At age 23, Lorraine Hansberry wrote this play based on her experiences growing up in a Chicago tenement. In the movie, unfulfilled Walter Lee Younger (Poitier), a chauffeur for a white businessman, lives in near-poverty with his mother, pregnant wife, son and sister. Now 35 and still submitting each day, “Shall I take the Drive, sir?,” Walter Lee sees his father's $10,000 life insurance inheritance as the only way to realize his dream of owning a liquor store.
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But the unwavering matriarch (Claudia McNeil) has other ideas. She puts half the money towards a house in a middle-class white neighborhood, and the rest towards the sister's education. Furious as he sees his independence vanishing, Walter Lee convinces his mother of his plan's validity. After she gives in, we learn that his partner Willie, who allegedly had connections at the state capital, never showed up at the train station. Not only did Walter Lee give Willie the down payment, but his sister's college money as well.
What follows is the wrenching story of one family's resilience despite a swindle, and the homeowners' association's hypocritical attempt to keep them from the neighborhood.
The review of this Movie prepared by Angry Jim Magin
