Porgy and Bess

Porgy and Bess (1959) is unavailable on tape or DVD and has been shown only a few times since its initial commercial release in 1959. The Gershwin family apparently felt that the commercialism of the film ruined the opera, and they have refused to allow its release as a result. Concerns about the portrayal of African Americans in the film perhaps also discouraged its release. With high production values and an outstanding cast of African American actors, this film based on the most famous American opera, with music by Gershwin and the book by Dubose Heyward, is a significant landmark work. Featuring Sidney Poitier as Porgy, Dorothy Dandridge as Bess, along with Pearl Bailey, Sammy Davis Jr, Brock Peters, Diahann Carroll, and others, it is difficult to think of a film with as impressive an African American cast. One may argue that films featuring African American actors in the 1950s and 1960s played a significant role in heightening the public consciousness about civil rights, just as did, in other contexts, African American figures in sports and music. If so, Porgy and Bess was one of the most accomplished of those films.

Mainly filmed on a set, most of the film takes place in Catfish Row, the fictional section of Charleston, South Carolina, where its characters live.

Porgy and Bess is a folk opera that seeks to portray the lives of African Americans in Charleston in what appears to be the early part of the 20^th century. It presents the love affair of Porgy, a crippled man, and Bess, who enters the film in a relationship with a man named Crown (Brock Peters). Crown gets into a fight during a gambling match and kills a man. He flees to the swamps to hide, leaving Bess behind. When some of the people of Catfish Row blame her for the murder because of her relationship with Crown, Porgy takes her in and offers her protection. They fall in love. Later in the film, when Porgy is taken into custody as a witness to a murder, her attention wanders and she is seduced by the character Sportin' Life (Sammy Davis Jr.).

The music and singing in the film are outstanding, though the singing voices of several major actors—Poitier, Dandridge, Carroll—are dubbed. Poitier's deep bass singing voice seems totally unlike his speaking voice. Sammy Davis Jr. and Pearl Bailey, not surprisingly, do their own singing. They have the standout roles of the film. Davis' rendition of "It Ain't Necessarily So" is one of the best of a many great numbers. I never realized that the song is Sportin' Life's attempt to cast doubt on the religious beliefs of other characters. He is the great seducer in the film, and he offers cocaine to Bess and ultimately lures her away from Porgy.

Does this film show stereotyped portrayals of African American characters? From a modern point of view the answer may be that it does, in a certain way. The characters are full of life and joy; they dance and sing, love and gamble and fight. Although they are shown expressing deep emotions, deep thoughts are not so common. Bess in particular is fickle, moving with some ease from one lover to another. For the most part Porgy and Bess shows these characters interacting with one another within their own community. But the film clearly means to show these characters in a positive and sympathetic light. Undoubtedly many of the activities we see them engaged in were realistic portrayals, given the place and time of the film. The film emphasizes how they are at the mercy of the white law and the sheriff, who can enter Catfish Row whenever he pleases, accusing residents of crimes they didn't commit, hauling them off to jail for whatever reason. There is nobility in the best of these characters, especially in Porgy and in Pearl Bailey's character Maria.

One could argue that Porgy and Bess shows the African Americans of Catfish Row as shallow and as preoccupied with the simple pleasures. Yet it also shows them doing their best to respond to the difficult circumstances within which they live.

Although the film seems to end early, with Porgy on his way to try to win back Bess, it is still a powerful work. The picnic and hurricane scenes are especially effective. It memorializes the passions and the nobility of the people of Catfish Row. Even if it does invoke some stereotypes, it doesn't patronize or condescend and it avoids resorting to shuck and jive comedy stereotypes . Its fully rounded characters support and depend on one another and attempt to live their lives in the best ways they know.