Daniel Petrie

A Raisin in the Sun

A Raisin in the Sun

Lorraine Hansberry’s immortal A Raisin in the Sun was the first play by a black woman to be performed on Broadway. Two years later, the production came to the screen, directed by Daniel Petrie. The original stars—including Sidney Poitier and Ruby Dee—reprise their roles as members of an African American family living in a cramped Chicago apartment, in this deeply resonant tale of dreams deferred. The Youngers await a life-insurance check they hope will change their circumstances, but tensions arise over how to use the money. Vividly rendering Hansberry’s sharp observations on generational conflict and housing discrimination, Petrie’s film captures the high stakes, shifting currents, and varieties of experience within black life in midcentury America.

Film Info

  • United States
  • 1961
  • 128 minutes
  • Black & White
  • 1.85:1
  • English
  • Spine #945

Special Features

  • New, restored 4K digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
  • Interview from 1961 with playwright/screenwriter Lorraine Hansberry
  • New interview with Imani Perry, author of Looking for Lorraine
  • Episode of Theater Talk from 2002 featuring producer Philip Rose and actors Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis
  • Excerpt from Black Theatre: The Making of a Movement (1978), with a new introduction by director Woodie King Jr.
  • New interview with film scholar Mia Mask, coeditor of Poitier Revisited
  • Interview from 2002 with director Daniel Petrie
  • Trailer
  • English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • PLUS: An essay by scholar Sarita Cannon and author James Baldwin’s 1969 tribute to Hansberry, “Sweet Lorraine”

Cover based on a poster for the theatrical production of A Raisin in the Sun

Purchase Options

Special Features

  • New, restored 4K digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
  • Interview from 1961 with playwright/screenwriter Lorraine Hansberry
  • New interview with Imani Perry, author of Looking for Lorraine
  • Episode of Theater Talk from 2002 featuring producer Philip Rose and actors Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis
  • Excerpt from Black Theatre: The Making of a Movement (1978), with a new introduction by director Woodie King Jr.
  • New interview with film scholar Mia Mask, coeditor of Poitier Revisited
  • Interview from 2002 with director Daniel Petrie
  • Trailer
  • English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • PLUS: An essay by scholar Sarita Cannon and author James Baldwin’s 1969 tribute to Hansberry, “Sweet Lorraine”

Cover based on a poster for the theatrical production of A Raisin in the Sun

A Raisin in the Sun
Cast
Sidney Poitier
Walter Lee Younger
Claudia McNeil
Lena Younger
Ruby Dee
Ruth Younger
Diana Sands
Beneatha Younger
Ivan Dixon
Asagai
John Fiedler
Mark Lindner
George Murchison
Stephen Perry
Travis Younger
Credits
Director
Daniel Petrie
Screenplay by
Lorraine Hansberry
Produced on the stage by
Philip Rose
Produced on the stage by
Produced by
David Susskind
Produced by
Philip Rose
Music by
Laurence Rosenthal
Cinematography by
Lawton Jr. Charles
Edited by
Lyon William A.
Edited by
Paul Weatherwax

Current

Traces of Autobiography in A Raisin in the Sun
Traces of Autobiography in A Raisin in the Sun

Professor Imani Perry details how Lorraine Hansberry’s own experience of housing discrimination made its way into her landmark play.

A Raisin in the Sun: Resistance and Joy
A Raisin in the Sun: Resistance and Joy

This faithful screen adaptation of Lorraine Hansberry’s legendary play explores a wide range of perspectives on working-class black life, and over the years has inspired reactions just as diverse.

By Sarita Cannon

Great Adaptations: Columbia in the 1950s
Great Adaptations: Columbia in the 1950s

Perhaps the most hard-to-categorize of the great Hollywood studios came into its own with a string of critically acclaimed films based on popular books and plays, including Born Yesterday, A Raisin in the Sun, and From Here to Eternity.

By Imogen Sara Smith

Doubly Dynamic: Diana Sands in A Raisin in the Sun

Performances

Doubly Dynamic: Diana Sands in A Raisin in the Sun

In the 1961 screen adaptation of Lorraine Hansberry’s classic play, the actor radiantly embodies the conflicting impulses that define the character of Beneatha Younger—a modern woman filled with hope and longing.

By Matthew Eng

Wendell B. Harris Jr.’s Top 10
Wendell B. Harris Jr.’s Top 10

The director of the award-winning indie classic Chameleon Street sings Orson Welles’s praises, pays tribute to Paul Robeson and Lorraine Hansberry, and reflects on his longtime dream of remaking Nightmare Alley.

Life Meets Art in Uptight, Ruby Dee’s Groundbreaking Collaboration with Jules Dassin
Life Meets Art in Uptight, Ruby Dee’s Groundbreaking Collaboration with Jules Dassin

A rare example of a bold political film released by a major American studio, this portrait of the struggle for Black liberation embodied the great actor’s mission to fuse art with activism.

By Ina Archer