La p... respectueuse (1952)

Lizzie, a trainer who is heading to Tennessee, where she has a contract, sits in a train car reserved for Black passengers to escape harassment from Teddy, an obnoxious, drunken white man. He sees her, joins her with his cousin Fred, and assaults her again. Two Black passengers intervene and tell him to go to the white car. In the fight that breaks out, one of the Black men is knocked to the ground and dies after hitting his head. The white man who assaulted him is Senator Clark’s nephew. A judge, the police, and the senator’s son try by every means to get Lizzie to say that Sidney, the second Black man, was trying to rape her, but she refuses: she “doesn’t like Negroes,” but refuses to lie. The senator is more subtle, and, standing before the statue of George Washington, explains to her that what matters is not “her” truth, but deciding who is truly useful to society: a brilliant young man who employs 2,000 people, or an uneducated Black man. Lizzie agrees to sign what they ask her to. The town then goes wild, searching for Sidney so they can hang him, and turns against the Black community, while another innocent man is also caught up in it, even as Lizzie shouts that he has nothing to do with the whole affair. Sidney comes to Lizzie to ask for her help, and Lizzie, pushing away Fred, who shamelessly tries to seduce her after having manipulated her despicably, takes advantage of a police van to bring Sidney to the station and testify in his favor. Fred calls her a whore, and Lizzie and Sidney exchange a smile in the van.