The Decks Ran Red (1958)

Starring:

• James Mason 
• Dorothy Dandridge 
• Broderick Crawford
• Stuart Whitman 
• Joel Fluellen

Storyline 
Danger and suspense sail the high seas in this nautical thriller that some commentators call uncommonly fierce for its time. James Mason portrays Capt. Edwin Rummill, eager to prove himself after being made a ship’s captain for the first time in his career. One of his earliest decisions has a troublesome impact on his freighter’s voyage from New Zealand – he allows the alluring wife of the ship’s cook to sail with the otherwise all-male crew. More tensions also take shape. Crewmembers launch a violent mutiny that will leave many men dead and survivors adrift in a lifeboat, including one who comes up with a desperate plan to reboard and retake the ship: Rummill. As the mutineer mastermind, Broderick Crawford gives a psychotic fervor to his portrayal. And Dorothy Dandridge, in a type of role then rare for an African-American actress, turns sexuality into power.

Guilty of Innocence: The Lenell Geter Story (1987, TV Movie)

Starring:

• Dorian Harewood
• Dabney Coleman
• Hoyt Axton
• Debbi Morgan
• Victor Love
• Paul Winfield

Storyline
Dorian Harewood stars as real-life Texas engineer Lenell Geter, who in 1982 was accused of armed robbery. Beyond the fact that both he and the suspect are African-American, Geter looks nothing at all like the actual robber; still, he is identified as the culprit in a police lineup. Despite the testimony of six character witnesses, all of whom were with Geter at the time of the robbery, he is sentenced to life imprisonment. He very likely would have remained in prison had not the CBS investigative series 60 Minutes told Geter's story to millions of viewers.