Carmen Jones

Carmen Jones 1954

• Director: Otto Preminger
• Based on the opera by Bizet
• Cast: Dorothy Dandridge, Harry Belafonte, Pearl Bailey, Olga James, Joe Adams, Brock Peters, Diahann Carroll
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Dorothy Dandridge – sadly nothing
• Harry Belafonte – BlackKklansman, Bobby, Swing Vote, Kansas City
• Brock Peters – Ghosts of Mississippi, Star Trek the Undiscovered Country, Soylent Green, The Mod Squad and many other series, To Kill a Mockingbird
• Diahann Carroll – Mo’ Better Blues, Julia
• Why? Harry Belafonte, a classic
• Seen:  21 March 2020      

       Carmen is the opera I know best. I’m not a fan of opera but it’s hard to avoid Carmen completely.

       This film is a good concept. It keeps Bizet’s music, writes quite clever new lyrics, moves the action to the US during WWII and chooses an all-black cast with Belafonte and Dandridge in the leads.

       Clean-cut Joe (Belafonte) is going to train as a pilot and is planning to marry his sweetheart Cindy Lou (James) before leaving but is saddled with transporting femme fatale Carmen Jones (Dandridge) to jail. Guess what happens.

       But what is this? It doesn’t take long to realise that Belafonte isn’t doing his own singing. Why not? His voice is so much better than this! Most of them don’t do their own singing so there goes two or three stars of the rating.

       Being it’s an opera with mostly a silly story and jarring gender stereotypes (as in the original) it doesn’t get top stars anyway. There are some highlights, however. Pearl Bailey is good, it’s fun to see a young Diahann Carroll, the costumes are elegant, there’s a touch of social realism now and then, Dandridge is outstanding, and I’ve been in love with Harry Belafonte since I was five years old. So

      

3* of 5 (Hal says 4)