Premium Fare - cable television offers a voice for African American productions

American Visions, August, 1999 by Denolyn Carroll

The willingness of cable television companies to explore such diverse offerings as Introducing Dorothy Dandridge and Strange Justice is increasing the importance of cable television to African-American filmmakers, actors and audiences. These outlets are forging a presence neglected by both the feature film industry, which focuses on big-budget entertainment, and the mainstream networks, which shy away from controversial story lines.

In the early 1950s, actress-singer Dorothy Dandridge, wearing come-hither attire and flaunting the feisty airs of femme fatale Carmen Jones, sauntered into the office of film director Otto Preminger. Dandridge hoped that her dramatic entrance would convince Preminger to cast her, opposite heartthrob Harry Belafonte, in the coveted title role of his upcoming movie.

Over four decades later, in another bold stroke, actress Halle Berry purchased the rights to Dorothy Dandridge, a book by Dandridge's manager Earl Mills. With this material in hand, Berry pitched the project to HBO.

The determination of both Cleveland-born actresses paid off. Dandridge's sizzling performance in Carmen Jones earned her an Oscar nomination in the best-actress category--the first such nomination ever received by an African-American actress. And this August, HBO will air Introducing Dorothy Dandridge, an original movie starring and coproduced by Berry.

Berry--who took voice lessons to improve her lip-synching and also learned to tap-dance--shines in her portrayal of Dandridge, who set the standard for Hollywood's African-American actresses. The role has been, according to Berry, the ultimate challenge of her career thus far: "It has been a passion of mine to have the opportunity to play a character so full and diverse."

The Dandridge project furthers HBO's commitment to broadcasting quality and diversity. "What we have been trying to do with the African-American stories," says Colin Callender, president of HBO Original Movies, "is to reflect the full breadth and depth of African-American life and to avoid--and in many cases to bust apart--the stereotypes that have been seen and promoted elsewhere."

"The interesting and important movies have gone primarily to cable," adds Introducing Dorothy Dandridge's director, Martha Coolidge, whose credits include Rambling Rose and Out to Sea. "You're getting movies that deal with edgy subjects and more complex writing."

Introducing Dorothy Dandridge is worthy of HBO's commitment. The movie explores the mystique--personal and professional--that surrounded Dandridge, who was the first African-American sex symbol on the silver screen. On celluloid, she held her own against the likes of Marilyn Monroe and Ava Gardner, yet her impact on casting directors and Hollywood executives was another story. The film captures the eclipse--both the darkness and light--that defined her experience in the segregated, male-dominated Hollywood of the 1930s, '40s, '50s and '60s.

For most of her career, Dandridge struggled to win with the hand she was dealt. While a child performer, she did extra work in such films as the Marx Brothers' A Day at the Races. As she grew older, she endured her share of typecasting, accepting the walk-on, servant-or-siren parts that were the bread and butter of black actresses. She even played the jungle queen in a Tarzan saga.

By the time the role of Carmen Jones became available, the actress was 32 years old. The year before, in the movie Bright Road (1953), she had portrayed a Southern public school-teacher who influenced the life of a troubled student. The movie was unsuccessful due to limited advertising and studio support.

The popularity of Carmen Jones (1954), a reworking of the Bizet opera Carmen, was easy to predict. A Broadway production of the work had already gained enthusiastic responses from audiences. However, none of the roles that followed, including those in Island in the Sun (1957) and Porgy and Bess (1959), secured for Dandridge the position within the cultural mainstream that many believed she deserved.

Introducing Dorothy Dandridge reacquaints us with this screen legend and reminds us of her triumphs. Though the issue of race is integral to her story, the film presents more intimate aspects of Dandridge's life and provides a sense of the person at the center of it all.

"I wanted it to feel like a feature, not hit the race issue on the nose," says Coolidge. She applauds the pioneering role that Dandridge played in breaking through the barriers constraining African-American actors in Hollywood, but she also focuses on Dandridge's vulnerability as a beautiful woman--one who was victimized by a cutthroat industry. "What we brought was the human story," Coolidge says.

The movie pieces together details of the star's troubled life. It begins with Dandridge chatting on the telephone with her best friend, Geri Nicholas, on the night before she is scheduled to leave for New York to resurrect her career. As they converse, Dandridge flips through a collection of photographs, which become a collage of her life's memories. The images allow Dandridge--and the viewer--to retrace her steps. She recalls her early years as a member of the group the Dandridge Sisters, her marriage to tap-dancer Harold Nicholas of the Nicholas Brothers, her performance in Carmen Jones, her affair with Otto Preminger, her biracial marriage to nightclub owner Jack Dennison, her financial woes, and her descent from fame into near obscurity.