Carmen Jones

For the reader who wants to know from a review only if the film is worth seeing, Carmen Jones presents no problem: see the picture. It is an experiment and it is largely unsuccessful. But even its failings are unique; you may touch quickly on every rough edge, you may commiserate with the memory of Bizet. You will probably not regret, however, having seen Carmen Jones.

The picture fails because a drama is popularized which was already perhaps too popular. Critics such as Howard Taubman have had to speak out periodically, defending Carmen from her admirers and pointing out that beneath the years of uninformed applause, the opera stands, near-perfect. Moving this drama from the Spain of the last century to the South of a decade ago does not bring the characters closer to the audience. The switch in locale merely points up incongruities which slip by better in the splendor of opera. When an American murders his love, for example, he does not burst into song. The U.S. is not a country of temporizers; business is business and it is not diluted with arias.

One of the few fortunate results of the up-dated version is the addition of a blowsy friend for Carmen, a part which Pearl Bailey puffs out to her own talents. Miss Bailey "Beats Out That Rhythm On a Drum" and rolls out the film's few comic lines. She is the only member of the all-Negro cast to use her own voice, which is as it should be.

Dorothy Dandridge's Carmen has her best moments in the Habanera aria where she establishes the brand of sultriness which is to drive men mad. Miss Dandridge seems a little relenting for this demoniac task but her equipage is more than adequate. Harry Bellafonte, as Joe--nee Don Jose--relies too much on eye-popping and nerve-straining, emotional displays which the Cinema-Scopic screen shoves into the realm of the ludicrous.

Since Carmen Jones ends up as more than a musical, less than an opera, it is not likely to satisfy partisans of either form. Both groups will admit, however, that despite the artistic lapses, the picture is a singular attempt. Carmen Jones is intriguing for that reason alone.