Porgy and Bess had a beleaguered production process, and it switched directors right before shooting. It also had a cast that mostly didn't want to be involved, and actors who couldn't sing. Then Otto Preminger filmed the entire thing in a medium shot for reasons I cannot understand at all, but may be related to his relationship with Samuel Goldwyn. The result is distanced and strange. Fine for a stage production, maybe, but as a film it is cold and has too many gaps.
Is the film worth watching for Dorothy Dandridge, Sidney Poitier, Pearl Bailey, and Sammy Davis Jr.? I don't actually think it is. No one seems to want to be here, actually, except maybe Sammy Davis, Jr., who plays a version of Sporting Life that is strange and stilted.
I've used the word strange twice above, and I guess I just feel like this entire film is very odd, as though the director and the producer just didn't quite know what to do with the Gershwins' masterpiece.
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