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There is much controversy over this version. The rights to it are currently controlled by the Rodgers and Hammerstein foundation, and, because they severely disapprove of it, chiefly because it is not the operatic version, but rather the truncated pseudo-Broadway musical version, they won't let anyone see it, let alone release it to video.
Frankly, as someone who has seen it, both in a theatre and on television, I can't say that anyone is missing all that much. It is a very static movie. "I Loves You, Porgy," for instance, is filmed for almost the full 6 minutes of the song, with one single shot, of Porgy and Bess embraced, framed in a doorway. Maybe Preminger wanted to emphasize the music, which is gloriously performed, although, except for Pearl Bailey and Brock Peters, all the major players were dubbed, including Poitier, Dandridge, and even Diahann Carroll. Since practically all the action takes place in and around the basic Catfish Row set, the film has more of the look of a filmed stage play, which is really more or less what it is. It's just not terribly good.
The lp was lovely, though, and I still play it occasionally.
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It's worse than that. Every Technicolor print but one of the original, full-length version has "gone to vinegar," and that remaining print is in private hands, unavailable even to its authorized copyright holder.
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Posted: |
Nov 6, 2002 - 2:10 PM
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By: |
RcM
(Member)
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Whoever has the print, it will be screened soon in Hollywood by the American Cinemateque. From it's website:
Friday, November 29 – 7:30 PM
Original 4-Track Stereo Technicolor Print – Complete Version!!
PORGY & BESS, 1959, George Gershwin Trust/Samuel Goldwyn Co./MGM-UA, 138 min. Director Otto Preminger’s sumptuous film adaptation of the classic George Gershwin musical stars Sidney Poitier and the heavenly Dorothy Dandridge as starcrossed lovers on Catfish Row, surrounded by a phenomenal supporting cast including Sammy Davis Jr., Pearl Bailey, Brock Peters and Diahann Carroll. Four-track stereo sound was never used to better effect than in PORGY & BESS, seen here in an original Technicolor print of the incredibly rare, full-length version, featuring the complete score with "Summertime," "It Ain’t Necessarily So," "I Got Plenty Of Nothin’" and other songs.
Discussion following with actor Brock Peters, Hope Preminger (Mrs. Otto Preminger), Ingo Preminger and other guests, moderated by film historian Foster Hirsch (schedules permitting).
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Ira Gershwin did hate the film but, as noted above, the film's rights are now controlled by the Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization.
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SIDNEY POITIER did not want to do PORGY AND BESS, saying that it was racist and did not present the black man in a favorable light. At the time, he wanted to do THE DEFIANT ONES, and was told by Goldwyn that unless he did PORGY, he could not do THE DEFIANT ONES. Thus he reluctantly made the film.
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Posted: |
Nov 6, 2002 - 11:40 PM
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By: |
manderley
(Member)
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....re: Poiter.."Porgy"...and "Defiant Ones"...
The time-frame of this seems off to me. "Defiant Ones" was released in 1958, "Porgy and Bess" in 1959. Each were independent productions for Stanley Kramer and Samuel Goldwyn respectively, and, to the best of my knowledge, Poitier was also an independent artist, making pictures for Warner Bros, MGM, and others and not under contract to Sam Goldwyn for anything other than this film.
It's also important to remember that "Porgy and Bess" was ready to go with Lena Horne and Harry Belafonte on sets already built, when a fire (of mysterious Hollywood origin) destroyed them all, as well as a soundstage or two on the Goldwyn lot.
Incidentally, I've seen 35mm Technicolor/4-trk stereo prints of "Porgy and Bess" on several occasions out here in the past 10-12 years from different sources...they were beautiful...and I suspect there are more prints out there than collectors want to reveal yet!
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In his autobiography THIS LIFE, Sydney Poitier says that he was friends with Harry Belafonte and that Belafonte was very upset when Poitier decided to do Porgy. "He didn't buy my reasoning for doing the film," says Poiter. "Which was that I would do PORGY AND BESS so I could do the other picture, THE DEFIANT ONES. He would have preferred me just to walk away from the whole thing." Never does he say Belafonte was ever offered the role, and if so he would have turned it down flat (in Poitier's opinion) by the above quote.
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Posted: |
Nov 7, 2002 - 2:26 AM
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By: |
manderley
(Member)
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Michael Homa....YOU ARE RIGHT!!
I decided to go into my movie clipping collection and see what I had, which was a lot.
I have in front of me about 10 of 60 clippings relating to this. There is no mention of Belafonte-Horne. (I suspect that somewhere along the line they were on Goldwyn's "wish"
list and he expressed it in print long before final casting, and that's where I picked it up.)
At the point of the fire, Poitier, Dandridge, and the others were cast and ready to go under Rouben Mamoulian's direction (...THAT I remembered correctly!) When the fire delayed things, Poitier was released to make "Defiant Ones", with the understanding he would return, which he did. By that point, however, Mamoulian came to blows with Goldwyn over "creative differences" after Mamoulian had prepared the whole film and worked with all the principal actors on the concept. Mamoulian was fired, and many were very upset at the substitution of Preminger (who Goldwyn had, indeed, chosen because of "Carmen Jones"). From an uncited yellowed LA Times clipping...
..I asked Sidney Poitier how he felt about this since he was persuaded to do "Porgy" by Mamoulian. He said, "I felt betrayed. I worked with Mr. Mamoulian for two months and there was rapport between actor and director, and that's the way we all felt. Now there'll be an entirely different approach. We don't know what will happen...."
Leigh Whipper, who had appeared as "The Crabman" on Broadway in the 30's under Mamoulian's direction resigned from the Preminger-planned film, stating that he bowed out of the part as a "matter of conscience" to himself, his country and his race.
The Screen Director's Guild got into the fray over Mamoulian's firing, and it was a lengthy controversy, but, at the film's finish, The SDG Board denied screen credit to Mamoulian for his extensive preparation.
There is a lengthy Life Magazine article (from February 16...1959?) about all this for all who want to search it out.
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Posted: |
Nov 7, 2002 - 2:36 AM
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By: |
manderley
(Member)
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....Oh, and here's another one that's pertinent!
LA Times, ca. Spring, 1958....
...."Speaking of 'Porgy and Bess', the $6,500,000 Goldwyn opus (Todd-AO added $1,500,000 to the original budget) goes into pre-recording today at the producer's studio as Andre Previn begins conducting a 105-piece orchestra-choral group. The recording session is expected to take two months. Shooting starts in mid-July"....
(The LA Times had a Thursday Morning, July 3, 1958 front page on the fire which had occurred on Wednesday...."Irene Sharaff, costume designer, breaks into tears as she sees all of her costumes for 'Porgy and Bess' lost in fire that swept Sound Stage 8 on Goldwyn lot. Behind her is Art Director Joe Wright, who built movie's set."
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I once sat next to Cab Calloway on a flight from Denver to AlbQQ in 1988. He flew coach. He had a white suit on, open shirt with a giant medallion around his neck. We spoke a bit. He seemed like a very nice guy. He toured as Sportin' Life extensively. I picked up the soundtrack in Italy a few years ago. It's on Sony Masterworks. Made in Austria. Was Preminger still having an affair with Dandridge when they filmed 'Porgy & Bess', the one that started on 'Carmen Jones' ?
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Mamoulian certainly would have made a far more visually-arresting film than Preminger was capable of. Of course, had Mamoulian been occupied with PORGY AND BESS through 1958 and 1959, he might not've been engaged by Walter Wanger as the original director on CLEOPATRA, which would've sent that production spinning in a whole different direction. It might then have resulted in an entirely different film from the one we all know and love.
A far more important matter, to my way of thinking...
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I've been out of town, so I'm late to this thread, but I'm certainly glad I caught it in time to learn about the upcoming screening. Thanks to one and all for a very informative discussion. One thing which I don't think was mentioned is the fact that Mamoulian was not only set to direct the film he was also the person who directed the original opera back in 1935, and before THAT he directed the straight-play version, PORGY.
Anyone remotely interested in Gershwin or the saga of PORGY AND BESS should check out a fine book:
"The Life and Times of PORGY AND BESS: The Story of an American Classic," by Hollis Alpert, Knopf, N.Y., 1990. Highly recommended!
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