A sex crazed factory worker corrupts a dumbass American soldier, and when she tries to exert bodily autonomy after their relationship ends, he strangles her to death. Cute.
Carmen Jones is a modern day retelling of the classic Bizet opera, Carmen. Set in America during WW2, Carmen works at a parachute factory, and although she has a reputation for getting around, she has her eyes set on Corporal Joe. The only complication is he currently has a sweetheart, Cindy Lou, and she’s sitting right next to him while Carmen puts the moves on.
The majority of the songs in this movie are from Bizet’s original opera, but with new English lyrics. I’m all for translating something in a different medium, but Rogers and Hammerstein made the bizarre decision to require actual opera singers to perform these songs, instead of updating the style of delivery to something you don’t need years upon years of training to execute.
I probably don’t have to tell you that the majority of the actors in this movie were dubbed when they sang, including their main actress, Dorothy Dandridge, whose parts were sang by Marilynn Horne.
Again, I ask, why cast leads of your movie that you’re going to have to dub over? This also leads to some racists fucking bullshit, where the black actors are dubbed over with white singers trying to “sound black”. And by “sounding black”, apparently that means speaking in improper grammar and replacing any word that starts with T with a D. It’s fucking awkward.
The songs are written in this dialect, however, so it wasn’t even a creative choice from Marilynn Horne. It was written into the show, which again, fucking oof. Dorothy Dandridge doesn’t even speak that way when reciting the dialogue, but the minute she has to sing, we’re treated with a barrage of dats, deres, and dens.
Carmen Jones did provide a platform for a lot of black actors and actresses to be featured in a major motion picture, but there were so many things the filmmakers could have done to prevent white voices from dubbing black actors. Hire someone qualified to sing the role, or change the skill needed to play the role. With the amount of talent that exists in the world, if you can’t find someone who can both sing and act, you’re not doing your job as a casting director.
(Yes, I know, I know, the lord knows I’m going to have so much to answer to when we get to My Fair Lady, I’m preparing myself.)
Opera singers are nothing *but* charisma, because there’s a good possibility they’re singing in a language that their audience does not understand. They need to exude the emotion from their voice, and from their movements. If you want the cast of your movie to sing opera for whatever misguided reason, cast fucking opera singers.
I have mentioned before I have a very, very, very, bad and basic understanding of French, so listening to this opera, I can only pick out bits and pieces of what the hell anybody is singing. Thankfully, the way Elina Garanca delivers the song, I can surmise everything I need to know.
Olga James is proof that you can cast someone charismatic and charming who can also fucking sing opera. After Joe blows off Carmen, he asks Cindy Lou to marry him while telling her she reminds him of his mother. I can’t think of anything less romantic, but Cindy Lou falls for it hard. They sing a beautiful duet and she agrees to marry him that day so they can “honeymoon” before he leaves for flight school in the morning.
Seconds after Joe proposes to Cindy Lou, he’s called to duty to drive Carmen to a neighboring city’s prison because she started a fight with her co-worker. While Joe is initially pissed off by this, Carmen is through the roof.
Otto Preminger, the director of this film, didn’t believe Dorothy Dandridge could act “sexy” enough to play this role, so she dressed up like Carmen, headed into his office, auditioned again and got the part. In the original opera, Carmen is sensual, and she comes on strong, but the way Dorothy tries to eat this man alive in the first few scenes of this movie is just bizarre and alarming.
Carmen tries to convince Joe to let her go in exchange with sleeping with her. When he doesn’t succumb to her advances, she jumps out of the jeep and onto a very slow moving train. She’s running in heels, and he’s a corporal, so he catches her pretty easily. After tying her up and shoving her back in the jeep, he decides to shave some time off the journey by taking a backwoods road, uttering a sentence that is literally every Jeep owner’s motto:
In a shocker to end all shockers, he gets the Jeep stuck in a ditch. Carmen offers to lead him to her hometown, cook him a meal, and when the next train comes, they can head to Masonville together. They end up back at Carmen’s place and talk about their futures – Joe plans to marry Cindy Lou and go to flight school, and Carmen plans on having a bunch of casual sex that she enjoys. I know I should be watching Carmen’s excellent skills of seduction, but I’m just focused on the fact that Harry Belafonte had to probably eat a dozen peaches to film this scene.
So, they sleep together, as if that wasn’t going to happen. Carmen escapes, and Joe is arrested for letting her get away. She sends him mail, and he continues to pine for a lady he slept with once and subsequently put him in jail, instead of Cindy Lou, who is amazing and supportive in every way.
While Joe is serving out his sentence, Carmen mopes at her favorite watering hole, waiting around for his return. We finally meet some of her friends, like Frankie, who sings about how excited the beat of the drum makes her, IN A SONG THAT DOESN’T HAVE A DRUM IN IT, WHAT IS EVEN HAPPENING HERE.
Like, I get pizzicato is cool and everything, but this song does not justify the fire choreography going on behind Pearl Bailey. Seriously, props to these dancers, they are doing everything in their power to try and make this song make fucking sense.
I don’t know why this makes me irrationally angry, but it does. They could have easily added a drum part to this. It is the worst translation of the opera to musical format, and a waste of Pearl’s talent. I can’t.
Later in the night, the big hot-shot boxer Husky Miller stops by to revel in his latest victory. Everyone except Carmen seems impressed, since she’s still thinking about Joe’s dick, and has probably seen that Animaniacs cartoon enough to be as bored with this as I am. Husky seems enthralled with her, however, and asks his manager to try and convince her to join them in Chicago. They rope in Carmen’s friends, and even though they all sing a very convincing song about how exciting it is to board a train, Carmen sticks by her man and blows them off.
Speaking of her man, he is released from jail, and instead of indulging Carmen with the love fest she expected, informs her that he will be leaving for flight school the next day. Carmen realizes Joe doesn’t appreciate her jail-induced celibacy, and decides he’s no longer worth her time. She tries to leave with Joe’s commanding officer, since he seems to knows a good woman when he sees one. Joe throws a fit, and a punch, at a Sargent, which would land him 4 years in jail if he’s caught.
After coming to the realization he’s the dumbest person alive, Joe decides to flee the city with Carmen and head to Chicago. Carmen and him spend a week holed up and boning because Joe can’t go anywhere at risk of him being arrested. Carmen, bored and out of money, decides to hit up Husky Miller and see what that wealthy dude is up to. Frankie’s outfit only confirms Carmen made a terrible choice in a man.
After pawning some tacky jewelry and buying a new dress and some food, Joe gives Carmen shit about paying for things, because he can’t possibly understand how she could earn money without selling herself. He asks her to stay in the apartment with him forever, because he lovesssss heeeerrrrrrrr, and that means she has to listen to what he says. She, rightfully, tells him to get all the way off her fucking back and leaves to grab a sugar daddy.
She has a lot of fun with her new benefactors, clearly. Being in Husky’s pocket has a lot of advantages, and Carmen is enjoying all of them. That is, until Cindy Lou comes knocking, looking for her ex-man, because for some goddamn unspeakable reason she still wants him back.
Joe shows up to harass Carmen, because he’s a NICE GUY, and Cindy Lou tries to convince him Carmen does not, in fact, have a magic pussy, and he should go home with her instead. He, like the dumbass who gave up his future as a pilot to be with this flighty woman, decides running from the army and stalking Carmen is the way to go. Cindy Lou is heartbroken, even though she deserves so. much. fucking. better. than. this. mediocre. man.
I really wish I could insert a video of Olga James singing this song, because she knocks it out of the park. The range in the emotions on her face, from despair, defiance, anger, love, and pleading… it’s so beautiful. The fact this woman didn’t become a bigger star is just a crime.
After the drama is dealt with, Husky Miller takes his glamtourage to one of his fights and punches this shit out of his opponent, winning the match.
Joe, of course, follows them there, because he doesn’t have a goddamn brain in his head. After Husky’s victory, he drags Carmen into a broom closet and begs her to run away with him. Sure, he’s AWOL, and yeah, if he’s arrested he’d be sent to prison for four years, but he loves her, and that should be enough to incentivize her to live in his poorly built cage.
That is a face of a woman who is fed up with some bullshit.
Carmen tells Joe, again, that she’s with Husky and has no interest in leaving her cushy setup to hock more jewelry and never leave a shitty apartment. Joe tells Carmen he’ll kill her instead, and she dares him to, either because she wants to die, or she underestimates how much men love to possess people that once smiled nicely at them.
Then he strangles her, concluding this cautionary tale of domestic violence.
Nothing good ever came from a man who thought he owned a woman. Except this fire violin piece.
Prepare yourselves for a spooky double feature. We have a few… unusual films coming up next.
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