Kazan recovered the helm of Zanuck's cherished and pointedly controversial "message picture" about racist bigotry in the Deep South after various misunderstandings caused the abrupt departure of John Ford, the film's original director and, briefly, Kazan's mentor. In order to avoid a feared Southern boycott of Pinky's interracial story, Zanuck cast a Caucasian actress, Jeanne Crain, in the main role of a pale-skinned African American "passing" as white in the North, a seemingly retrograde decision that nevertheless may have contributed to the film's phenomenal commercial and critical success. Kazan characteristically explores the inner life of the characters, using the legendary Ethel Waters to great effect and divining an unexpectedly raw and vulnerable performance from Crain.

Kazan costars in his second collaboration with Ralph Steiner, a scrappy, improvised parody about Depression-era resourcefulness and theatrical bombast, largely shot in a garbage dump.