"Carmen Jones" is opera. It's very good, modern opera in the vernacular. Most operas are tragedies. The plot of this film is tragedy. The story and setting are in the South of the Atlantic Coast, with an all African-American cast. Opera tells stories - mostly dramas, with much of the script in songs, interspersed with dialog. Italian is the language of origin of opera, but it has been increasingly translated into the languages of countries where it is performed. Thus it is with "Carmen Jones." It's pedigree includes a 1943 stage musical of the same title, music from an 1875 opera, "Carmen," and an 1845 book of that title by two French stage writers.
The story is a conflicted one, varying around a morality tale with seduction, a fallen hero, obsession, money, power and greed, and revenge. The cast all are very good. Harry Belafonte is Joe, Dorothy Dandridge is Carmen Jones, Pearl Bailey is Frankie, and Brock Peters plays Sergeant Brown. Dandridge's singing was dubbed by Marilyn Horne. Horne said she studied Dandridge's voice meticulously so that her singing voice would sound like Carmen's in the film. The film got good reviews and was a box office success. Otto Preminger produced and directed this film, and also made the successful "Porgy and Bess" of 1959 that had a mostly African-American cast.
I agree with one reviewer who noted that the boxing match should have had a mixed audience. In reality, many boxing fans are white attend pro boxing matches everywhere. Many root for and have favorite African-American boxers and others just as people of all colors and nationalities do. I grew up watching fights on TV with my dad and others. We were fans of Sugar Ray Robinson, Joe Louis, George Foreman, Larry Holmes, and Muhamad Ali - as well as other favorites like Rocky Marciano, Salvador Sanchez and Manny Ortiz.
The story is a conflicted one, varying around a morality tale with seduction, a fallen hero, obsession, money, power and greed, and revenge. The cast all are very good. Harry Belafonte is Joe, Dorothy Dandridge is Carmen Jones, Pearl Bailey is Frankie, and Brock Peters plays Sergeant Brown. Dandridge's singing was dubbed by Marilyn Horne. Horne said she studied Dandridge's voice meticulously so that her singing voice would sound like Carmen's in the film. The film got good reviews and was a box office success. Otto Preminger produced and directed this film, and also made the successful "Porgy and Bess" of 1959 that had a mostly African-American cast.
I agree with one reviewer who noted that the boxing match should have had a mixed audience. In reality, many boxing fans are white attend pro boxing matches everywhere. Many root for and have favorite African-American boxers and others just as people of all colors and nationalities do. I grew up watching fights on TV with my dad and others. We were fans of Sugar Ray Robinson, Joe Louis, George Foreman, Larry Holmes, and Muhamad Ali - as well as other favorites like Rocky Marciano, Salvador Sanchez and Manny Ortiz.