PORGY AND BESS

US, 1959, 138 minutes, Colour.
Sidney Poitier, Dorothy Dandridge, Sammy Davis Jr., Pearl Bailey, Brock Peters.
Directed by Otto Preminger.

Porgy and Bess is the Gershwin operetta about negro life in the south. The score is beautiful and the songs well-known and devotees of the opera will enjoy the music in this version. However, the film treatment is particularly stagey. The sets seem artificial, perhaps this is appropriate for the musical style. How ever, it does give the musical a contrived atmosphere. Dorothy Dandridge, Sidney Poitier are the leads and their singing is dubbed. Sammy Davis Jnr. and other popular black actors and actresses make appearances in supporting roles. Direction is by Otto Preminger who has made a wide variety of films. His previous venture into musical area was the adaptation of Bizet's Carmen to the black world during World War II, Carmen Jones. About this time Preminger made such films as Exodus and Advise and Consent.

1. Was this an enjoyable film? A successful musical? A successful melodrama? Successful spectacle? Did the film combine all these ingredients well? Or would audiences feel that they had to sit through, dutifully, this film? Critics offered both opinions.

2. How important is Gershwin's music for the success of Porgy and Bess? Was the music strong enough to sustain this film? How well does Gershwin's music and lyrics gather the atmosphere of the negro way of life? How did the songs capture the moods, characters, the situations.. the social atmosphere of the people concerned? The impact of such songs as 'Summertime', 'Plenty of Nothin', 'It Ain't Necessarily So'? How enjoyable is Gershwin's music? How well was it performed in this film? How well were the songs staged?

3. Was the technical expertise adequate for this film? The use of colour, widescreen? The quality of the actors and the dubbed singing? The stylization of the performances? The use of stage atmosphere ? too stagey? Was enough tension generated for the melodrama of the story? or did it more resemble static operetta?

4. How well were the themes of good and evil portrayed? The themes of the weak and the strong. victims. oppression? How adequate a presentation of American society and the American black? How adequate an exploration of individuals living in ugliness and poverty? The theme of redemption and of loss? How pessimistic was the overall tone of the film, especially in the ending?

5. Was Bess an attractive person? How was she explained in herself? The songs as revealing her character? Bess as a presence in the film, in the town, amongst the people? As a symbol of good? evil? Her relationships to people and their hostility towards her? Her being brutalized by Crown, supported by Porgy? Her regaining of self-respect? Becoming again a victim to Crown? To Sporting Life? The question of the drugs and the temptation and her agonies of decision? The pathos of her leaving for New York? The effect that it had on people? Was there much insight in this characterization of Bess?

6. How well portrayed was Porgy? Sidney Poitier's style? The good and the bad in him. the cripple. the pathos? How did the songs reveal his character? His support of people and of Bess? The change in him in living with Bess? The possibilities of his influencing her? The agonies he suffered because of her? The violence with Crown ? was this credible? The effect on their lives, fear. disillusion? The reality or unreality of his going to search for her?

7. How typical a villain was Crown? Was he a black stereotype? His victimizing Bess. the atmosphere of menace, the fight with Porgy? Did the audience have any sympathy for Crown?

8. What role did Sporting Life play in the film? The style of Sammy Davis Jnr.? As the stereotype negro? His conmanship and tricking everyone? The peddling of drugs and the pressures on Bess? How repellent a character?

9. The supporting characters - was there any insight into personalities, the black plight, via Maria, Clara? Life in the town, women, gossip, babies and motherhood etc.?

10. What picture of the people in the town did the film give? of the police? The songs that were sung, the attitudes,, the picnic sequence etc.?

11. How well did the film integrate its ingredients to make it successful entertainment? Is it successful entertainment or a curiosity item?