A Warm December is a "black" film in that its protagonists … are black and that Poitier directed it. But it's essentially a non-racial and non-ethnic movie, with a bit of [William Wyler's] Roman Holiday and a dab of [Arthur Hiller's] Love Story to schmaltz up the highly literate Lawrence Roman script. It's the story of an American doctor on holiday in London, his encounter with a mystery girl, their romance and, with the solution of her mystery, their bittersweet parting.

It's a dashing, slick old-Hollywood romance—and the sort of movie that the popcorn-and-Kleenex crowd (count me in on rare occasions) can really wallow in….

Militants may scoff at schmaltz (our heroine does not die at film's end, I hasten to note) or at the love-vs.-duty or I-want-to-live issues. But this is exactly what Poitier had in mind, to my mind, some years ago when he said...