Lilies of the Field (DVD)

Nominated for five Academy Awards including Best Picture and winner of the Best Actor Oscar for Sidney Poitier (Paris Blues, In the Heat of the Night). Homer Smith (Poitier), an itinerant handyman, is driving through the Arizona desert when he meets five impoverished nuns. Stopping to fix their leaky farmhouse roof, Homer discovers that not only will the Mother Superior not pay him for the job, but she also wants him to build their chapel—for free! Hesitant at first, Homer soon finds himself single-handedly raising the chapel and the financing. But although he will not receive a monetary reward, Homer knows that when his work is done, he’ll leave that dusty desert town a much better place than when he found it. Ralph Nelson (Duel at Diablo, Charly) wonderfully directed this gem of a motion picture featuring stunning black-and-white cinematography by the great Ernest Haller (Gone with the Wind, Mildred Pierce).