BEFORE: Well, it's great to be back on a movie-a-day schedule, even if it's just for the next two weeks. I at least FEEL like I'm making progress, even if the list never seems to get any shorter, because I'm always adding to it. But I'm getting closer to... well, something, though it's probably just the end of the year. And just three weeks left in my staycation.
Halle Berry carries over from "Bruised", and I'm jumping way back for this one, 21 years before yesterday's film and while this film certainly wasn't her first feature, more like her 17th, it was still pre-X-Men and pre-"Monster's Ball" and pre-Bond girl and pre-Catwoman. Jeez, she's nearly had as many lives AS a cat, no?
It would have been great if I could have bookended the month with this and "The U.S. vs. Billie Holiday", but I'm not that lucky. Though that film is scheduled for the last week in August, but I guess I'll have to draw all my connections together at the end of the year, as per usual.
THE PLOT: Dorothy Dandridge's way to fame and fortune as a dancer, singer and actress.
AFTER: Sure, it probably seems like I'm all over the place with this Halle Berry chain - a psychological mystery, a sports film and now a biopic of a 1950's Hollywood actress. But there are some things in common, which is odd - all three characters played by Halle Berry are entertainers of a sort - a go-go dancer, a MMA fighter and a singer/actress. All three also had problems and issues with their mother - sure, that's common enough but I'm trying to draw some connections here, and for that to pop up THREE times in a row, well, maybe there's something there.
The problem here is this film is SO cheesy - it's all talky-talk, for one thing, with very little action, except for the stage performances by Halle Berry singing 1950's standards (but pepping them up QUITE a bit) and maybe two action scenes where she gets beaten up by various husbands. Yes, this was set back in the time where it was sort of OK for a man to beat his wife if she expressed an opinion about something. I'm not saying it was right, because it wasn't, but it was acceptable THEN. Now, not so much.
Sure, I have to wonder if this biopic took some liberties, or if this is all 100% accurate events in the life of Dorothy Dandridge, the first black actress nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress. She was up against Grace Kelly, Audrey Hepburn, Judy Garland and Jane Wyman. Yeah, she lost to Grace Kelly, she really never had a chance, because it was 1955. Hey, take the nomination as a win, every little blow against racism helps... and shortly after playing Dorothy Dandridge, Halle Berry became the first African-American to WIN the Best Actress Oscar.
Her relationships were...well, apparently very complicated. She married Harold Nicholas, one of the Nicholas Brothers, after they played the Cotton Club together and co-starred in the 1941 musical "Sun Valley Serenade", you might recognize the song "Chattanooga Choo-Choo". According to this HBO movie, they had relationship problems because Dorothy had been sexually abused, and could not relax during intimate moments - but according to Wikipedia, things went south because of HIS infidelity and inattentiveness. They had one daughter, who was born with brain damage and required constant care and eventually was put in an institution.
Dandridge started a long affair with director Otto Preminger on the set of "Carmen Jones", but she ended things when he would not leave his wife to marry her. (Again, it was 1955.). But there's no mention here of her becoming pregnant and having an abortion - man, Wikipedia is thorough sometimes. Then she had trouble with her second husband, Jack Denison, they were together only three years but there were allegations of domestic violence, while at the same time, whoever was handing Dandridge's money swindled her out of $150,000 and also, she owed back taxes on the money that she HAD earned, before she lost it.
There's no mention in her official bio of her having a relationship with her music manager, Earl Mills, so I wonder if he was just a character created for this movie. Here he claimed to be in love with her, but was also seen in this movie escorting her sister around, so who knows... Perhaps the film just needed a character that would find her the night she died - whether her overdose was intentional or a by-product of a recent foot fracture is apparently still a matter of debate. Did she go out like the black Marilyn Monroe or not?
Her nightclub act was apparently very impressive, and her tour of clubs in the south probably looked a lot like the movie "Green Book", only more so. She didn't record much on album, but perhaps that was a personal choice to ensure that people wouldn't stop going to see her sing live. After filing for bankruptcy in 1963, she played lounges in Vegas to raise money to pay off her debts from lawsuits and back taxes. And she was trying to revive her acting career when she died - c'est la vie, I suppose.
Also starring Brent Spiner (last seen in "Miss Firecracker", Klaus Maria Brandauer (last seen in "Never Say Never Again"), Obba Babatundé (last seen in "After the Sunset"), Loretta Devine (last seen in "Sierra Burgess Is a Loser"), Cynda Williams (last seen in "Mo' Better Blues"), LaTanya Richardson (last seen in "Malcolm X"), Tamara Taylor (last seen in "Serenity"), William Atherton (last seen in "Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie"), D.B. Sweeney (last seen in "Extraction" (2015)), Don Gettinger, Nicholas Hormann (last seen in "The Incredible Shrinking Woman"), Sharon Brown (last seen in "For Keeps?"), Darrian C. Ford, Joanne Baron (last seen in "Frankie & Alice"), Margaret Easley, Clinton Derricks-Carroll, Kerri Randles, Jon Mack (last seen in "After Earth"), Ken Michelman (last seen in "Vegas Vacation"), Tom Virtue (last seen in "The Ugly Truth"), Larry Poindexter (last seen in "S.W.A.T."), Irene Roseen (last seen in "The Family Man"), Mark Bramhall (last seen in "Vice" (2018)), André Carthen, Raphael Sbarge (last seen in "Vision Quest"), Benjamin Brown (last seen in "I Still Know What You Did Last Summer"), Brian Hatton, Clement von Franckenstein (last seen in "Take Me Home Tonight"), F. William Parker (last seen in "Lost Highway"), Jon Lindstrom (last seen in "Must Love Dogs"), Mik Scriba, Tyrone Wade, Alysha Sinclair, Chaz Monet, Alexis Carrington.
RATING: 4 out of 10 virginity checks from Momma's "special friend"
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