France,
1957, 98 min
Shown in 1998
CREDITS
- dir
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John Berry
- scr
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Lee Gold, Tamara Hovey, John Berry
- cam
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Edmond Séchan
- editor
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Roger Dwyer
- cast
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Dorothy Dandridge, Curt Jurgens, Jean Servais, Alex Cressan
- source
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Entertainment IP Resources, 100 Central Park South, Suite 6F, New York, NY 10019. FAX: 212-333-4252
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COMMENTS
Part of The Unvanquished series; John Berry in person.
OTHER
After being exiled to France by McCarthy and his cronies, John Berry directed this cult classic about a slave revolt that pits the beautiful Isha (Dorothy Dandridge) against her estranged lover, the captain of a ship carrying Africans in chains to the New World. A precursor of Amistad, this is a tougher—and much more interesting—film, tackling issues of race, sex and power in ways that put contemporary Hollywood to shame. The mixed-race Isha is squeezed between two worlds (much as Dandridge was in real life), and tries to use her sexual power as a means for escape. Her performance, at once sensual and touching, is among her very best. Universally attacked when it was first released, Tamango has become one of those rare films that is both legendary and rarely seen—that is, until the recent release of a newly restored color print, and a series of rave reviews, brought the film to a wider audience. As in his other films, Berry coaxes powerful performances out of his actors and keeps the film from slipping into either melodrama or ideological preaching. Instead, he remains in the human realm, showing how social and economic forces play out in real lives. As a result, this courageous film has a rebellious spirit that the smooth edges of a Hollywood production could never achieve.
FACTOID #85
In 1996, Harvey Keitel was the first recipient of the Peter J. Owens Award, honoring “brilliance, independence and honesty” in acting. Honest he was. During the clip show at his tribute Keitel, unhappy with one of the clips, began waving his arms and shouting until the screen went black. The screen lit up with a new clip and the tribute continued.
