The 90 Years of Sidney Poitier Blogathon: A Raisin in the Sun (1961)
Directed by Daniel Petrie, A Raisin in the Sun (1961) follows the Youngers, an impoverish Negro family whose routine is suddenly disrupted when Lena Younger (Claudia McNeil) receives a $10,000 check from the company that insured her late husband. Lena wants to use the money to buy a house and to help her daughter, Beneatha (Diana Sands), finish medical school. On the other hand, Lena's son, Walter Lee (Sidney Poitier), would rather use the money to invest in a liquor store, but his mother disapproves of the idea. Instead, she makes a down payment of $3,500 on a small house in a white neighborhood. Frustrated and enraged, Walter Lee quarrels with his mother and his wife, Ruth (Ruby Dee), and storms out of the flat. (from left to right) Stephen Perry, Ruby Dee, Claudia McNeil, Diana Sands and Sidney Poitier; Diana Sands, Ruby Dee, Claudia McNeil and Sidney Poitier. Three days later, Lena finds Walter Lee in a bar and offers him the remaining $6,500, telling him to save $3,...