| Gone Are the Days! | |
| Director: | Nicholas Webster |
| Producer: | Brock Peters Nicholas Webster |
| Screenplay: | Ossie Davis |
| Starring: | Ossie Davis Ruby Dee Godfrey Cambridge |
| Cinematography: | Boris Kaufman |
| Editing: | Ralph Rosenblum |
| Studio: | Hammer Film Corp. |
| Runtime: | 99 minutes |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
Gone Are the Days! or Purlie Victorious is a 1963 American comedy-drama film starring Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee and Godfrey Cambridge. It is based on the 1961 Broadway play Purlie Victorious, which was written by Davis. Davis, Dee, Cambridge, Beah Richards, Sorrell Booke and Alan Alda (in his film debut), reprised their roles from the Broadway production.
The New York Times review stated "The cancers of segregation, blind bigotry and Uncle Tom were made funny but real, and therefore howlingly effective, by the dual artistry of playwright-star Ossie Davis. As a Negro seeing his people and their tormentors comically plain, he filled the stage with humor, insight and passion."[1] The critic noted, however, that "Mr. Davis's manufactured folk tale has, with the passage of just two years and the shedding of blood in Birmingham, lost some of its laughter. And the somewhat static quality of Nicholas Webster's direction, which clings to stage techniques, is not much of a help."[1]