Dorothy Dandridge Appreciation Thread (1 Viewer)

[David_B_K]

I still have Tarzan's Peril on my DVR from the last time it was on TCM. Still haven't watched it. I only recorded it to see how stunning DD would look as an African queen. Still haven't watched it. In fact, I have never seen a Lex Barker Tarzan movie. When I was a kid I don't remember them showing up much on TV. It was mainly the Weismullers I saw.

 

[Emcee]

Island in the Sun (1957) was one of my favorite classic movies for quite some time, but I haven't seen it in several years. It marked Dorothy's first film in three years, and featured her with an all-star cast, consisting of (but not limited to) James Mason, Harry Belafonte, Joan Fontaine, Joan Collins, Stephen Boyd, Michael Rennie, Patricia Owens, John Justin, Diana Wynyard, and others.

Dorothy plays a local Indian drug store clerk named Margot Seaton, who embarks on an interracial romance with governor aide Dennis Archer (John Justin). This on-screen partnership and the one between Belafonte and Fontaine drew controversy. The Production Code kicked into high gear to make sure neither of the romances got too physical. Dorothy's scenes and dialogue were cautiously rewritten to make sure that John Justin's character didn't say that her loved her. There were also alterations made to make sure the interracial couples didn't kiss. The movie received mixed reviews from critics, but was a big financial hit.

Island in the Sun was a pet project of Darryl F. Zanuck, who had left Fox to produce independent pictures. The film was photographed in CinemaScope and DeLuxe color and used the beautiful locales of Grenda and Barbados, scenery Zanuck stated were "never before photographed". The movie provides a soapy melodrama-style story, revolving around multiple characters and how their lives intersect.

It is a beautiful movie.

​

 

[Emcee]

In the late 1940s, Dandridge was close friends with other up-and-coming actresses Ava Gardner and Marilyn Monroe. I have never found anything terribly extensive concerning their friendship, but apparently Dorothy and Ava were still close into the mid-1950s. There is a photo from 1953 of the two women together while they were both working for MGM.

 

[MartinP.]

To me, Dorothy and the Nicholas Brothers here are the essence of show business.

I attended an AMPAS screening of Carmen Jones, maybe 20+ years ago and Fayard Nicholas was there. I met him in the restroom, well before most people were arriving, and I talked to him for several minutes. A very lovely man.

 

[MartinP.]

If you're in Los Angeles this month, the Academy Museum is having this film program:

Dorothy Dandridge and Ruby Dee: A Shared Centennial​

November 3 ⁠–⁠ November 25, 2022

Dorothy Dandridge and Ruby Dee

Presented in conjunction with Regeneration: Black Cinema 1898–1971, on view through April 9, 2023.

www.academymuseum.org

On November 17th, a friend and I are attending the Dorothy Dandridge double feature: The Decks Ran Red and Moment of Danger. Carmen Jones is being presented this week on November 10th.

 

[Emcee]

Dorothy Dandridge, early 1950s style.

This was at a time she was working with pianist Phil Moore, who accompanied her during her nightclub engagements. The partnership held performances at such high-profile places as the Cotton Club and the Mocambo.

According to biographer Donald Bogle, Moore enjoyed viewing himself as Dandridge's svengali. His preference was to see her in form-fitting, black "slinky" dresses that accented her figure and heightened her stage presence.

The Dandridge-Moore partnership dissolved when she started taking her film career more seriously.

 

[MartinP.]

Are you aware there is a statue of Dorothy Dandridge in Hollywood?

The Four Ladies of Hollywood is a 30-foot-tall sculpture that stands on a traffic island at the juncture of Hollywood Boulevard and La Brea Avenue. It’s comprised of an Art Deco-styled gazebo held aloft atop the heads of four iconic Hollywood women and topped with a tall spire with a weather vane of Marilyn Monroe at the top.

The designer, Catherine Hardwicke, said her design is intended to be a tribute to four trailblazing women of color who broke boundaries during the Golden Age of Hollywood: Mae West, Dorothy Dandridge, Anna Mae Wong, and Dolores Del Rio.

https://siris-artinventories.si.edu...x=.GW&uindex=&aspect=Keyword&menu=search&ri=1

 

[Emcee]

Are you aware there is a statue of Dorothy Dandridge in Hollywood?

The Four Ladies of Hollywood is a 30-foot-tall sculpture that stands on a traffic island at the juncture of Hollywood Boulevard and La Brea Avenue. It’s comprised of an Art Deco-styled gazebo held aloft atop the heads of four iconic Hollywood women and topped with a tall spire with a weather vane of Marilyn Monroe at the top.

The designer, Catherine Hardwicke, said her design is intended to be a tribute to four trailblazing women of color who broke boundaries during the Golden Age of Hollywood: Mae West, Dorothy Dandridge, Anna Mae Wong, and Dolores Del Rio.

https://siris-artinventories.si.edu...x=.GW&uindex=&aspect=Keyword&menu=search&ri=1

Yes, I was aware, but thank you for sharing.

 

[Robin9]

If you're in Los Angeles this month, the Academy Museum is having this film program:

Dorothy Dandridge and Ruby Dee: A Shared Centennial​

November 3 ⁠–⁠ November 25, 2022

Dorothy Dandridge and Ruby Dee

Presented in conjunction with Regeneration: Black Cinema 1898–1971, on view through April 9, 2023.

www.academymuseum.org

On November 17th, a friend and I are attending the Dorothy Dandridge double feature: The Decks Ran Red and Moment of Danger. Carmen Jones is being presented this week on November 10th.

I envy you. Moment Of Danger is now very difficult to get to see. To the best of my knowledge, it has never been released on disc anywhere, apart from a bootleg product which I refuse to buy.

 

[MartinP.]

 

[Emcee]

I envy you. Moment Of Danger is now very difficult to get to see. To the best of my knowledge, it has never been released on disc anywhere, apart from a bootleg product which I refuse to buy.

YouTube had it one time, but now they just have pieces of it.

 

[MartinP.]

I envy you. Moment Of Danger is now very difficult to get to see. To the best of my knowledge, it has never been released on disc anywhere, apart from a bootleg product which I refuse to buy.

I referenced your post to my friend when we attended the screenings last night. I told him we should take a moment to appreciate how lucky we were to be seeing this film, and also The Decks Ran Red.

--The Decks Ran Red, we are told at the beginning, is a true and unbelievable story, which it definitely is. Some of this movie feels like they're putting us on because it really is pretty unbelievable that a guy would come up with and contemplate what would be such a horrific thing if accomplished. It's about a guy manipulating others on a cargo ship to create a mutiny in which to eliminate all the other people on board which somehow this guy thinks would net him a lot of money. Besides Dorothy Dandridge, the movie stars Broderick Crawford as the manipulator and the new captain is played by James Mason, who I've never really been that fond of. Stuart Whitman is also in it.

Dorothy's part in it is much like her part in Tamango, the only female on a ship. In this case the Captain needed to hire a cook asap and the one person who'd agree would only do it if he could bring his wife aboard. So Dandridge's character has to deal with all the misogyny and such you'd expect and the danger in the plot going on. Despite the fact this is all a true story it often comes off as comical as well as unbelievable, but it was never boring,

The film is in b&w, but in the opening credits the RED in the title sequence becomes actual dripping in RED color.

--Malaga aka Moment of Danger, was a revelation to me. I was not at all familiar with it. As the credits came on my initial thought was why they would pair Dorothy Dandridge together with Trevor Howard. That seemed like a recipe for disaster, but I was wrong! In this film they make a really great pairing

My friend has a lot of knowledge of Dorothy Dandridge films. He has tried to watch a youtube version and even bought one of the copies people try to sell which he reported are so awful that he never could watch them. We didn't know what kind of print we'd be seeing, but it turns out it at the beginning it was quite acceptable, but quickly became a very good print.

The print we saw had it's original title on it, MALAGA. It was a Warner Bros. release according to this film; perhaps just distributed by Warner Brothers.

It's about a jewel heist and the aftermath and we both thought it a very entertaining film, filled with surprises and revelations and humanity. One might not blink an eye nowadays, but in 1960 a movie with a pairing of Dandridge and Howard may have been a shock to some sensibilities. Is that a reason it's not seen so much? I hope not, it's really one of her best films.

During the film I thought "what if Dorothy Dandridge could have played the 'Alma' role in the film Hud" which was released in 1963. I love that film which stars Paul Newman, Melvyn Douglas, Brandon DeWilde and Patricia Neal. Douglas and Neal won Oscars for their roles. I take nothing away from that film AS IS, but at some point I found out that the novel by Larry McMurtry that Hud was based on...the character of Alma was black. And seeing Howard and Dandridge together in Malaga, it brought this thought to my mind.

Alas, I can only hope that somehow this film can be made available because it is quite good and, as I said, I think one of Dandridge's best roles.

The pre-screening remarks included the wish that they could have shown Porgy & Bess in this series; the film was released in 1959, between the years the two films we saw were, but this film is also in limbo for many similar reasons.

ASIDE: Interestingly, I like to watch The Amazing Race TV series and in last Wednesday's episode the teams traveled to MALAGA!

 

[DarkVader]

Island in the Sun (1957) was one of my favorite classic movies for quite some time, but I haven't seen it in several years. It marked Dorothy's first film in three years, and featured her with an all-star cast, consisting of (but not limited to) James Mason, Harry Belafonte, Joan Fontaine, Joan Collins, Stephen Boyd, Michael Rennie, Patricia Owens, John Justin, Diana Wynyard, and others.

Dorothy plays a local Indian drug store clerk named Margot Seaton, who embarks on an interracial romance with governor aide Dennis Archer (John Justin). This on-screen partnership and the one between Belafonte and Fontaine drew controversy. The Production Code kicked into high gear to make sure neither of the romances got too physical. Dorothy's scenes and dialogue were cautiously rewritten to make sure that John Justin's character didn't say that her loved her. There were also alterations made to make sure the interracial couples didn't kiss. The movie received mixed reviews from critics, but was a big financial hit.

Island in the Sun was a pet project of Darryl F. Zanuck, who had left Fox to produce independent pictures. The film was photographed in CinemaScope and DeLuxe color and used the beautiful locales of Grenda and Barbados, scenery Zanuck stated were "never before photographed". The movie provides a soapy melodrama-style story, revolving around multiple characters and how their lives intersect.

It is a beautiful movie.

View attachment 161671 ​

I have an affinity for 1950s melodramatic/sudsers and "Island in the Sun" based on Alex Waugh's controversial novel fits the bill, although most of what made the story controversial was either alluded to or just plain deleted when the story was adapted for film.

Dandridge is gorgeous in it, but she is sorely under-utilized in the film because of the cuts made to her character's storyline. Belafonte and Fontaine's character's storylines are also done a great disservice in this adaptation. The film however is gorgeous to look at.

In all honesty my favorite performance in this film is Joan Collins'. She's fun, she's flirty and she's gorgeous in it. She was also having a very heated affair with Belafonte during the film's shoot. She gives him very high marks as a lover in her auto-biography, "Past Imperfect".

 

[Emcee]

I referenced your post to my friend when we attended the screenings last night. I told him we should take a moment to appreciate how lucky we were to be seeing this film, and also The Decks Ran Red.

--The Decks Ran Red, we are told at the beginning, is a true and unbelievable story, which it definitely is. Some of this movie feels like they're putting us on because it really is pretty unbelievable that a guy would come up with and contemplate what would be such a horrific thing if accomplished. It's about a guy manipulating others on a cargo ship to create a mutiny in which to eliminate all the other people on board which somehow this guy thinks would net him a lot of money. Besides Dorothy Dandridge, the movie stars Broderick Crawford as the manipulator and the new captain is played by James Mason, who I've never really been that fond of. Stuart Whitman is also in it.

Dorothy's part in it is much like her part in Tamango, the only female on a ship. In this case the Captain needed to hire a cook asap and the one person who'd agree would only do it if he could bring his wife aboard. So Dandridge's character has to deal with all the misogyny and such you'd expect and the danger in the plot going on. Despite the fact this is all a true story it often comes off as comical as well as unbelievable, but it was never boring,

The film is in b&w, but in the opening credits the RED in the title sequence becomes actual dripping in RED color.

--Malaga aka Moment of Danger, was a revelation to me. I was not at all familiar with it. As the credits came on my initial thought was why they would pair Dorothy Dandridge together with Trevor Howard. That seemed like a recipe for disaster, but I was wrong! In this film they make a really great pairing

My friend has a lot of knowledge of Dorothy Dandridge films. He has tried to watch a youtube version and even bought one of the copies people try to sell which he reported are so awful that he never could watch them. We didn't know what kind of print we'd be seeing, but it turns out it at the beginning it was quite acceptable, but quickly became a very good print.

The print we saw had it's original title on it, MALAGA. It was a Warner Bros. release according to this film; perhaps just distributed by Warner Brothers.

It's about a jewel heist and the aftermath and we both thought it a very entertaining film, filled with surprises and revelations and humanity. One might not blink an eye nowadays, but in 1960 a movie with a pairing of Dandridge and Howard may have been a shock to some sensibilities. Is that a reason it's not seen so much? I hope not, it's really one of her best films.

During the film I thought "what if Dorothy Dandridge could have played the 'Alma' role in the film Hud" which was released in 1963. I love that film which stars Paul Newman, Melvyn Douglas, Brandon DeWilde and Patricia Neal. Douglas and Neal won Oscars for their roles. I take nothing away from that film AS IS, but at some point I found out that the novel by Larry McMurtry that Hud was based on...the character of Alma was black. And seeing Howard and Dandridge together in Malaga, it brought this thought to my mind.

Alas, I can only hope that somehow this film can be made available because it is quite good and, as I said, I think one of Dandridge's best roles.

The pre-screening remarks included the wish that they could have shown Porgy & Bess in this series; the film was released in 1959, between the years the two films we saw were, but this film is also in limbo for many similar reasons.

ASIDE: Interestingly, I like to watch The Amazing Race TV series and in last Wednesday's episode the teams traveled to MALAGA!

I would've relished the opportunity to see these movies on the big screen. Congratulations to you!

 

[Emcee]

I have an affinity for 1950s melodramatic/sudsers and "Island in the Sun" based on Alex Waugh's controversial novel fits the bill, although most of what made the story controversial was either alluded to or just plain deleted when the story was adapted for film.

Dandridge is gorgeous in it, but she is sorely under-utilized in the film because of the cuts made to her character's storyline. Belafonte and Fontaine's character's storylines are also done a great disservice in this adaptation. The film however is gorgeous to look at.

In all honesty my favorite performance in this film is Joan Collins'. She's fun, she's flirty and she's gorgeous in it. She was also having a very heated affair with Belafonte during the film's shoot. She gives him very high marks as a lover in her auto-biography, "Past Imperfect".

I've yet to read the novel (and I probably never will), but I've heard enough times to believe that the film version is certainly "sanitized" when compared to Waugh's story.

 

[RolandL]

Just watched Island in the Sun from a TCMHD dvr recording. Looked pretty good but the sound was mono and should have been 4.0 stereo.