Carmen Jones

Released Oct 28, 1954

1h 45m

Musical

List

78%

23 Reviews

Tomatometer

78%

5,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

Screen version of the musical "Carmen Jones," which adapted Bizet's opera Carmen for an African-American cast. A soldier falls for Dandridge, a seductive factory worker. The lovers flee after the soldier kills his sergeant, but Carmen's taunting faithlessness drives her lover to a crime of passion.

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Stanley David S

Great movie. Bizet's music is fabulous. Good acting ang fine singing.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

03/10/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Otto Preminger's realism with whimsical musical nature is called Carmen Jones. The story is about temptation and the inevitable consequences of temptation. The musical score by George Bietz his original opera is not only used appropriately within the context of the film's storyline but also help advance the film's plot. The musical numbers in Carmen Jones is pretty catchy, amazing, and impressive. The costume designs for the film were beautiful as the costumes were filled with so much subtlety and charm. Last but not least, the beautiful Dorothy Dandridge puts on a wonderful performance with her beauty, charm, and strong willpower. She portrayed the titular character with so much wisdom and authority, it what makes her performance and the character she plays so beautifully artistic. Generally, Carmen Jones is a wonderful and impressive film and Dorothy Dandridge stole the show with her fantastic and high-powered performance.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/18/23

Full Review

georgan g

Musicals are not my favorite genre, but this is an excellent candidate for enjoying music AND acting.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

William L

On the one hand, Carmen Jones is one of the first majorly successful, sincere American films to feature a predominantly African-American cast, including the first performance by an African-American (Dandridge) to be awarded a nomination for Best Actress. On the other hand, the music is surprisingly unimpressive, with English lyrics that sound wrong paired with Bizet's opera (which is essentially too famous for this kind of treatment, except as parody) and delivery that is far too sing-song, safe, and of the period. Hard to give the film too much credit as a standout of the period in support of the equal capabilities of black performers when the leads often find themselves dubbed over in the actual musical numbers with painfully traditional voices. The film's conservatism is immediately nailed home as soon as Pearl Bailey shows up, as she delivers an active, high-tempo (and undubbed) performance that hints at what the film could have been with more of a nudge towards originality. Certainly incomplete, but worthy of praise for taking a leap in a year in which good ol' American tough guy John Wayne was the ideal of US culture and the top box office draw. (3/5)

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

05/21/21

Full Review

Audience Member

Carmen Jones is required viewing for Dorothy Dandridge alone who is glorious. Although it is a film packed with Black Excellence, it is also still a victim of horrible Black tropes. I do so wish that the film makers hadn't been so concerned with the Bizet estate or European acceptance and made a more folk/rock opera with Dandridge's and, of course, the talented and beautiful Harry Beleafonte's superb voices. The dubbing really took me out of the scene and I think their versions would have felt more authentic even if they were in imperfect registers. The film is beautiful - beautiful cinematography, art direction, costumes, and sets.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/30/23

Full Review

steve d

The adaptation didn't work for me despite strong performances.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

Full Review

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Otto Preminger

Director

Dorothy Dandridge

Carmen Jones

Harry Belafonte

Joe

Pearl Bailey

Frankie

Olga James

Cindy Lou

Diahann Carroll

Myrt

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Variety Staff

Variety

Otto Preminger has transferred it to the screen with taste and imagination in an opulent production.

Oct 23, 2007

Full Review

Dave Kehr

Chicago Reader

Impeccably liberal in its time, the film has not aged gracefully, although Dorothy Dandridge's performance in the lead remains a testimony to a black cinema that might have been.

Oct 23, 2007

Full Review

Andrew Pulver

Guardian

Every frame, you feel, is freighted with the tension imposed by the never-appearing white folks. It was, however, laudable in its desire to showcase the talents of African-American performers who were denied opportunities in Hollywood.

Rated: 3/5

Feb 10, 2007

Full Review

Herman G. Weinberg

Film Culture

Even if Carmen Jones is not the genuine folk opera that Porgy and Bess is, being a pastiche, at best, it is an immensely spirited pastiche, with real gusto.

Jun 7, 2022

Full Review

Edward Murrain

New York Age

Carmen Jones has its obvious faults -- but it also has Dorothy Dandridge. Who's going to complain about that?

Dec 10, 2020

Full Review

John Morris

California Eagle

Our intelligence... has been quite effectively assaulted by the motion picture Carmen Jones.

Dec 6, 2019

Full Review

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Synopsis

Screen version of the musical "Carmen Jones," which adapted Bizet's opera Carmen for an African-American cast. A soldier falls for Dandridge, a seductive factory worker. The lovers flee after the soldier kills his sergeant, but Carmen's taunting faithlessness drives her lover to a crime of passion.

Director: Otto Preminger
Screenwriter: Oscar Hammerstein II, Harry Kleiner
Distributor: 20th Century Fox
Production Co: Carlyle Productions, Twentieth Century Fox
Genre: Musical
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Oct 28, 1954, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Sep 18, 2012
Runtime: 1h 45m

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