Anna Lucasta

It took a long time for Philip Yordan's play Anna Lucasta to get made into a film and it turned out to be a good showcase for the talents of stars Eartha Kitt and Sammy Davis, Jr. The play ran on Broadway from 1944-46 and had 957 performances on Broadway. Several of the cast members in supporting roles returned for the screen. I'm sure that there were wartime references in the play that were cut out for the screen version as Sammy Davis, Jr.'s part was that of a sailor.

Sailor and general all around good time guy Davis's favorite call when in San Diego is Eartha Kitt in the title role. Some years earlier Kitt was caught getting down with some boy by her self righteous father and cast out of the home and drifted into prostitution.

But now her father Rex Ingram has come looking for her wanting her back. He thinks she will make a good wife for the son of an old friend from Alabama who has come to California. Henry Scott also has $4000.00 from his father and Anna's family who isn't the classiest bunch around also eyes him with that bankroll like an expensive cut of meat in a butcher shop.

She marries Scott, but Davis ain't finished. Soon enough Kitt has some real marital issues. Scott is a decent enough guy, but a bit naive as to the ways of the world, surprising for someone who wants a career teaching agricultural science like George Washington Carver.

As for Davis I think this role may have caught the eye of Otto Preminger who cast him in the very similar part of Sporting Life in Porgy And Bess the following year. Eartha Kitt shows off all her slinkiness that made her famous, but like Lena Horne Hollywood did not know what to do with her. I also think that she may have been a second choice behind Dorothy Dandridge good as Kitt is.

Anna Lucasta is a good film and a great chance to see Eartha Kitt and Sammy Davis, Jr. in their salad days.

Meowwwww... Eartha Kitt, ten years before she was Catwoman on "Batman"! This film not only co-stars Sammy Davis Jr, but that's also him singing the "Anna" theme. Things are pretty rough for Anna as the film opens. She's been tossed out by her family, even to the point of not have a place to sleep. But... just as things might be turning around for her, she runs into her old sailor friend, Danny, (Sammy Davis) and his pal Lester. Anna isn't sure if she likes either one of her options... her old sailor buddy that doesn't want to get married, or the "friend of the family" that is staying in town looking for work. Rudolph is played by Henry Scott, and it looks like this film is the only thing he ever did. and just when things are finally looking up for Anna, more people are running interference against her. Based on a play by Philip Yordan. He had just won the oscar for Broken Lance. "Anna" was first done by a white cast (1949), then later done by a black cast (1958). This is quite good, and i'm glad that Turner Classics is showing it. and now that I've seen THIS version, of course i want to see the 1949 Paulette Goddard version too. Highly recommended, if you can catch it.

This second adaptation for the big screen by Philip Yordan of his 1944 Broadway hit is more interesting for the fact of it's existence than what it actually achieves. A chance for Eartha Kitt to prove her mettle as a dramatic actress as a tart with a heart; she doesn't even sing the song that accompanies the credits - instead that falls to co-star Sammy Davis Jr.

It strongly resembles the early Garbo vehicle 'Anna Christie' (she even says "I want to go home" at one point) even down unfortunately to the tinny theatricality of the piece. Too bad Kitt never played Mata Hari or Queen Christina.

Rex Ingram registers strongly as her ogre of a father; but James Edwards as usual is wasted.

I can see why Eartha Kitt has always been a gay icon and why her legion of gay fans - black and white - kept her working during the twilight years of her extremely long career in show business. She's campy, witty, sexy, and vulnerable...and a very funny funny girl with a very sharp tongue especially when she delivers her trademark rapid-fire one-liners in the opening barroom scene. Her grand entrance is over-the-top and her timing perfect. In a perfect world Kitt would have been right up there with Marilyn Monroe, Barbra Streisand, Elizabeth Taylor, Joan Crawford and Rita Hayworth...BUT she was BLACK...and Hollywood has had few decent leading roles for black actresses like Kitt, Dandridge, Horne...or even Halle. The black family in this movie is captured with humor and dignity by a sterling cast of black actors hungry for work other than playing maids, butlers, African natives, and southern slaves. "Anna Lucasta" is a Black Classic.

At the core of Anna Lucasta is a creaky plot that isn't seen often today -- the decent man who falls in love with the irresistible prostitute (see also The World of Susie Wong, Breakfast at Tiffany's, The Owl and the Pussycat, etc.). However, instead of focusing on the man's dilemma, Anna Lucasta focuses on the prostitute's family and friends. The screenplay is by a distinguished playwright and screenwriter, Philip Yordan, who based it on his own Broadway play, so it does have its moments -- an occasional good line, striking monologue, or clever exchange of dialogue. But it remains stagy, and the director's infrequent attempts to "open up" the play with cinematic devices don't work well.

However, the movie is valuable because it preserves performances by prominent black stage actors who for the most part rarely appeared on screen, certainly not in major, non-stereotypical roles. Nearly every actor and actress in the film is given a moment to shine, and they all acquit themselves well, with the possible exception of the great actor Rex Ingram, who sometimes chews the scenery as Anna's drunken and vengeful father. The beautiful Isabel Cooley, in a small role as Anna's sister, is a revelation here.

Eartha Kitt always plays Eartha, but her Anna more than adequately shows many facets -- on the edge of hard-bitten, but still yearning to be accepted as innocent and sweet, attracted to the fast life, but hurt and wounded and feeling unloved. And Sammy Davis' performance is much better than the reviews he received when the movie was released or on IMDb. He plays Anna's other suitor, who loves her in his own fashion, but who wants her as a companion for good times and partying, not as a wife. He's shallow, but he has a core of decency and concern for Anna, and Davis portrays both sides well. (Think of Sammy as Sportin' Life in Porgy and Bess, whom he would portray in the same year, but with depth.)