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Porgy and Bess (1959)

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Top Critics

Average Rating: 7.6/10
Reviews Counted: 6
Fresh: 5 | Rotten: 1

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Average Rating: N/A
Critic Reviews: 2
Fresh: 2 | Rotten: 0

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Average Rating: 3.7/5
User Ratings: 957

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Movie Info

A stellar line-up of African-American actors and musical stars helped to bring DuBose Heyward and Ira Gershwin's classic operetta to this screen in this lavishly-produced adaptation. Porgy (Sidney Poitier) is a crippled man living in the shantytown of Catfish Row who has fallen in love with Bess (Dorothy Dandridge), a beautiful but troubled woman addicted to drugs. Bess is already being courted by several men, including Crown (Brock Peters), a muscular laborer, and Sportin' Life (Sammy Davis,

Unrated, 2 hr. 18 min.

Drama, Romance, Musical & Performing Arts, Classics

Directed By: Otto Preminger

Written By: Dorothy Heyward, DuBose Heyward, N. Richard Nash

In Theaters: Jun 24, 1959 Wide

Columbia Pictures

Cast

Sidney Poitier
Porgy
Dorothy Dandridge
Bess
Sammy Davis Jr.
Sportin' Life
Pearl Bailey
Maria
Brock Peters
Crown
Diahann Carroll
Clara
Leslie Scott
Jake
Ruth Attaway
Serena
Clarence Muse
Peter
Everdinne Wilson
Annie
Joel Fluellen
Robbins
Earl Jackson
Mingo
Ivan Dixon
Jim
Vince Townsend Jr.
Elderly Man
William Walker
Undertaker
Maurice Manson
Coroner
Claude Akins
Detective
Roy E. Glenn Sr.
Frazier
Robert McFerrin
Porgy (Bess)
Adele Addison
Bess (Singing Voice)

Critic Reviews for Porgy and Bess

All Critics (7) | Top Critics (3) | Fresh (5) | Rotten (1) | DVD (1)

This is a stunning, exciting and moving film, packed with human emotions and cheerful and mournful melodies. It bids fair to be as much a classic on the screen as it is on the stage.

March 25, 2006 Full Review Source: New York Times

| Comment

Bosley Crowther

New York Times

Top Critic

Should this Porgy and Bess be locked away? It ain't necessarily so.

July 24, 2001 Full Review Source: Village Voice

| Comment

Emily O'Neill

Village Voice

Top Critic

One of the most underestimated movie musicals, based on Gershwin's masterpiece, Porgy and Bess receives a lavish production from Otto Preminger in an all-black, Oscar-nominated picture, starring Sidney Poitier and Dorothy Dandridge.

December 28, 2011 Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com

| Comment

Emanuel Levy

EmanuelLevy.Com Source: EmanuelLevy.Com

The brilliant score by the Gershwins and DuBose Heyward, however, will last forever, while Preminger's veteran cameraman, Leon Shamroy, did a wonderful job and the art direction by Serge Krizman and Joseph Wright is sensational.

October 23, 2007 Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide

| Comment

TV Guide's Movie Guide

That it stands as an entertaining spectacle and the director's best musical is secondary in interest to the Hollywood politics surrounding it.

May 24, 2003 Full Review Source: Film4

| Comment

Film4

A mediocre curio.

December 8, 2002 Full Review Source: Film Threat

| Comment

Phil Hall

Film Threat

More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Porgy and Bess

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i saw this opera in person at age 12. i was blown away. so this movie has always been one of my favs.

August 28, 2007

Pam W

The Greatest American Music, a story of drug abuse, poverty, prostitution, savagry racism and survival. There is a never and I think better English Production of this Play from the mid-ninties with suerior acting and singing, but it's not listed on Flixter, so I picked this to fill in. If you don't know this story, and

May 9, 2007

Jonathan Stephenson

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