SILVER

Dorothy Dandridge and Harry Belafonte lead an all-Black cast in Oscar Hammerstein's adaptation of Bizet's classic opera "Carmen". Set during World War II, the story focuses on Carmen Jones (Dandridge), a young woman who works in a parachute factory in North Carolina. When she is arrested for fighting with a co-worker who reported her for arriving late for work, foreman Sgt. Brown assigns young soldier Joe (Belafonte) to deliver her to the authorities, much to the dismay of Joe's fiancée Cindy Lou, who had agreed to marry him during his leave. Interestingly, Otto Preminger opted to dub the singing voices of both Dandridge and Belafonte, explaining his choice of Marilyn Horne and Le Vern Hutcherson: "The music is still Bizet—I can’t change that. The two leads are not operatic singers. But it is important to cast singers in the roles. They know how to 'sell' a song." DIR/PROD Otto Preminger; SCR Harry Kleiner, from the musical by Oscar Hammerstein II. U.S., 1954, color, 105 min. NOT RATED

AFI Member passes accepted.