Unable to land a job because of his race, Scott Carter decides to be a White Man for one year. That one year becomes two, then 10, then 20.
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But it’s still only a matter of time before Scott’s secret is out and he confronts racism in the New Hampshire town he’s served for decades.
Lost Boundaries is a 1949 American film directed by Alfred L. Werker that stars Beatrice Pearson, Mel Ferrer (in his first starring role), and Susan Douglas Rubes. The film is based on William Lindsay White‘s book of the same title, a non-fiction account of Dr. Albert C. Johnston and his family who passed for white while living in New England in the 1930s and 1940s. The film won the 1949 Cannes Film Festival award for Best Screenplay.
Plot
In 1922, Scott Mason Carter (Mel Ferrer) graduates from Chase Medical School in Chicago and promptly marries Marcia (Beatrice Pearson). Both are light-skinned enough to be mistaken for whites. Scott has found an internship for himself, but his fellow graduate, the dark-skinned Jesse Pridham (Ray Saunders), wonders if he will have to work as a Pullman porter until there is an opening in a black hospital.
When Scott appears for work in Georgia, the black hospital director tells him that the board of directors has decided to give preference to Southern applicants and rescinds the job offer. Marcia insists her husband continue searching for another medical job. In the meantime, they live in Boston with Marcia’s parents, who have successfully been passing as white. Her father and some of their black friends suggest they do the same. Instead, Scott continues to apply as a Negro and is repeatedly rejected. Scott finally yields, quits his job making shoes, and masquerades as white for a one-year internship in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.