Sidney Poitier made history as the first person of color to win an Oscar^® for a leading role (and only the second ever after Hattie McDaniel's win for Best Supporting Actress for 1939's GONE WITH THE WIND) as itinerant handyman Homer Smith, who finds a calling in building a chapel for an order of Eastern European nuns in the Arizona desert. Smith, just passing through, finds himself persuaded by the redoubtable Mother Maria (Lilia Skala, who was Oscar^®-nominated for Best Supporting Actress) to stay on after performing a few odd jobs, eventually sets aside his hope of ever getting paid in pursuit of realizing his own dream, to be an architect. DIR/PROD Ralph Nelson; SCR James Poe, from the novel by William E. Barrett. U.S., 1963, b&w, 94 min. NOT RATED