Porgy and Bess is a 1959 American musical drama 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."
The film is unavailable on home video, and is rarely screened, prompting it to be considered one of the more prestigious and expensively produced "lost films." It remains controversial, and the Gershwin estate has blocked a wider release. Criticized for stereotypical characters, the film boasts an impressive cast.
In 2011, the film was chosen for inclusion in the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress.
Set in the early 1900s in the fictional Catfish Row section of Charleston, South Carolina, which serves as home to a black fishing community, the story focuses on the title characters: crippled beggar Porgy, who travels about in a goat-drawn cart, and the drug-addicted Bess, who lives with stevedore Crown, the local bully. While high on cocaine supplied by Sportin' Life, Crown kills Robbins after the latter vanquishes him in a craps game; Bess urges Crown to flee. Sportin' Life suggests she accompany him to New York City, an offer Bess declines. She seeks refuge with her neighbors, all of whom refuse to help her. Porgy finally agrees to let her stay with him.
Bess and Porgy settle into domestic life together and soon fall in love. Just before a church picnic on Kittiwah Island, Sportin' Life once again approaches Bess, but Porgy warns him to leave her alone. Bess wishes to stay with Porgy, since he cannot attend the picnic because of his disability, but he urges her to go. After the picnic ends, and before Bess can leave, Crown, who has been hiding in the woods on the island, confronts her. She initially struggles to resist him but Crown rapes her. The others, not knowing just what has happened, leave and return to the mainland.
Two days later, Bess returns to Catfish Row in a state of delirium. When she recovers, she remembers what happened. Feeling that she betrayed Porgy, she begs his forgiveness. She admits she is unable to resist Crown and asks Porgy to protect her from him. Crown eventually returns to claim his woman, and when he draws his knife, Porgy strangles him. He is detained by the police merely to identify the body, but Sportin' Life, who has fed Bess cocaine, convinces her Porgy inadvertently will reveal himself to be the murderer. In her drugged state, she finally accepts his offer to take her to New York. When Porgy returns and discovers she is gone, he sets off to find her.
Sidney Poitier as Porgy (singing voice dubbed by Robert McFerrin)
Dorothy Dandridge as Bess (singing voice dubbed by Adele Addison)
Sammy Davis Jr. as Sportin' Life
Pearl Bailey as Maria
Brock Peters as Crown
Diahann Carroll as Clara
Leslie Scott as Jake the Fisherman
Ruth Attaway as Serena Robbins
Claude Akins as Detective
Clarence Muse as Peter
Everdinne Wilson as Annie
Joel Fluellen as Robbins
Earl Jackson as Mingo
Moses LaMarr as Nelson
Margaret Hairston as Lily
Ivan Dixon as Jim
Antoine Durousseau as Scipio
Helen Thigpen as Strawberry Woman
Vince Townsend as Elderly Man
Bill Walker as Undertaker
Roy Glenn as Frazier
Maurice Manson as Coroner
Nichelle Nichols as a dancer (uncredited, her film début)