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A retelling of the story of Carmen using the music of Georges Bizet from his famous opera of the same name. The music has little changed but some characters have been upgraded to modern believable ones. The bullfighter (the Toreador) becomes a boxer for example. Carmen, now named Carmen Jones is beautifully and sexually played by Dorothy Dandridge opposite Harry Belafonte (Joe the love-smitten soldier) What is fantastic is the modern lyrics of Oscar Hammerstein II put to music that was 75 years old and what a perfect fit it made. On top of this, Otto Preminger, the director, cast only negros in the roles. Again a perfect fit. In addition, for the lead singing roles, opera singer's voices were used to dub the singing parts, with exceptional performaces by Marilyn Horne (Carmen) and LeVern Hutcherson (Joe) Then there are jazz singers lke Diahann Carroll and Pearl Bailey. A pure delight and a must see. A historic movie.
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