PORGY & BESS 1959 Movie Version

[Marquise]

Posted: 10/30/09 at 4:16am

i've had the opportunity of screening this film tonight after years of wanting to see it.

i love the original version and i'm a big fan of preminger and dandridge's work on CARMEN JONES and poitier is one of my idols so i was excited to finally be able to see PORGY and BESS.

i have to say i was disappointed. after a promising start on a realistic setting the movie shifts to what is clearly a studio lot with stylized sets that give it an overall stagey look.

it didn't help that preminger mostly filmed it in medium to long shots and it comes off as a filmed version of a stage show.

it then very jarringly shifts to location footage for the picnic sequence and then switches back to the studio set for the remainder of the film. the whole film is just uneven all around and i can easily see why this film failed at the box office when it was released.

i'm glad i finally got to see it but it's mostly just a curio due to all the intrigue over the gershwin estate's utter dissatisfaction with it.

has anyone else seen it?

[PalJoey]

Posted: 10/30/09 at 8:25am

The Gershwin estate's disappointment with it is understandable. I saw it once in a classroom setting and felt so sad afterward. What a missed opportunity.

There's a DVD of the Trevor Nunn production that's worth watching.

[fgreene1938]

Posted: 10/30/09 at 9:09am

I've only seen this film once, on local NY television in 1970. Supposedly, producer Sam Goldwyn only had the rights to P&B for 15 years and once they reverted back the Gershwin estate refused to grant permission for the film to be shown.

Nobody but Sammy Davis wanted to do this film and most black performers decried the racial stereotyping. Poitier only did it because he was afraid he'd lose "The Defiant Ones" if he backed out. Also, the set burned to the ground under suspicious circumstances, shutting down the production for weeks and causing the original director to be dropped.

Seems like this film was cursed from the start.

[fgreene1938]

Posted: 10/30/09 at 10:11am

I've only seen this film once, on local NY television in 1970. Supposedly, producer Sam Goldwyn only had the rights to P&B for 15 years and once they reverted back the Gershwin estate refused to grant permission for the film to be shown.

Nobody but Sammy Davis wanted to do this film and most black performers decried the racial stereotyping. Poitier only did it because he was afraid he'd lose "The Defiant Ones" if he backed out. Also, the set burned to the ground under suspicious circumstances, shutting down the production for weeks and causing the original director to be dropped.

Seems like this film was cursed from the start.

[ABB2357]

Posted: 10/30/09 at 2:24pm

I saw a screening of a restored print in LA about two years ago and left at intermission. I wanted to stay but the film was borderline unwatchable. I love CARMEN JONES too but this was amazingly stodgy and didn't begin to do justice to Gershwin. Preminger's static, uninvolved camera only made it more lifeless. Its only real value is historical and it doesn't surprise me that the Gershwin estate would suppress it, since it would no doubt be the main exposure younger generations would have to the material.

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 10/30/09 at 5:04pm

I remember seeing it on TV in the early 1970's (before it was withdrawn) and understand why it got such a negative reception.
For those who haven't seen it it is not a film of the full opera, but seems more based on the 1940's Broadway version which replaced much of the recitative with spoken dialog. I don't recall the acting being all that exceptional either.

What it does have (and it is preserved on the movie cast album) are those lush orchestrations conducted by Andre Previn. The album was released on CD in by Sony in the U.K. in 1994, but has long since been deleted.