Welcome to another Oscar Film Journal entry, here at Enuffa.com!
Heading back to the early 1960s and a peculiar little film called Lilies of the Field, starring Sidney Poitier, in the role that won him an historic Oscar, the first Academy Award given to a black actor for a lead performance. Based on the novel by William Edmund Barrett, Lilies is a very simple story of a transient California-bound handyman who stops off at a makeshift Arizona convent for a water refill, offers to help the nuns who live there in exchange for cash, and instead gets roped into the months-long assignment of building them a chapel. Homer Smith (Poitier) initially hopes to make a quick few bucks repairing the roof of their shared housing, but the head nun Mother Maria (a stern but oddly likable Lilia Skala, who earned a Supporting Actress nod) seemingly underplays her knowledge of English to avoid paying him. Homer stays the night and shares the scant meal the sisters offer, but one night turns into many, as Maria keeps giving him odd jobs to perform for free, telling him God sent him to help. As he gets to know their mostly Spanish-speaking local congregation (Sunday mass is held outdoors) he begins to feel a duty to follow through on the challenge, an admittedly appealing task for the amateur architect.
