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1) |
BRIGHT ROAD | |
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Category: |
Drama |
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Studio: |
MGM |
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Runtime: |
68 minutes (Black & White) |
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Date: |
1953 |
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Producer: |
Sol Baer Fielding |
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Director: |
Gerald Mayer |
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Screenplay: |
Emmet Lavery |
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Story: |
"See How They Run" (Christopher Award in 1951) |
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| by Mary Elizabeth Vroman | ||
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Music: |
David Rose |
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Cast: |
Dorothy Dandridge, Philip Hepburn, Harry Belafonte, |
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| Barbara Ann Sanders | ||
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Belafonte: |
Acts and sings, Suzanne (Every Night When The Sun Goes Down) |
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Outline: |
Dorothy Dandridge plays a young teacher trying to help a withdrawn and |
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insecure, but proud, student while Harry Belafonte stars as the principle. |
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2) |
CARMEN JONES | |
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| Category: | ||
| Studio: | Twentieth Century Fox | |
| Runtime: | 105 minutes (CinemaScope, Color) | |
| Date: | 1954 | |
| Producer/Director: | Otto Preminger | |
| Screenplay: | Harry Kleiner | |
| Lyrics: | Oscar Hammerstein II | |
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Music: |
Georges Bizet |
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Cast: |
Harry Belafonte, Dorothy Dandridge, Pearl Bailey |
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Belafonte: |
Acts but does not sing, his voice being dubbed by LaVern Hutcherson. |
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Songs dubbed for Belafonte: You Talk Jus' Like My Maw, Dis Flower, |
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| Duet & Finale. | ||
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Outline: |
Powered by Georges Bizet's grand music and Oscar Hammerstein II's |
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magnificent lyrics, this Americanized all-black version of the classic opera |
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Carmen is "a dynamic ... superb show" with a positively "incandescent |
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Carmen." (Newsweek) |
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Oscar-nominee Dorothy Dandridge stars in the title role, a passionate, sexy |
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creature who lures Joe (Harry Belafonte), a handsome soldier, away from |
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his sweetheart (Olga James). Following a fatal brawl with his sergeant, Joe |
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deserts his regiment with the sultry femme fatale. But Carmen soon tires of |
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him and takes up with a heavyweight prize-fighter (Joe Adams), triggering |
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Joe's tragic revenge. Helping to set the screen on fire are Pearl Bailey and |
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Diahann Carroll, part of the "sensational troupe" that makes this jubilant |
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musical film "hard to beat." (Los Angeles Times) |
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3) |
ISLAND IN THE SUN | |
  
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| Category: | ||
| Studio: | Twentieth Century Fox | |
| Runtime: | 120 minutes (CinemaScope, Color) | |
| Date: | 1957 | |
| Producer: | Darryl F. Zanuck | |
| Director: | Robert Rossen | |
| Screenplay: | Alfred Hayes | |
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Story by: |
Alec Waugh |
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Music by: |
Malcom Arnold |
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Cast: |
James Mason, Joan Fontaine, Dorothy Dandridge, Joan Collins, |
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Michael Rennie and co-starring Harry Belafonte (as David Boyeur) |
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Belafonte: |
Acts and sings Island In The Sun, and Lead Man Holler |
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Outline: |
In this steamy controversial drama set on a lush Caribbean island, Oscar- |
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nominated Dorothy Dandridge made film history by becoming the first |
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black actress to star in an interracial love story. Four different love affairs |
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simultaneously wreak havoc in the lives of the inhabitants of a tropical |
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paradise. A wealthy plantation owner plots murder when he suspects his |
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wife of having an adulterous relationship. At the same time, his sister-in-law |
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is drawn to his enemy, a dedicated black labor leader and a governor's |
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aide is torn over his scandalous affair with a native woman. Daring and |
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exquisitely filmed on location, this rich, romantic story with its focus on |
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race, passion and politics was one of the most talked about films of its day. |
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