Dorothy Dandridge as CARMEN JONES (1954)

This fiery, sexy performance by the late, great Dorothy Dandridge made Hollywood history.  The Best Actress of 1954 Oscar race became one of the most famous in that award's history.  Judy Garland was the favorite to win for her magnificent screen comeback in the first remake of A STAR IS BORN, one that made the unknown performer a singer with a band who gets discovered and discovers the dark side of Hollywood fame while starring in sunny musicals. Garland's main competition was new Hollywood Golden Girl, Grace Kelly, a sophisticated lady who went drab and dramatic in THE COUNTRY GIRL.  Dorothy Dandridge broke through the Hollywood color barrier and became the first black woman to be an Oscar nominee for Best Actress thanks to her work in the musical drama, CARMEN JONES directed by Otto Preminger.  Dorothy Dandridge worked hard at her craft. She was a serious student in classes and truly had star quality.  But Hollywood was restricted back then.  Black actors could move up only so far.  Even the most talented would not get equal opportunities and respect.

Dandridge deserved to be in that Best Actress category.  She burns up the screen with charisma, sex appeal, glamour...and talent.  This story is a modern day take on Bizet's opera CARMEN.  We'd seen the tale of the doomed temptress before and she's a character who seems to work when viewed through different racial lenses.  Rita Hayworth, then at the height of her Hollywood stardom, was Latina and so was her Carmen in the 1948 Technicolor melodrama, THE LOVES OF CARMEN set in 19th century Spain.  Rita Hayworth is at her vivacious best as the lusty gypsy romanced by a young, naïve soldier (played by Glenn Ford.)  Next came Dorothy.

CARMEN JONES is modern day with modern day soldiers and updated original lyrics to Bizet's operatic melodies.  CARMEN JONES has an all-Black cast that includes Diahann Carroll, Pearl Bailey and Brock Peters.  Harry Belafonte was Dorothy's leading man.

Dandridge could sing but she was not an operatic singer so her singing is dubbed by Marilyn Horne.  Dandridge was a Hollywood veteran by that time.  She, like other Black actresses, had played maids and went uncredited in some roles she did.  You can spot her with her sister in the Marx Brothers comedy, A DAY AT THE RACES (1937).  She's in the "All God's Children Got Rhythm" swing number set in the black folks section of town.  She's an African princess opposite another screen beauty, Gene Tierney, in 1941's SUNDOWN.  Also in 1941, she had a musical number with the Nicholas Brothers in 20th Century Fox's SUN VALLEY SERENADE.

I've written before that, if Hollywood had not been so racially unenlightened, Dorothy Dandridge should have been able to play characters like Lana Turner did -- gorgeous young women who were restless, not content to settle for the traditional married life without having a taste of something better. Maybe a bite of some sweet forbidden fruit just to see how it tastes.  And she should've played the gorgeous young woman at war with herself until she wins the battle and finds self-esteem and independence.  Think of the Lana Turner characters in ZIEGFELD GIRL, JOHNNY EAGER, THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE and THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL.  It would've been great to see Dorothy do those kind of roles.

High praise George Cukor had for Judy Garland's acting skill during production of A STAR IS BORN made me think of Dorothy Dandridge in CARMEN JONES.  Pay attention the next time you see that Otto Preminger musical.  In A STAR IS BORN, Judy Garland introduces the blues song "The Man That Got Away" and it's one of the most dynamic, thrilling numbers in Hollywood movie musical history.  It's a long number. It runs at four and a half minutes.  Garland sings this torch song in one continuous take.  Not a single cut or edit.  She's onscreen in a wide shot for the entire performance.  Cukor said that it takes a strong actress to carry a scene that long without a cut.  Garland was a sensational, soul-touching singer and a strong actress.  Also, she didn't lip sync.  She sang along to her playback full out and often topped it in volume.

Dandridge was the third woman in Hollywood history to be nominated for an Oscar.  The first was Hattie McDaniel for 1939's GONE WITH THE WIND.  Hattie won for Best Supporting Actress.  Singer/actress Ethel Waters was nominated in the same category for the 1949 race drama, PINKY.  Both actresses were hefty women cast as domestics, uneducated but wise women, outfitted in sexless and plain dresses.  In Dandridge's Carmen, we see a talented woman slapping white Hollywood in the face with the realization that a black actress can be just as sexy and alluring as a Rita Hayworth, a Lana Turner and an Ava Gardner.  Her Carmen is not only sexy, she's smart.  There's an intelligence in Dandridge's performance that's always at play.  As she teases and tempts the soldiers on the base, we see that her Carmen is a shrewd captain in the Battle of the Sexes.  She constantly advances.  She understands the politics of sex.  For her, sex is not just pleasure. It's also power.  She's honest about her sexuality and realizes that it may be the sole currency a black woman alone has in life.  She may not know where she's going, but she's determined to chart her own course.  In this performance, Dorothy Dandridge challenged previous images of black women presented onscreen by white Hollywood.  Within her work and within the Hollywood studio system, for the time she was given, she was a rebel.

Dorothy Dandridge, whose career was painfully crippled after her groundbreaking Oscar nomination because of her race, was also a strong actress.  Watch her musical numbers.  Maybe because this project sported an all-Black cast, it didn't get the budget the "usual" musicals got.  For someone who was a screen beauty, there's never a close-up glamour shot in any of Dandridge's numbers, not like you'd traditionally see in movie musical songs being done by an Alice Faye, Betty Grable, Rita Hayworth, Dorothy Lamour, Doris Day or Ava Gardner and Judy Garland at MGM.  Although her talents were under-utilized at MGM because of her race, singer Lena Horne did get glamorous close-ups in her musical numbers.  Dandridge in CARMEN JONES is in shots for a long time singing and -- like Garland belting out "The Man That Got Away" -- she can hold the scene without a cut or edit.

She and Judy Garland both lost the Oscar.  Grace Kelly won for THE COUNTRY GIRL.

Dorothy Dandridge reminded people of her impressive acting talent, her true movie star glamour and undeniable screen charisma in another Otto Preminger musical drama, 1959's PORGY AND BESS co-starring Sidney Poitier.  It was her next Hollywood leading lady script offer for a film shot in Hollywood after her 1954 breakthrough performance.  1954 to 1959.  And it was her last film role. Racism robbed us of more great work from the gifted star Lena Horne lovingly called "our Marilyn Monroe."

CARMEN JONES airs on cable's TCM (Turner Classic Movies) at 8p Eastern on Tuesday, September 18th.  CARMEN JONES airs as part of TCM's month-long salute to the Black Experience On Film.