Carmen Jones

In 1943, Oscar Hammerstein Jr. took Georges Bizet's opera Carmen, rewrote the lyrics, changed the characters from 19th century Spaniards to World War II-era African-Americans, switched the locale to a Southern military base, and the result was Carmen Jones.

Otto Preminger directed this Cinemascope retelling starring Dorothy Dandridge as the temptress Carmen, a worker in a war plant, and Harry Belafonte as her soldier lover. Although both Dandridge and Belafonte were singers, their opera voices were dubbed by Marilyn Horne and LeVern Hutcherson. Otto Preminger's realist sensibility often seems contradictory to the whimsical nature of a musical, but some strong elements survive the segregationist context. Exceptionally liberal in its time, Dorothy Dandridge's performance in the lead is a reminder of the kind of African American films that might have emerged if given the chance.

Carmen Jones was added to the National Film Registry in 1992.