General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

For Love of the title

For Love of Ivy is a 1968 American romantic comedy directed by Daniel Mann, starring Sidney Poitier as trucking executive Jack Parks and jazz singer Abbey Lincoln as Ivy Moore, the Long Island domestic worker he is blackmailed into dating. Its release was described by Turner Classic Movies as a first in mainstream American cinema: a mature romance between two black lead characters.¹

Key fact	Detail
Release	New York opening 17 July 1968; 102 minutes per the AFI Catalog (101 minutes per IMDb and TCM)²^•³
Credits	Directed by Daniel Mann; screenplay by Robert Alan Aurthur from a story by Sidney Poitier; produced by Edgar J. Scherick and Jay Weston for Palomar Pictures International (ABC Pictures Corp.)²
Principal cast	Sidney Poitier (Jack Parks), Abbey Lincoln (Ivy Moore), Beau Bridges (Tim Austin), Nan Martin (Doris Austin), Lauri Peters (Gena Austin), Carroll O'Connor (Frank Austin)²
Historical standing	The first mainstream Hollywood film to depict a mature romance between two black lead characters⁴
Music	Score by Quincy Jones; the title song, with lyrics by Bob Russell and sung by Shirley Horn, was nominated for the 1968 Academy Award for Best Music, Original Song²^•⁵
Finances	Estimated budget of $2,590,000; worldwide box office of $7,270,000³^•⁶
Awards	Academy Award nomination for the title song; Golden Globe nominations for Abbey Lincoln and Beau Bridges⁵^•⁷

Spoilers

Plot

Ivy Moore, a 27-year-old black woman, has worked for nine years as maid, housekeeper, and confidante to the Austin family on Long Island. Wanting more excitement in her life, she announces that she will leave to attend secretarial school. The family, upset at losing her, decides that her departure stems from a lack of romance. Acting as secret matchmakers behind their parents' backs, the Austins' teenage daughter Gena and hippie son Tim get Jack Parks, a young black trucking executive, to take Ivy out by threatening to reveal his illegal side business, a gambling casino run out of a trailer truck that is constantly on the move. Afraid of losing the Austin department store contract, Jack agrees.²

After an awkward first date the two warm to each other, but the romance cools when Ivy learns that Jack was blackmailed into dating her. Despite his aversion to marriage, Jack follows Ivy back to the Austin house, confesses his love, and promises to give up the gambling operation.²

Origin and production

Poitier's own story. The film grew from a story written by its star. According to the 2004 biography Sidney Poitier by historian Aram Goudsouzian, Poitier wanted to present a more genuine black woman, an imperative he connected to fatherhood, and to stretch Hollywood's boundaries on black intimacy; after three weeks of isolation in his study he produced a nineteen-page outline called Ivy.¹ It is his only writing credit.⁸ Although Poitier had won an Academy Award for Lilies of the Field (1963) and been nominated for The Defiant Ones (1958), the outline was rejected by three major studios because of its all-black romantic storyline before the ABC Television film production arm Palomar Pictures took it on.¹

Almost 300 women auditioned for the title role. Jazz singer Abbey Lincoln won it; her only previous screen acting work had been Nothing But a Man (1964), a film in which Poitier had turned down the lead.¹ Location scenes were filmed in and around New York City.²

Music

Quincy Jones scored the film and wrote its songs with several collaborators. The title song, with words and music by Bob Russell and Jones, was performed by Shirley Horn; Maya Angelou co-wrote "You Put It on Me," sung by B.B. King; and Cashman, Pistilli & West performed "My Side of the Sky."² The title song brought Jones and Russell an Academy Award nomination for Best Music, Original Song at the ceremony honoring 1968 films; the pair had been the first African Americans nominated in that category the previous year for "The Eyes of Love" from Banning, making them the first nominated twice.⁵^•⁹

Reception and significance

Reviews were mixed, with many critics folding socio-political viewpoints into their assessments.¹ Roger Ebert, film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013, called it "a warm and delightful comedy" that was well made if not a masterpiece, and judged Poitier's story "a good deal more 'honest' than Guess Who's Coming to Dinner."¹⁰ TIME was harsher, calling the premise a story "not even the most gullible honky would buy" and comparing the couple to "Rock Hudson and Doris Day in black and tan."¹¹ On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes the film holds a 43% Tomatometer from 7 reviews and a 51% audience score from more than 1,000 ratings.¹²

The film's commercial and cultural standing was substantial. In February 1969 the Los Angeles Times reported that Poitier had been named the top box-office draw of 1968 in the Motion Picture Herald's annual poll, owing to the success of his four most recent films: For Love of Ivy and 1967's To Sir with Love, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, and In the Heat of the Night.¹³ The historian Ruth Feldstein, author of How It Feels to Be Free: Black Women Entertainers and the Civil Rights Movement, has argued that Lincoln brought working-class black women's perspectives into a mainstream film intended to be apolitical, even as the film's marketing and reception commodified her black power radicalism.¹⁴ The Nobel Prize-winning author V.S. Naipaul integrated the film into his 1975 novel Guerillas, describing Poitier as "a Cary Grant that blacks could call their own."¹

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026