Carmen Jones (1954)

Directed by Otto Preminger. Starring Dorothy Dandridge, Harry Belafonte, Pearl Bailey, Joe Adams, Roy Glenn, Olga James, Diahann Carroll, Brock Peters, Nick Stewart.

All-black cast tackles a WWII-era melodrama, previously a stage musical set to the music of Georges Bizet’s opera, Carmen (with revised lyrics). Dandridge’s shameless hussy inflames the lust of Belafonte’s Army corporal, but even though she eagerly leads him on, she’s not about to settle for just one man, not when death is “in the cards” for her. Being the first African-American leading actress Oscar nominee, Dandridge is the reason to watch; it’s Hammerstein sans Rodgers (the music came from Bizet, after all), but it’s as much a case of being half as good as it is half as bad, and the vocals are inconsistent: Marilyn Horne’s pipes coming from Carmen’s mouth are commendable, but Belafonte’s badly-dubbed singing voice (courtesy of LeVern Hutcherson) is most unappealing. Story presentation is a similar mixed bag, with Preminger’s direction being as obvious as it is static—just look at how uninteresting the fight sequences in and out of the boxing ring are, or how stilted the shift from violence to despair is in the final scene. In principle, a worthy effort in showcasing some of the top black talent during a still-segregated era, but it just doesn’t add up to what it should. Carroll’s onscreen acting debut.

56/100