Black Like Me (film)

Black Like Me
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Carl Lerner
Produced by	Julius Tannenbaum
Screenplay by	Carl Lerner Gerda Lerner
Based on	Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin
Starring	James Whitmore
Music by	Meyer Kupferman
Cinematography	Victor Lukens Henry Mueller II
Edited by	Lora Hays
Production company	The Hilltop Company
Distributed by	Continental Distributing
Release date	May 20, 1964 (1964-05-20)
Running time	107 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Black Like Me (1964) is an American drama film based on the book Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin, who passed as an African-American man for six weeks in 1959 in the Deep South, to report on life in the segregated society from the other side of the color line. The screen play was co-written (with Gerda Lerner) and the film was directed by Carl Lerner. The film stars James Whitmore, Sorrell Booke, and Roscoe Lee Browne.

The DVD was released December 11, 2012, in North America from Video Services Corp. The DVD includes a documentary titled Uncommon Vision about John Howard Griffin, the journalist on which the main character is based.

John Finley Horton (James Whitmore) is a white journalist who artificially darkens his skin and passes for a black man in the deep South, from New Orleans to Atlanta, where he encounters racism from both white and black people.

Critical reception for the film has been mixed. Bosley Crowther of The New York Times described the film as "melodramatic and unsubtle", stating that the film failed to place the viewer inside a Negro's skin, and failed to convince the audience that the protagonist "is truly passing for black".

Reviewing the film after the 2012 DVD release, Leonard Maltin awarded the film a positive 3 out of 4 stars, stating that although some aspects of the film felt dated, the film's themes were still timely.

The film made its DVD debut on Feb 12, 2002 by VCI Home Video. It was later re-released by Video Service Corp on Dec 11, 2012.