Synopsis
The tale of the cigarette-maker Carmen and the Spanish cavalry soldier Don Jose is translated into a modern-day story of a parachute factory worker and a stalwart GI named Joe who is about to go to flying school. Conflict arises when a prize-ring champ captures the heart of Carmen after she has seduced Joe and caused him to go AWOL.
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Cast
- Harry BelafonteJoe
- Dorothy DandridgeCarmen Jones
- Pearl BaileyFrankie
- Olga JamesCindy Lou
- Joe AdamsHusky Miller
- Brock PetersSergeant Brown
- Roy GlennRum Daniels
- Nick StewartDink Franklin
- Diahann CarrollMyrt
- Le Vern HutchersonJoe (voice)
Recommendations
- 89
Austin Chronicle
Preminger strips the musical of all excess and frills. He creates an austere, depoeticized, anti-lyrical world in which nothing obstructs his camera's detached recording of the action. The great themes of Preminger's oeuvre are obsession and the conflict between freedom and repression, themes which are central to Carmen Jones. - 88
Chicago Tribune
The movie can still make temperatures rise -- though for musical rather than political reasons. - 80
Variety
Preminger directs with a deft touch, blending the comedy and tragedy easily and building his scenes to some suspenseful heights. He gets fine performances from the cast toppers, notably Dorothy Dandridge, a sultry Carmen whose performance maintains the right hedonistic note throughout. - 75
TV Guide Magazine
Preminger's heavy-handed adaptation of a Broadway triumph combines gorgeous music with risible lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II; the project is saved by a terrific cast. - 63
Chicago Reader
Impeccably liberal in its time, the film has not aged gracefully, although Dorothy Dandridge's performance in the lead remains a testimony to a black cinema that might have been. - 60
Empire
1954 musical that is woefully miscast in places and extremely dubious in its portrayal of African-Americans but does boast an on-form Dorothy Dandridge. - 60
The Guardian
The 1954 film version of Oscar Hammerstein's all-black Broadway musical now feels like a relic from the gruesome social straitjacket that was segregation; every frame, you feel, is freighted with the tension imposed by the never-appearing white folks. It was, however, laudable in its desire to showcase the talents of African-American performers who were denied opportunities in Hollywood. - 60
The New Yorker
This movie is terribly uneven -- best when it's gaudy and electric, worst in its more realistically staged melodramatic moments, especially toward the end. Overall, it's an entertaining show.
