Customer Reviews

Porgy and Bess

5 star:		(94)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I believe Porgy and Bess was the first movie I ever saw, when I was about three years old, in a movie theater in the Queensbridge Projects, Long Island City, NY. (My second movie was West Side Story.) Porgy and Bess has only appeared a couple of times on TV, and a few times in special screenings. The last screening was probably the year 2000 at either Brooklyn College or the Long Island University campus in Brooklyn, which had a panel discussion afterward over the film's supposed racism and other issues.

I'm not often one to knock political correctness, but please, knock your PC fears aside and release this movie! It's inspiring, fun, glorious, exciting, etc., etc., with wonderful performances by Dorothy Dandridge (Bess), Sammy Davis, Jr. (who dances up a storm as Sportin' Life), Pearl Bailey (Maria), and Brock Peters (outstanding as Crown). I've only thought this recently: Sidney Poitier, although he does an admirable job, is miscast as Porgy. Porgy is a good soul, but Poitier is too refined for an uneducated street beggar; Poitier's Porgy, I imagine, went to college to study law and had a bad accident which devastated his life. Too bad Brock Peters couldn't play two roles at once.

The movie even has a scene, which I think is in the play Porgy but isn't in the opera, where Serena offers to take an orphaned baby given to Bess, and Bess refuses.

I love P&B's verve, spirituality, fun, and grand Gershwin music. I've seen the full operatic version on Broadway (by the Houston Grand Opera) in the 1970s and at the Metropolitan Opera House in the 1980s or 90s, as well as the truncated New York City Opera version in 2000. Now please do us Porgy and Bess fans a favor and release this movie on DVD, too! (I'd prefer it on VHS, but people aren't making those anymore, are they?)

BTW, I am an African-American woman with a love of musical theater and American opera.

Sidney Poitier, Dorothy Dandridge, Sammy Davis Jr., Brock Peters, Pearl Bailey, Diahann Carroll, Ivan Dixon, Maya Angelou and on and on and on. Shantytown, a deep south "colored" fishing ghetto and all its inhabitants are musically portrayed in this classic movie. No contemporary remake (cinematic or stage) can capture the ambience or flavor of the performances in this 1959 classic. The songs; SUMMERTIME, I'M ON MY WAY, IT AIN'T NECESSARILY SO, BESS YOU IS MY WOMAN NOW, etc., echo in one's memory. This all-star AA ensemble will enthrall you.

Poitier (Porgy), without legs below the knees and forced to use his arms and hands for mobility, plays the protagonist against Brock Peters' (Crown) "whole man" antagonist in the struggle for Dorothy Dandridge (Bess), the physical but morally "scarlet-lettered" beauty of the community. Sammy Davis Jr. (Sportin' Life) the street-wise city slicker, like a devil on her shoulder, is always there to tempt Bess with dreams of New York City (where her beauty can be "appreciated"), and the "feel-good" drug heroin. Brock, in jail because of his violent temper and the desire to posess Bess, escapes and lurks in the background as Portier becomes sweet on Bess and sways her to the real things in life, like community and love. Their confrontation is inevitable.

The struggle between good and evil is obvious as is the desire of the characters to overcome life's adversities. Set in a not so unreal, prejudicial era (circa 1930's), the characters manage to "live" their meager lives with hope and in the belief of God. However, Porgy and Bess is a story of belief in one's self. It is set to some of the most stirring music ever produced. The portrayal of life's condition reverberates in the music, but especially in the verses of this song: "It ain't necessarily so, the things you are liable to read in the bible, it ain't necessarily so".

I remember seeing Porgy and Bess starring Sydney Poitier as a young teen. I have been searching the internet for months trying to obtain a copy of this movie. I love the soundtrack and would love to own this classic on DVD or VHS. Please release it soon. This is a must have for anyone who is a fan of Sydney Poitier as well!!!

In 1959, I was 6 years old. When I first saw "Porgy and Bess". Even at the age of six, I could feel how powerful and how great the music and performances were. At the time, the actors and actresses, who starred "Porgy and Bess" were the stars of the day (Sidney Poitier, Dorothy Dandridge, Sammy Davis, Jr, Pearl Bailey, Diahann Carroll, Brock Peters) and many more. The actors and actresses, not only became bigger stars, but went on to become...legends. Speaking of legends, the music of Gershwin, is so moving, that the songs ("Summertime", "It Ain't Necessarily So", "Bess, You Is My Woman", "Porgy, I Loves You") themselves takes on a life, of its own, within the movie. In the early 1960's, I would see "Porgy and Bess", on TV, from time to time, but now, I can't even remember the last time I saw it. For awhile there, I thought, that American Movie Classics would get around to showing it, like they do "Carmen Jones", but they never do. It is, as if, this movie has fallen off the face, of the earth. I'm sure, that there are many reasons and many people, to justify, why "Porgy and Bess" isn't on DVD. To those reasons and to those people, it's crime to deny, the world, from one of the few moments, in movie history, where there are so many talented black stars, in a movie musical. This kind of movie making, didn't happen, back then...it still doesn't, (if you know what I mean, and I think you do.) I'm 51 years old now. When I see movies now, on DVD, I not only enjoy the movie, but I enjoy the extra features, (you know, the making of the movie). The DVD is the best thing, that has ever happened, for a movie and for the true movie fan. I would love to see "Porgy and Bess" movie on DVD, because it touches me...I love that movie. To the powers, that be...please, release to me...please release to the world, the one true lost treasure, of film history...please? God bless you.

This is a great movie. The Gershwin trust may object to the performing version - it includes dialogue, which the opera version doesn't . But that should not be a valid reason to keep this movie off the market any more than the fact that Poitier, Dandridge and Diahann Carroll don't sing for themselves. Lots of movies have dubbed voices, and we, the audience, don't care. What matters here is the incredible acting and pacing. It is indeed Sammy Davis' best performance, and his scene with Pearl Bailey still rattles around in my brain, and I haven't seen it for years.

There were two versions of the film shown in theatres. One had the center of "I've got plenty of nothin'" omitted and left out "My man's gone now." (A cut I cannot imagine making since the Serena was perfect.) A DVD version offered by another company (quite illegally, I'm sure) is in terrible color (all orangy) and is the short version - roughly 2 hours. The whole thing should run around 2hours 30 minutes. So I can only hope that the movie studio, lawyers and heirs are working on a solution to the hold-up, because we are the ones being held-up.

The movie industry makes so few movies like this now, that it would be wonderful to see it released on DVD so they could see how much potential a good plot, great acting and music can actually provide. And yes, hurry, so Poitier, Peters, Carroll, Previn and a few others can provide commentary. Davis, Bailey and Dandridge are already gone.

I think the Gershwin Trust should be invited to write a "Why we won't release Porgy and Bess on DVD" for Amazon, so we can all complain right back. If I had their address, my letter would be sane but very strong. Release This Film.

Apparently, after writing the above, it was stated by the heirs that they objected to Andre Previn's reorchestration of at least parts of the score. My answer is this:
Did Rodgers and Hammerstein object when they reorchestrated King and I for the screen (or cut numbers and transposed them)? No.
Do actors object when their earlier performances are still aired with the idea that "they are as good as they should be"? No, because they were as good as they could be.

It should be noted that the published piano-vocal score uses the iconic image of the movie poster for its cover. If I were the Premingers, i might insist that they stop using it or release the movie.

Premingers and the movie industry are allowing the Gershwin heirs too much leverage. They were paid for the rights, and they should not have reverted back to the Gershwins so quickly. Release it in a good print for two months and see how many people buy it. I will, for sure, and a few for presents.

I have looked every where for this film! I've wanted to share it with my children and grandchildren, because I think it is a piece of film art that needs to be remembered always. This is a fine example of opera to film. Good story, great actors, and songs to hum for years!

The last time I saw this film was in 1959 at The Dowling Theater in Houston,Texas.It was a black theater back then,during segragation,and surprisingly enough a stereophonic sound system was installed and in operation there.

I was a young boy and can tell you how impressed I was watching this movie back then.The music,the acting,the set decoration all came together beautifully.Just to imagine the assembling of such great stars like Sidney Potier,Dorothy Dandridge,Sammy Davis Jr,Pearl Bailey......in the making of this film is reason alone for the powers that be to bring this picture back to the public.

For those of us who saw the movie back in 1959,and with today's technology's home theater surround sound systems and big screen tv's,us ole folk would find it such a pleasure to once again view this motion picture in the privacy of our own homes rather than going out to a theater to watch it again.It really needs releasing on DVD,videotape.

Another strong reason for re-releasing this film is like the member above stated,if the American Film Institute recognizes "Porgy And Bess" as a great film,why not give it back to us?

Do we need to plan a march?Mail a petition with a substantial amount of names signed?To get the Gershwins',the NAACP,or whoever is against it's release to change their minds?

WE SHOULDN'T HAVE TO WAIT THIS LONG!!!

Michael

When the movie came out my whole family saw it. My mother bought the record because my brothers and sisters all loved the music. Many of the songs were memorized. The acting and much was above exceptional. Sammy Davis Jr. was superb, along with all of the the actors and actresses. I would love to watch it again in the theater, video or listen to to music on DVD. There will never be one to replace the original.

You have to be impressed with a film that can make the American Film Institute's list of America's Greatest Love Stories when the only place you can see it is in the Library of Congress. The Gershwin family was very unhappy with this 1959 film version of this most American opera (yes, opera), feeling that producer Samuel Goldwyn had made a major mistake in firing Rouben Mamoulian, the director of the original stage version in 1935 and the film's original director, and in glamorizing the story. The last time "Porgy and Bess" was seen was on television in the mid-1960's, at which point the Gershwin's withdrew all copies of the film.

The music, of course, is by George Gershwin, with the text by Du Bose Heyward and Ira Gershwin after the drama "Porgy" by Du Bose and Dorothy Heyward. The show was first produced in 1935 with a notable revival in 1953 with Leontyne Price and William Warfield. The film stars Sidney Portier as Porgy (his singing was dubbed by opera singer Bobby McFerrin, Sr.), Dorothyy Dandridge as Bess, with Sammy Davis Jr. as Sportin' Life, Pearl Bailey as Maria, Brock Peters as Crown, and Diahann Carroll as Clara. Clearly, we are talking an incredibly talented cast of performers which should have made this film a benchmark in the history of American films featuring African-American actors and actresses; I would argue that not until "The Color Purple" have we seen anything comparable. However, we are talking Hollywood, so we are not overly surprised.

The story is essentially a pair of competing love triangles set in Catfish Row in Charleston, South Carolina: The cripple Porgy (baritone) loves Bess (soprano), but she has left him for Crown (bass). After Crown murders a gambler in a quarrel, Porgy takes Bess in, despite the offer of Sportin' Life (tenor) to take her to New York. Bess bounches back and forth between Porgy and Crown until the former murders the later, and then she runs off to the big city with Sportin' Life, leaving Porgy to head after her once again.

Best Lines: Obviously from the songs (1) "Summertime and the livin' is easy"; (2) "It ain't necessarily so" and (3) "Bess, you is my woman now."

If you like "Porgy and Bess," then check out these other films on AFI's list: #67 "A Streetcar Named Desire." Why? Because it is another operatic love story that would make a great opera (didn't somebody already do that?).

I remember seeing this wonderful movie with Dorothy Dandridge, Sidney Poitier, Pearl Bailey, Diahann Carroll, and black actors that we will never see on the movie screen again. The music was just beautiful and the color on the prints were just excellent. It is a great love story with Dorothy being an exciting Bess.I have seen several stage versions of this story, but I haven't seen an interpretation of Bess so well acted as Dandridge. It is a shame, she has never been awarded with an oscar, the other actors in this film were just wonderful. Unfortunately, it appears that I will never get a chance to share this wonderful movie with my kids. This would be a wonderful way to teach them that blacks can interpret a musical with a story line that centered around love between a woman and man. An excellent job well done, but appears to be a hidden treasure that none of us will be able to share with others. It is a shame that the work performed by these actors will never be seen to be appreciated by our future generations. Wouldn't it be wonderful to be able to view this film in DVD format with the surround format? I hope that the Gershwin family will reconsider and release this DVD. I willing to purchase two copies.