CARMEN JONES

New Zealand Listener, Volume 32, Issue 816, 18 March 1955, Page 20

CARMEN JONES

(20th Century-Fox) HIS week, .with so much written about Carmen Jones | in Another Place, it seemed to me that it would be appropri-ate-a pleasing coalescence of equity and personal inclinationto lead off in this department with a few well-chosen words about Sabrina and the latest gen. on Little Audrey. Good resolutions, however, are not broken only on January 1. Having exposed myself to the full blast of Carmen Jones; I find that she is not the kind of character (whatever one may think of her) to be relegated even to a nominal second place. I like Miss Hepburnindeed I warm to her with each succeeding performance. But a gentle warmth is scarcely to be compared with a seconddegree burn. This CinemaScopic Carmen-Holly-wood’s version of the Broadway musical adaptation of Bizet’s operatic variations on Mérimée’s novel-is, as the Americans themselves would quaintly put it, "a long ways’ from home." There is, in fact, no Bizet like this show Bizet and it seems certain beyond a peradventure that the simon-pure opera enthusiast will see the glorious De Luxe colour of the production only through the red veils of near-apoplexy. He will have my sympathy. I can't claim to be a connoisseur, or even a lover, of opera-Grand or otherwisebut one doesn’t need to be a Neville Cardus or an Eric Blom to perceive that the voice of Jacob and the hands of Esau were scarcely more ill-sorted than the music and manner of this production, that the lyrics often limp, and that the effort to keep events more or less in step with Bizet libretto at times produces an effect of caricature which does less than justice to the talents of the players and singe s. But one can say all those things and scarcely dent the production, for its drama springs from sources some distance below speech-level. I can’t regard a prize-fight as more exciting (or more picturesque) than a bull-fight, but Spanish fire and even "gypsy passion would seem pallid things alongside the uninhibited vitality of the Negro. Carmen Jones crackles with authentic life and vigour-not life breathed into it by a scripwriter, or a composer, or a director, but the life of the players and singers themselves. On the score of total effort (and total is the word to use for it) Pearl Bailey is the outstanding member of the cast. She both acts and sings, and the setpiece in t@e’ night-club where she gives out with "Beat Out Dat Rhythm on a Drum" is the highwater mark of the film. The best singing, on the other hand, was (I thought) that of Le Vern Hutcherson who sang Joe’s songs for Harry Belafonte. The dubbing was skilfully done for all three principals (nowhere more impressively than in the last scene of ail), but the singing and speaking voices of Husky the prize-fighter were not matched altogether satisfactorily. Of the non-singing players, Dorothy Dandridge is easily the most impressive,

having not only explosive vitality and physical grace but brains and acting capacity as well. Both she and Belafonte have played in films before, and it is now possibly not too much to hope that they may be seen again. As a film, Carmen Jones is good-despite its incidental and probably inevitable imperfections. It may be even better as a portent.