(138 mins.) Released 1959-06-24
Director: Otto Preminger
Stars: Sidney Poitier, Dorothy Dandridge, Sammy Davis Jr., Pearl Bailey
drama, musical, romance
originally posted 30 Sep 2017 16:57
The American Playhouse Opera (listing above) is 184 minutes long, compared with 1959's 138 minutes, so I can understand that the Gershwin estate was upset that "a lot of the original music was cut out, and they were also very displeased with the orchestral arrangements of the music." Too bad Goldwyn only licensed the rights for 15 years.
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This print is 116 minutes, which, according to the article above, is "without its overture, intermission and the exit music", and comes from a "good looking German DVD of the film in its correct aspect ratio" of 2.20:1. The aspect ratio is right. The print is not good looking. It's seriously faded Technicolor, and everything is fuzzy. (On my 10" portable dvd player it is less obviously fuzzy, but not clear either.) The audio is fine.
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I was excited to see Hermes Pan in the credits as choreographer. The only scene that had much dancing was It Ain't Necessarily So, and that was very nice. More because Sammy Davis Jr. as Sportin' Life is PERFECT casting, perfectly executed. His style is much like Fosse here, especially with the bowler hat. (IMDb credits include Maya Angelou, Geoffrey Holder and Nichelle Nichols as Dancers; this print offers little hope of finding them.)
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I was disappointed to see that Diahann Carroll (singing Summertime) and Dorothy Dandridge (as Bess) were both dubbed by other singers, and Summertime didn't sound all that great. Fun fact: Sidney Poitier's singing voice is Robert McFerrin, yes, Bobby McFerrin's father, who was an opera singer. Here's a recording DC made of Summertime:
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Because this is a Hollywood movie, we get plenty of sets and a couple of outdoor locations (and yes, people wear red, unlike the 1993 opera). One scene, where everyone in 3 floors on the courtyard turned on their lights and opened their shutters to see the commotion below, reminded me of a slum-life version of Rear Window (1954, Paramount).
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It's good to see an original aspect ratio version, because director Otto Preminger used no closeups. The super-wide screen meant he placed actors all across the screen. So the pan-and-scan 4:3 version cuts a LOT; but if non-fuzzy, you might see some faces in pseudo closeups. But remember, this was not filmed for television or even small theatrical screens. This was a "roadshow" film. Maybe in that size theatre the faces were more accessible. Maybe a closeup would be overwhelming on that size screen?
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Well, I just sampled the first few minutes of Carmen Jones (1954), also directed by Preminger, also starring DD, with some of the same cast, and we got up close to the characters (visually) just fine - and the aspect ratio was even MORE extreme, 2.55:1. I just don't get it. (Hooray for Google Books:) In the biography of Preminger by Foster Hirsch, he states that Preminger was deliberately using only long shots to sabotage Goldwyn's ability to re-edit the film. But that doesn't wash. You just need single takes of everything; the camera distance doesn't matter.
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If they both weren't so long, the 1993 opera and this film would make great study for film students, analyzing why too much closeup and too much far away just doesn't make for good story telling.
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I have to rate it based upon an imagined good print. Leon Shamroy received one of his 18 career Oscar nominations for cinematography. A good print probably looks great.
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Photos from the set (some look like stills from the film):
Here's an article about P&B:
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Goldwyn, dir. Preminger; 7-
