{"id":8192,"date":"2018-04-03T13:06:59","date_gmt":"2018-04-03T17:06:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=8192"},"modified":"2026-07-12T10:42:44","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T14:42:44","slug":"carmen-jones-1954","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=8192","title":{"rendered":"Carmen Jones-1954"},"content":{"rendered":"

Carmen Jones-1954<\/strong><\/p>\n

Director Otto Preminger<\/strong><\/p>\n

Starring Dorothy Dandridge, Harry Belafonte<\/strong><\/p>\n

Scott’s Review #736<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Reviewed April 3, 2018<\/p>\n

Grade: B+<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was pretty taboo at the time of release (1954) because it featured an all-black cast with no white members. Carmen Jones is to be celebrated for her contribution to film history for this groundbreaking feat alone.<\/p>\n

Directed by Otto Preminger (who, ironically, is Caucasian), the film features legendary actress Dorothy Dandridge in a Marilyn Monroe-style performance worthy of the stars’ talents.<\/p>\n

The film is a musical with an inevitable tragedy at the conclusion.<\/p>\n

The 1954 feature is based on a 1943 stage production of the same name, based on the music of the famous 1875 Georges Bizet production of Carmen.<\/p>\n

These facets add to the film’s richness, as it is layered with solid historical detail, and the well-known tragic elements make the conclusion unsurprising.<\/p>\n

Brazen and beautiful, Carmen is a seductress who works in a parachute factory in North Carolina during World War II.<\/p>\n

After trading fists with a co-worker, Carmen is jailed and assigned to handsome Corporal Joe (Harry Belafonte), who is to escort her to the authorities.<\/p>\n

While Carmen is not shy about pursuing the young man, his fianc\u00e9e, virginal Cindy Lou, fumes and schemes to keep her man.<\/p>\n

The result is a triangle. Carmen and Joe eventually fall madly in love, leaving poor Cindy Lou behind, but their love faces hurdles.<\/p>\n

The somewhat lighthearted first portion of the film, with coquettish humor, is offset by a much darker path it takes.<\/p>\n

As Carmen and Joe finally profess their love and share a night of passion, she leaves him in the middle of the night, unable to endure prison time.<\/p>\n

This results in Joe being imprisoned, as the couple ultimately cannot stay apart despite repeated obstacles to their happiness.<\/p>\n

An additional character, a boxer named Husky, with designs on Carmen, is introduced, complicating matters.<\/p>\n

In a sad form, much like the opera Carmen, the final scene is devastating and startling as Joe treads a dark, gloomy path of destruction. The character of Joe is nuanced- at first, a “nice guy”; the character is an example of complexity and what a man will do for love.<\/p>\n

The viewer wonders what will become of Joe and how he could risk his life performing an act in the heat of passion.<\/p>\n

In 1954, what a profound and fantastic role for a female, let alone a black female. Typically cast in roles such as maids, servers, or even less glamorous parts, Dandridge was wonderful to see capture a challenging role of this caliber.<\/p>\n

She is a vixen as she sinks her teeth into the meaty and flirtatious Carmen.<\/p>\n

Dandridge’s pizzazz, flair, and singing and dancing performances made her a star, and she is forever known as a groundbreaking talent.<\/p>\n

There cannot be enough said about the importance of casting all-black actors in Carmen Jones. Monumental, of course, given the time.<\/p>\n

The result is a film of significance to black culture, showing that they no longer needed to appear in “white films” as supporting players but could carry a movie on their own.<\/p>\n

How profound and remarkable this was!<\/p>\n

My only criticism of the film is undoubtedly related to the progress made for black actors and characters, though there is still plenty more work to be done.<\/p>\n

At times, the filming feels a shade dated (there are more great roles for black actors now) and has a slightly grainy look.<\/p>\n

Some of the supporting characters’ acting is also not the strongest, but as Carmen Jones is a historical film, liberties must be taken.<\/p>\n

Thanks to the genius and the funding of Preminger, who needed to produce the film independently due to a lack of interest, the result is a film that has gone down in history as worthy, edgy, and open-minded.<\/p>\n

Wisely casting talented stars with great pipes, the film is a solid success.<\/p>\n

Oscar Nominations<\/strong>: Best Actress-Dorothy Dandridge, Best Scoring of a Musical Picture<\/p>\n

Golden Globe Nominations: 2 wins-<\/strong>Best Motion Picture-Musical or Comedy (won),\u00a0<\/strong>New Star of the Year-Actor-Joe Adams (won)<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Carmen Jones-1954 Director Otto Preminger Starring Dorothy Dandridge, Harry Belafonte Scott’s Review #736 Reviewed April 3, 2018 Grade: B+ It was pretty taboo at the time of release (1954) because it featured an all-black cast with no white members. Carmen Jones is to be celebrated for her contribution to film history for this groundbreaking feat … Continue reading Carmen Jones-1954<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,12087,192,47,188],"tags":[5362,4511,599,600,6848,12083,12082,598,12081,11827],"class_list":["post-8192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1954-films","category-best-picture-musical-or-comedy-golden-globe-winners","category-dramas","category-musicals","category-musicdramas","tag-brock-peters","tag-diahann-carroll","tag-dorothy-dandridge","tag-harry-belafonte","tag-herbert-ross","tag-joe-adams","tag-olga-james","tag-otto-preminger","tag-pearl-bailey","tag-roy-glenn"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8192"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8192\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23791,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8192\/revisions\/23791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}