What’s It About
This musical drama focuses on the poverty-stricken residents struggling to survive in the Charleston tenement of Catfish Row. The sultry Bess (Dorothy Dandridge) becomes the object of desire of Porgy (Sidney Poitier), a disabled man who gets around in a cart. But Bess is also involved with thuggish Crown (Brock Peters) and drug dealer Sportin’ Life (Sammy Davis Jr.). Crown kills a man and goes into hiding, and Bess seeks shelter with Porgy. But, when Crown returns, Porgy must take a stand.
Set in the early 1900s in the made-up Catfish Row area of Charleston, South Carolina, this story follows Porgy, a beggar who gets around in a cart pulled by a goat, and Bess, who’s addicted to drugs and lives with the tough guy Crown. Crown ends up killing Robbins after losing a dice game, and Bess tells him to run away. Sportin’ Life, who supplies Bess with drugs, suggests she go to New York with him, but she turns him down. When she asks her neighbors for help, they all say no. Eventually, Porgy agrees to let her stay with him. As Bess and Porgy start living together, they fall in love. Before a church outing, Sportin’ Life tries to lure Bess away, but Porgy warns him off. Bess wants to stay with Porgy for the picnic, but he insists she go without him. After the picnic, Crown shows up and assaults Bess. She struggles at first but then gives in. When Bess returns to Catfish Row, she’s out of it. When she comes to, she remembers what happened with Crown and feels guilty for betraying Porgy. She asks Porgy to protect her from the Crown. Crown comes back for her, and Porgy ends up killing him. The police only hold Porgy briefly to identify the body, but Sportin’ Life convinces Bess that Porgy will get caught for the murder. In her drugged state, she goes with Sportin’ Life to New York. When Porgy realizes she’s gone, he sets out to find her.
Why It’s Gone
The lease for Goldwyn’s rights for the film “Porgy and Bess” was only for 15 years. After its expiration, the film could only be exhibited with permission and a hefty compensation to the Gershwin and Heyward estates. However, despite repeated requests, the Gershwin estate refused to grant exhibition permission. This made prints of the film extremely rare and have been referred to as the “holy grail of missing movies.” Although bootlegs exist, it was unknown for a considerable period whether a complete and high-quality print of the film existed. In 2007, the film was entirely shown at the Ziegfeld Theatre in midtown Manhattan. A discussion with Preminger biographer Foster Hirsch followed this. In New York, the film was shown twice. Once in 2010 and again in 2019, when Hirsch described it as “virtually a lost film.” In 2017, Michael Strunsky, trustee and executor of the Ira Gershwin Musical Estate, claimed that Ira and Leonore Gershwin viewed the film as a “piece of shit” and directed Goldwyn to destroy all remaining films 20 years after release. However, Ira Gershwin’s assistant, Michael Feinstein, denies this ever happened. If you really want a copy, you can find “copies” on eBay and other emerchants for various high prices and bad to worse quality.