PORGY & BESS 1959 Movie Version

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?

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.

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.