Sapphire [DVD] [1959]

Basil Dearden's ground-breaking tale starring Nigel Patrick and Michael Craig portraying two Scotland Yard detectives who are investigating the murder of a young black woman who had been passing for white. As timely a topic today as when made in an England rampant with racial prejudice in the 1950s, it stays just this side of an in-depth indictment of racism and bigotry as the detectives investigate the vast array of suspects - everyone from the girl's white boyfriend and his parents who feared that the association would destroy his career to the boys that the girl had spurned when she was accepted by white society. Winner of BAFTA for Best British Film 1960