Re: My first memory of him....

Quote
JamesJM
Was in "Porgy and Bess". I had seen him before in "The Defiant Ones" but it was in Porgy and Bess that I first took notice of him as a great actor.

I think Mama gives about the best description of him one can... dignity and elegance, and that in every role I ever saw him in. - JamesJM

Although I have a very broad understanding of what the movie is about, I've never seen the movie, or the play. Reading about it on Wikipedia, I was surprised:

Porgy and Bess is a 1959 American musical film directed by Otto Preminger, and starring Sidney Poitier and Dorothy Dandridge in the titular roles. It is based on the 1935 opera Porgy and Bess by George Gershwin, DuBose Heyward and Ira Gershwin, in turn based on Heyward's 1925 novel Porgy, as well as Heyward's subsequent 1927 non-musical stage adaptation, co-written with his wife Dorothy. The film's screenplay, which turned the operatic recitatives into spoken dialogue, was very closely based on the opera and was written by N. Richard Nash.

The project was the last for Samuel Goldwyn. Due to its controversial subject matter, the film was shown only briefly following its initial reserved seat engagements in major cities, where it drew mixed reviews from critics. Two months after its release, Goldwyn grudgingly conceded "No one is waiting breathlessly for my next picture."[3]

The film is unavailable on home video, and it is unknown if a quality print still exists, prompting it to be considered one of the more prestigious and expensively produced "lost films."[2]

In 2011, the film was chosen for inclusion in the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress.[4]

It's available for viewing for free on YouTube but the quality is pretty bad. I may watch it anyhow if nothing else because it's a classic.

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