two Potato

This rarely screened drama from 1964 won female lead Barbara Barrie the ‘Best Actress Award’ at the 1964 Cannes Film Festival, while the screenplay was nominated at the 1964 Academy Awards. The film was perceived as both bold and controversial upon its theatrical release, due to its depiction of an interracial romance at a time when the American Civil Rights Movement was still at its height.

Julie Cullen (Barbara Barrie) is young, divorced and a single parent to her daughter Ellen (Marti Mericka). Her husband Joe (Richard Mulligan), a construction worker, left Julie when Ellen was just one year old to work in South America - not just for better money but because, according to his wife, he always had something of an adventurer about him. Initially, he sent Julie letters and money for financial support but after letters and money stopped arriving, Julie filed for divorce and moved away. Now she and daughter Jenny, who at that point looks about ten years old, live in a town in the Midwest of the US. That’s Julie’s backstory though the film begins with a court case regarding custody of Ellen, before we learn how it came to such a dire scenario.

One day, a couple, Ann (Faith Burwell) and Johnny Hruska (Sam Weston), who are engaged to each other, are in the backseat of a car driven by Frank Richards (Bernie Hamilton), an African-American man who works at the same factory as Ann and Johnny. On their way to work they pick up Julie, who also happens to work in the same place, albeit a different wing of the building. Julie and Frank engage in friendly conversation and when, a few days later, they bump into each other again by chance after having watched the same film in a cinema, Frank offers to walk Julie home. Out of politeness, but perhaps also out of loneliness, Frank politely refuses. Nonetheless, over the coming weeks both become close friends and slowly but surely, friendship blossoms into romance - with the pair strolling in the park and playing silly games. During one of their outings, a policeman sitting in a police car which is parked nearby, urges the pair “to move on and go to a motel” as he assumes that Julie, being white but hanging out with a black man, must be a prostitute. Frank is angry about the scenario but Julie, usually on the timid side and calm, laughs it off.

When Frank informs his parents that he wishes to marry Julie, his mother Martha (Vinnette Carroll) is sceptical but not completely while respecting her son’s feelings. On the other hand, Frank’s father William (Robert Earl Jones - father of James Earl Jones) is furious and scolds his son for having such irresponsible plans. He makes it clear that he will never give his blessing to his son’s marriage with a white woman, because of the multiple problems such a unity would bring. As William puts it: “If you are a negro, who marry a negro and stay within the black community. If you are white, you marry a white person and stay within the white community. That is what society expects.”
Suffice to say, Frank disagrees and remarks that its attitudes such as his father’s which are responsible for the fact that segregation and racial prejudice prevail. Of course, both men have a moot point from their perspective. Despite his father’s anger and disappointment, Frank and Julie get married and she moves in with her in-laws. While mother Martha treats Julie like a family member, dad William continues to ignore her. Only the arrival of a baby son, who the happily married couple baptise William Jr. (after Frank’s father) changes William Sr. stance towards his daughter-in-law and he finally accepts her. Julie’s daughter Ellen also feels very happy in the Richards household and colour of skin doesn’t even cross her mind.

Unfortunately, Julie and Frank’s happy family life takes an unexpected turn for the worse when suddenly, completely out of the blue, ex-hubby Joe appears again, expressing a desire to meet his now teenage daughter and make up for lost time. Initially, Julie has no reservations that Joe drops by for the occasional visit but when he realises that Julie is married to a black man, his attitude changes and he takes steps to ensure that his white daughter will not grow up in a black / mixed race household. Frank takes legal advice from a lawyer friend who promises to help, though he warns Frank that the outcome in the ensuing court case will most likely not be in his nor Julie’s favour. Frank’s dad thinks much of the same and urges Frank and Julie to pack up, take their children and move to a different State. Frank is too proud to run away (as he sees it) and instead is ready to stay and take on the biased legal system. It is a decision which he will regret…

Nowadays we live in an age were no one thinks twice about interracial marriage and in which every other TV-ad sports a mixed race couple. One Potato, Two Potato is a stark reminder that this wasn’t always the case. Both Barbara Barrie and Bernie Hamilton are superb in their portrayal of a couple fighting against the odds. It’s all beautifully filmed and Andrew Laszlo’s cinematography impresses with some unusual and interesting camera angles.

ONE POTATO, TWO POTATO is now available in stunning 4K Blu-ray format. Bonus material includes: Introduction by Jean-Baptiste Thoret / Audio Commentary by Film Historian and Critic Sergio Mims / Breaking New Ground - An Interview with Barbara Barrie / How We Made It: An Interview with Larry Peerce / Analysis by Régis Dubois