Dorothy Dandridge @ 100: "Carmen Jones"

Team Experience is revisiting a few Dorothy Dandridge movies for her centennial

by Baby Clyde

Groucho Marks famously described Grace Kelly’s Best Actress win at the 1954 Oscars as ‘The greatest robbery since Brinks’. I think we can all agree that a terrible crime was committed, but Judy Garland wasn’t the only victim on the night of March 30th, 1955. Dorothy Dandridge was a sensation in Carmen Jones becoming the first Black woman to receive a Best Actress nomination. In any other year, her loss would be seen as a huge scandal but because of Judy’s legendary star turn in A Star Is Born the fact that Ms Dandridge was also deserving has been almost entirely overshadowed...

The film was an adaptation of the 1943 Oscar Hammerstein II’s smash hit Broadway musical of the same name which itself was itself an adaptation of Georges Bizet’s classic opera Carmen. Updated to take place in North Carolina during WWII it tells the story of sultry parachute factory worker, Carmen Jones, and her seduction of the innocent army corporal Joe, which inevitably leads both of them to their doom.

Dorothy Dandridge almost didn’t get to play what would become her signature part. A showbusiness veteran, having had a successful performing career since childhood, nothing she’d done before on film suggested she was suitable to play this kind of character. In her first starring role in the previous year’s Bright Road she’d portrayed a respectable schoolteacher -- a far cry from the brazen persona called for here. After their first meeting Preminger suggested she might be right for the supporting role of Cindy Lou, Joe’s sweet and innocent girlfriend but Dorothy had other ideas and came to their second meeting dressed provocatively for the part of Carmen and the director was convinced. 

She was joined in the cast by her Bright Road co-star Harry Belafonte as Joe, opera singer Olga James as Cindy Lou, noted Blues singer Pearl Bailey as best friend Frankie, Brock Peters later of To Kill A Mockingbird fame and, in a small role, Diahann Carroll who 20 years later with Claudine would become the 4th Black woman nominated for Best Actress.

Whilst the cast was illustrious Dorothy Dandridge was the star attraction and there was no pulling focus. From her very first entrance all eyes are on her and she doesn’t disappoint. She's spectacular dressed in arresting fire engine red indicating the danger she poses for everyone around her. She’s on this earth for a good time and nothing is going to get in her way. In lesser hands this Carmen could fall flat but here you have no problem believing that every man in the vicinity would be putty in her hands. Poor innocent Cindy Liu doesn’t stand a chance the moment Carmen sets her sights on Joe. There’s not a hint of school teacher on display. 

Terrible as her behaviour may be, you can’t help rooting for her. Not only do Dandridge and Belafonte make one of the most beautiful couples in movie history (Maybe only Paul and Liz come close) but Joe is such a dullard that you really want him to loosen up a bit. You can’t blame Carmen for wanting to get away from the drudgery of her life and head to the city for adventure. It’s a rare trick to make audiences root for such a disagreeable character.

Carmen Jones arrived two years before Belafonte broke global sales records with his album "Calypso"Not only does Dandridge handle the dramatic moments with aplomb but the musical numbers are triumph. She flirts and dances and dazzles with every song... even if she was actually miming.

Bizarrely, for a cast filled with performers who made their careers in music, many of the leading players were lipsynching to voices that were more classical than their own. Dandridge, who was best known at this point in time as a nightclub sensation, was using the voice of opera great Marilyn Horn, then at the very start of her illustrious career. Future musical stars Belafonte and Carroll are also dubbed! Only Bailey and the Juilliard-trained James get to perform their own songs. This is one of the films downfalls because not only does the opera score feel out of place in the very Black and jazzy milieu of card games and boxing matches but the lip synching is woeful at times. Belafonte (Who just a couple of years later became a mega-selling solo artist) is lumbered with a voice that doesn’t sound like it’s coming from him at all. Dandridge on the other hand does a terrific job selling the illusion. Marilyn Horne apparently spent many hours with Dandridge to make sure their voices matched. It’s hard to tell that the songs are mimed at all.

All in all it's a tour de force by a woman announcing herself as not just a great actress but an honest to goodness MOVIE STAR!

But of course, 1950s Hollywood had other ideas.

An Oscar may have made the difference but whilst she was certainly flavour of the month it was the wrong type of flavour. Grace Kelly playing dowdy by wearing cardigan and glasses was that year’s 'It' girl and Dorothy, on the brink of a major breakthrough for a Black actress, didn’t make another film for 3 years (by which time Kelly had retired for good).

To his credit Fox studio head Darryl F. Zanuck did make some effort. He put Dandridge under contract and actively searched for suitable roles. Unfortunately, the productions either fell through or the parts were turned down on the advice of Dandridge's lover at the time Otto Preminger (She had notoriously terrible taste in men). Adamant that she was now a star and should only take leading parts she was convinced to refuse the roles of Tuptim in the musical smash The King and I and a supporting turn in the hit comedy The Lieutenant Wore Skirts. Both roles went to fellow contract player Rita Moreno. Black women in Hollywood did not have the privilege of being so choosy and Dandridge’s career never recovered. 

I’m not sure that much has changed since. Just ask Halle Berry. Ironically, she gave her best ever performance playing Dandridge herself in Introducing Dorothy Dandridge (1999). It's been 68 years since Carmen Jones was released and Berry is still the only woman of colour that has ever lifted that Best Actress statuette. There has never been a female Sidney or Eddie or Denzel or Will. Does anyone think that Angela Bassett has had the career she deserves? Is Whoopi Goldberg pontificating on The View for the last 15 years putting her considerable talents to their best use? Has Halle’s win changed anything for “every nameless, faceless woman of color that now has a chance because this door tonight has been opened?”

Judy Garland was robbed on that Oscar night, but least we have plenty of evidence of her talent on the big screen. The only real proof we have of Dorothy Dandridge’s greatness is Carmen Jones. Watch it and weep for what could have been.

Carmen Jones is available to rent from Apple TV, Amazon and other sources

Comments

[Mr Ripley79]

I enjoyed this article,she is indeed burning up the screen in CJ but as usual white men controlled women's careers back then and her chances then as a woman of colour would have been very limited.

I think Halle's win sticks out like sore thumb but I have a sneaky feeling Deadwyler may take it this year as her performance is Till whereas frontrunners Blanchett and Yeoh's films have other things to appreciate besides the leads performance as good as both are.

I don't think Whoopi has wasted her talents it seemed either the roles were not there in the early 00's apart from supporting ones and she seemed to slow down also as she aged,she was box office in the early 90's as was Halle in the early to mid 00's but no there hasn't been a female Denzel or Will.

Angela Bassett did not get the career she should have,a couple of okay or flop box office films should not limit your chances,a lot of huge female stars in the 90's Demi,Sharon,Julia,Sandra,Meg,Geena,Meryl all had big flops and it didn't derail their careers.

Bassett's leading lady career seemed to end the moment it started,I knew her starring role career had finished when she had a supporting role in Contact,as good as Jodie was I wonder what type of film we'd have if Bassett was the lead instead.

[joel6]

Though I don't love the movie, it's fine but a bit plodding, Dorothy is excellent as Carmen. I think in the Hollywood of the 50's the nomination was as far as she was ever going to get especially in a race that until it went sideways appeared to have a clear winner in Judy.

Even if she hadn't been competing with such a clear disadvantage I think the dubbing of her voice would have cost her despite the fact that she was known as a fine singer particularly when she was running against one of the greatest singers of her generation who gave her full-throated all in her film.

[NATHANIEL R]

joel5 -- great point on Dandridge's disadvantage there... though lipysnching didnt hurt some other Oscar winners.

mrripley -- i'll forever be frustrated by the Angela Bassett situation. She went to supporting roles so quickly after her very brief dazzling leading lady phase. But at least she has had a long and prolific career (even if the roles weren't the size they should have been) which is more than most actors get.