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IMDbPro

Carmen Jones

  • 19541954
  • ApprovedApproved
  • 1h 45m
IMDb RATING
6.7/10
5.3K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
22,015
3,291
Dorothy Dandridge in Carmen Jones (1954)
Home Video Trailer from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Play trailer2:46
2 Videos
43 Photos
DramaMusicalRomance
Contemporary version of the Bizet opera, with new lyrics and an African-American cast.Contemporary version of the Bizet opera, with new lyrics and an African-American cast.Contemporary version of the Bizet opera, with new lyrics and an African-American cast.
IMDb RATING
6.7/10
5.3K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
22,015
3,291
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Director
      • Otto Preminger
    • Writers
      • Oscar Hammerstein II(book by)
      • Harry Kleiner(screenplay)
      • Prosper Mérimée(novella)
    • Stars
      • Harry Belafonte
      • Dorothy Dandridge
      • Pearl Bailey
    Top credits
    • Director
      • Otto Preminger
    • Writers
      • Oscar Hammerstein II(book by)
      • Harry Kleiner(screenplay)
      • Prosper Mérimée(novella)
    • Stars
      • Harry Belafonte
      • Dorothy Dandridge
      • Pearl Bailey
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 64User reviews
    • 43Critic reviews
    • 65Metascore
    • Nominated for 2 Oscars
      • 5 wins & 8 nominations total

    Videos2

    Carmen Jones
    Trailer 2:46
    Carmen Jones
    Hollywood's Shared History with Broadway
    Clip 6:12
    Hollywood's Shared History with Broadway

    Photos43

    Harry Belafonte and Dorothy Dandridge in Carmen Jones (1954)
    Harry Belafonte and Dorothy Dandridge in Carmen Jones (1954)
    Harry Belafonte and Dorothy Dandridge in Carmen Jones (1954)
    Harry Belafonte and Dorothy Dandridge in Carmen Jones (1954)
    Dorothy Dandridge in Carmen Jones (1954)
    "Carmen Jones" Pearl Bailey 1954 20th Century Fox
    Carmen Jones (1954)
    Carmen Jones (1954)
    Carmen Jones (1954)
    Carmen Jones (1954)
    Carmen Jones (1954)
    Dorothy Dandridge in Carmen Jones (1954)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Harry Belafonte
    Harry Belafonte
    • Joe
    Dorothy Dandridge
    Dorothy Dandridge
    • Carmen Jones
    Pearl Bailey
    Pearl Bailey
    • Frankie
    Olga James
    • Cindy Lou
    Joe Adams
    • Husky Miller
    Brock Peters
    Brock Peters
    • Sergeant Brown
    • (as Broc Peters)
    Roy Glenn
    Roy Glenn
    • Rum Daniels
    Nick Stewart
    • Dink Franklin
    Diahann Carroll
    Diahann Carroll
    • Myrt
    LeVern Hutcherson
    • Joe
    • (voice)
    • (as Le Vern Hutcherson)
    Marilyn Horne
    Marilyn Horne
    • Carmen Jones
    • (voice)
    • (as Marilynn Horne)
    Marvin Hayes
    • Husky Miller
    • (voice)
    Alvin Ailey
    Alvin Ailey
    • Dance Soloist
    • (uncredited)
    DeForest Covan
    DeForest Covan
    • Trainer
    • (uncredited)
    Joseph E. Crawford
    • Dink Franklin
    • (singing voice)
    • (uncredited)
    Carmen De Lavallade
    Carmen De Lavallade
    • Dance Soloist
    • (uncredited)
    Bernie Hamilton
    Bernie Hamilton
    • Reporter
    • (uncredited)
    Margaret Lancaster
    • Singing Voice
    • (uncredited)
    • Director
      • Otto Preminger
    • Writers
      • Oscar Hammerstein II(book by)
      • Harry Kleiner(screenplay)
      • Prosper Mérimée(novella) (uncredited)
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Introducing Dorothy Dandridge
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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      This film contains just 169 shots in 103 minutes of action. This equates to an average shot length of about 36 seconds, which is very high, given the 8 - 10 seconds standard of most Hollywood films made during the 1950s.
    • Goofs
      The story takes place circa 1944, but all of the women's fashions and hairstyles are strictly 1954; when Carmen & Frankie are talking outside the Chicago Pawn Shop, 1950s era automobiles passing by can clearly be seen reflected in the showcase window.
    • Quotes

      Frankie: Somethin' tells me Chicago's gonna be real good for you.

      Myrt: Somethin' tells me you gonna be real bad for Chicago.

    • Crazy credits
      The opening credits and end title are set around a flaming rose.
    • Connections
      Featured in Small Steps, Big Strides: The Black Experience in Hollywood (1998)
    • Soundtracks
      Send Them Along
      (uncredited)

      Music by Georges Bizet

      Lyrics Oscar Hammerstein II

      Sung by chorus

    User reviews64

    Review
    Top review
    7/10
    Dandridge, the photography, and the intention are all amazing enough to justify the rest
    Carmen (1954)

    First of all, this is a gorgeous movie. The WWII-era sets, the fluid photography with a lot of long takes, the lighting and costumes and overall feel are elegant and un-compromised, first frame to last.

    Second, the idea is fabulous, an all-Black cast and an African-American adaptation of the classic Carmen opera (by the French composure Bizet). The vernacular and the stereotypes might seem worn, or even insulting if you take them wrong (or just take them out of context) but in fact it's in line with that even better, earlier opera, Gershwin's Porgy and Bess. The stereotypes are ones that made sanitized sense equally to White and Black America just as other musicals made sanitized sense to the same audiences. If I sound like an apologist, I'm only responding to attacks on the film ("farcical" "gruesome" or "dreadful"), as being untrue or insensitive to Blacks, by saying that nearly all musicals are incredibly stylized and false, and nearly all movies of this era played with safe, simplified versions of life.

    No, to be fair to this really interesting movie you need to treat it like you would your own favorite movies from the 1950s, accepting the limitations just as the movie makers did. It's got its own syntax and style, it's own inner set of rules.

    And within those the performance of the character Carmen by Dorothy Dandridge is incredible. She's on fire, introspective, nuanced, and outrageous. The cast around her is excellent but inevitably uneven, and she stands easily above them in pure performance energy, even over the other big star, Harry Belafonte.

    All of this said, the beautiful, finely made, early widescreen movie here, "Carmen Jones," is lacking some kind of necessary intensity to work. I can't pin down why. From little strains of Bizet that perk it up (like a boxing worker whistling the most famous theme as he works) to the truly perfect photography and editing (maybe too perfect?), the movie has a steady, compelling flow. It's based on a Broadway musical from 1943 (the year the movie is set, as well), and it has the bones of a great drama, if a familiar one (it's still Bizet).

    What might be the biggest problem is the understandable decision to film it in a realistic way, with song (and minimal dance) numbers inserted relatively seamlessly along the way. This is the standard musical approach from from the early Astaire-Rogers films to the relatively contemporaneous Arthur Freed productions of the early 1950s like "Singin' in the Rain." But Carmen, the opera and stage musical, is not a lighthearted romantic comedy. It isn't just escapist entertainment. And the gravitas and drama in it, at the end in particular, doesn't quite work the way it does on the opera stage. You watch Belafonte and Dandridge acting their hearts out, but it has that perfect 1950s movie-making production to remind us that it's a movie, and we are detached in a far different way than watching a stage version, with real people and false settings.

    But never mind all that--you'll see for yourself how absorbed you get and why not more so.

    A couple last things. First, the singing voices of the two leads are dubbed (yes!), surprising in Belafonte's case in particular because he was (and is) an accomplished singer. Second, Dandridge and director Preminger were having a longterm affair during the filming and after, and she pulls off what might be the best performance of her life here. Third, the movie was shown to the head of the NAACP before release to check on any problems that might be seen from an African-American point of view (this is 1954, remember) and no objections were raised. By this point, Preminger had been working with an all Black cast and was in close quarters with the leading lady so he must have had some sense that what he was after was on target for the time.

    Watch it if you have interest in any of these things--WWII civilian life, Dandridge or Belafonte, opera adaptations into movies, early big budget African-American movies, Preminger movies, or terrific early Cinemascope photography. That should cover a lot of viewers, but not all. For me, I liked it a lot, and liked parts of it enormously (like the short clip of Max Roach drumming away on a barroom stage). But I felt slightly restless too often to get totally absorbed. One last suggestion--see it on the biggest screen you can, so it will be immersive.
    helpful•15
    3
    • secondtake
    • Sep 18, 2012

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • October 28, 1954 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Oscar Hammerstein's Carmen Jones
    • Filming locations
      • Southern Pacific railroad crossing at 8746 E Los Angeles Avenue, aka California Highway 118, Moorpark, California, USA
    • Production company
      • Otto Preminger Films
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Budget
      • $750,000 (estimated)
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 45 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Aspect ratio
      • 2.55 : 1

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