Carmen Jones

Preminger filmed this very quickly -- 17 days, I'm told -- in real or real-looking locations in the South, in widescreen. He cast top African-American talent and dubbed most of the cast, even those who could sing, to heighten the operatic effect.

Dandridge and Belafonte must be one of the most spectacularly beautiful couples in all the movies, and they play out the juicy old melodramatic plot for all it's worth (though his lack of acting training shows). The Hammerstein lyrics are mostly brilliant, and the original Merimee story is cleverly transplanted to a different time and place. The film's main trouble is its inconsistency of style -- it lurches from melodrama to comedy to musical comedy to opera, sometimes within a couple of scenes. The acting styles go from natural to hyper depending on what kind of scene is being played, so nothing really hangs together. In the better musicals, the moment where dialogue turns into song is subtly handled, so you're not really aware of the transition from realism to fantasy, but here there are huge bumps from one style to the next.

Still, it's good over-the-top entertainment, and, as noted elsewhere, a respite from the underuse and mishandling of African-American talent on the screen. And it is, for its time, low on condescension and stereotypes.