When Ossie Davis's "Purlie Victorious" premiered on Broadway in 1961, America's Civil Rights movement was gearing up for a tumultuous decade. This film version of the play follows the dogged efforts of a black preacher (Davis) and the young girl (Ruby Dee) who fancies him to swindle an inheritance from the plantation owner he once served (Sorrell Booke, of "The Dukes of Hazzard"). Alan Alda co-stars in his first film role.