1958; 98 minutes. Tamango was made in France
in the late 1950s by the Hollywood black-listed writer and director,
John Berry. Starring Curt Jurgens, as a slave ship captain, and
Dorothy Dandridge, as his slave and mistress, the film takes place
entirely on the middle-passage and treats a revolt on that ship, led
by an African, named Tamango. Although technically, very much a film
of the 1950s, ideologically it is very much ahead of its day and is
very modern in outlook. The screen play by John Berry is based on a
novelette of the same name by Prosper Merimee, the 19th century french
author. The film is available in video.
Another view: Slaves revolt on a ship
commanded by a brutal captain. Confused, unpleasant drama, not helped
by dubbing of minor roles into English.
Charlottesville, Virginia: - The
Virginia Film Festival is pleased to announce that director John
Berry, sent into exile nearly fifty years ago by the infamous
Hollywood blacklist, will be a featured guest at the four-day event
which runs October 30 through November 2, 1997 in Charlottesville,
Virginia.
Berry will attend the screenings of two
of his most famous films, He Ran All The Way (1951) starring John
Garfield, in his last role, with Shelly Winters (Oct.30, 7pm, Regal
Downtown Mall) and Tamango (1957) with Dorothy Dandridge (Nov. 1, 4pm,
Vinegar Hill). Berry will also participate in the discussion of Red
Hollywood (1996) which examines the work of blacklisted directors and
the cultural and ideological struggles that were taking place within
Hollywood and America in general following the second World War (Nov.
1, 1pm, Vinegar Hill). The blacklist, which began exactly fifty years
ago, is a form of surreptitious imprisonment being explored as part of
the Virginia Film Festival's 1997 theme, Caged!
A protege of the legendary Orson Welles
and John Houseman, Berry got his first break at 17 when he joined
their Mercury Theater in New York. It was also thanks to Houseman that
Berry got his major break in Hollywood when, in 1944, Houseman, then a
producer at Paramount, tapped him to replace Harold Clurman as
director of Miss Susie Slagle's. A child of the Great Depression,
Berry was a political leftist with a strong belief in the need to
fight against social oppression. He did, however, learn to temper his
comments and until 1950 had managed to avoid the attention of the
blacklisters. In 1951, however, he agreed to direct a film in defense
of the Hollywood Ten. Although his involvement was meant to be
unrecognized, his role was exposed and he came under investigation by
the FBI. To avoid questioning when agents arrived at his door, Berry
went out the window, literally, and fled to Paris.
The intercession of the FBI came just
as Berry's career as a director was poised to take off. 1951 was the
year in which, as Berry ran to Paris, He Ran All The Way was released.
The first film to focus on a family held hostage in their own home by
convicts, He Ran All The Way is a powerful film noir that has
developed a loyal following over the years.
In France, Berry continued to examine
the issues of friendship and betrayal he tackled so powerfully in He
Ran All The Way. In 1957, he directed Tamango, the tale of an
attempted slave rebellion on a pirate slave ship in 1820. In a
triangle formed by a revolutionary slave leader and the captain of the
ship, Asche, the bi-racial concubine portrayed by Dorothy Dandridge,
is trapped between her own self-interest (her lover, the captain,
offers her the promise of freedom) and loyalty to her fellow slaves.
Tamango is often described as a parable for Dandridge's own
experiences as a black actress in the 50s when Hollywood offered money
and recognition but withheld respect.
While the majority of Berry's films
since the 50s were filmed for a French audience (and, according to a
recent Film Comment story, are overdue for re-discovery in the U.S.),
he directed Diahann Carroll and James Earl Jones to fine reviews in
Claudine (1974).
steve: i've brought to the attention of
the slavery list before, Tamango. Made in France in 1957, by the
black-listed American screen writer/director John Berry, it deals with a revolt aboard a
slave ship. Stars Curt Jurgens (who plays the ship captain) and
Dorothy Dandridge (who plays his mistress/slave);
Tamango is the African who leads the revolt. Technically, very
much of the 50s, ideologically very much of the 90s.
2 links about Tamango (Which was first
a French novel as it has already been said) on http://perso.wanadoo.fr/yekrik.yekrak/kino.htm
