Evening star., 1949-10-30
Lost Boundaries
Finds Sharp Drama
De Rochemont' Realistic Treatment
Of Real Story Best to Date
By Joy Cormody

subject simple between the
the screenpay Lost Boundaries and the dominant character
in the discussion dsposes of it with blunt honesty
There such thing simple politenss between Negroes
than poiteness"
This is how estrangement most
involuntary the limitation and natural
applies the writing of scripts the
subject Of relations They overwren underwrtte
flaw that evident in such percepve intelligent and
wententoned screnpy as Louis De Rochmonts Lost Bound
This fault OF all such drama should be added
less evident Lost Boundaries than other treatments Of
the theme does nothing indeed change the rating of
the film the best Of its type to date.
The Of the films fascination and the margin of its
superiority similar works is not hard to nd 1t lies in the
original W. White factua narrative concerned with
the fate Negro couple lost between the
These are the Dr. Scott carriers who struggle for identncaton
social which meets them with the most cruel of suspi
they unpaced they rejected
fellow Negroes to whom both offer UNQUALIFIED loyalty and an
useful capacity for they left with the
hope that of passing beyond the barriers OF the white social
scheme.
the concerned They represent the ndv
ua conflict with society he has been pictured before
on the screen.
Rochmont a Time pictorial jour-
nast before ne became HOLLYWOOD producer has made Lost
dramatic in itself to need of the standard dramatzaton
taught Hoywoods older hands of the documentary
s2d Street. mention his
earlier workshe practices with expert hand in his
picture.
equivocations screenplay nescap
able The noticeable of these in the Disgusting of the New
Hampshire provides background
passing community
ham in difference to the real community although the latter
could hardly objections fashion which
the narrative has been handled
Name players rejected Rochemon in Lost Bound
with the single exception Canada odays
known Negro actor who the part of Harlem police uten
ant a relatively secondary role.
For his leading he turned to Mel Ferer best known
writer and the player who carries the bn of the dramatic
fc of Lost Boundaries" The others
competent but known within the profession
than by the movie public They include Beatrice Rich
ard Hyton Royal Bea Susan Douglas and others whose nen
tiles recognizable but properly
The of the Carriers for place society drama of
high Lost Boundaries and the jeopardy in which
they after having found that possibly
full
They fully convinced Of the morality of their de-
ception satisfied that could lived
useful life serving his people which his original and
only ambition and known when their real identity will be
disclosed the white community which finally them
Portraying dilemma imposes upon
unfang skill He loses control of the feelings Of who
has taken he deems false and thus commits himself
to take another that not in respect equally false Yet the
msstep always confonts him and when he finally takes
it. he the with less telling than such
dramatic role calls for. ..- .
His work. that of De Rochmon and Alfred werker reared
Author Whites original story retrieve Lost Boundaries
from of its minor weaknesses.
More they make of the picture the most searching examna
on to date onot the total question which far large
and compxhe most fascinating theme the movies found
in todays social horizon.