Academy celebrates Carmen Jones at 50

NEW YORK – The 1954 Academy Award-nominated musical “Carmen Jones” will celebrate its 50th anniversary with a screening here on March 1. Presented as the next entry in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ monthly series “Monday Nights with Oscar,” “Carmen Jones” will screen in Cinemascope at 7:30 p.m. in the Academy Theater at Lighthouse International.

Harry Belafonte, who starred in the film as Joe, an army pilot in training for the Korean War, is scheduled to attend the screening, and New York Times film critic Elvis Mitchell will serve as host.

“Carmen Jones” starred Dorothy Dandridge in the title role, a breakthrough performance that earned her a Best Actress Academy Award nomination. The film, which also starred Pearl Bailey and Roy Glenn, reworks Bizet’s opera into an American setting. Dandridge’s Carmen is a civilian employee at an all-Black army camp who pursues Belafonte’s character despite his being engaged to another woman.

Produced and directed by Otto Preminger, the film also features the screen debuts of both Diahann Carroll and Brock Peters. Oscar Hammerstein II had adapted the libretto from the opera, and Herschel Burke Gilbert, the film’s musical director, received an Oscar nomination for the musical score.

Tickets for the screening are $5 for the general public and $3 for Academy members and students with a valid ID. Tickets may be reserved over the phone by calling 888-778-7575. All orders will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis. Pending availability, tickets may be purchased in person the night of the screening when the doors open at 7:00 p.m. The Academy Theater at Lighthouse International is located at 111 East 59th Street between Park and Lexington Avenues.

– Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences