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STELLAR ALL-NEGRO CAST IS FEATURED IN FLASHING, MOODY, PASSIONATE MUSIC-DRAMA Harry Belafonte, who plays the luckless soldier with an ambition for a military career that had been promisingly launched and was pro- gressing when he met Carmen Jones, is well-known as a night- club singer. Moreover, his record- ings are currently reportedly among the best-sellers. Actually, "Carmen Jones” is his second motion pic- ture, his first being "Bright Road” in which, interestingly enough, his co-star was Dorothy Dandridge who plays Carmen Jones. Young, extraordinarily hand- some, Belafonte went into the cast of "Carmen Jones” direct from a successful engagement as a co-star in the late John Murray Anderson’s Broadway musical, "Almanac.” For Pearl Bailey (above), "Carmen Jones” is her first motion picture in six years, since "Variety Girl.” Miss Bailey, a first lady of song, plays Frankie, one of Carmen Jones’ friends who foretells her death. Miss Bailey started her career as a dancer. She sings her numbers in "Carmen Jones” in the style that has made her one of the most sought-after vocalists in the show world. From "Carmen Jones,” Pearl Bailey went into rehearsals for a forthcoming Broadway musi- cal, "House Of Flowers,” the Saint Subber pro- duction written by Harold Arlen and Truman Capote. In private life, she is the wife of Louie Bellson, well-known musician and expert drummer who instructed Miss Bailey in the use of the sticks for her smash "Carmen Jones” number, "1 Tell You Why 1 Wanna Dance.” Previewed at a theatre in Westwood, Cal., the manager made this report on "Carmen Jones:” "My audience loved it. It broke out in long ap- plause. Dorothy Dandridge, Pearl Bailey and Harry Belafonte are simply terrific. 'Carmen Jones’ is money in the bank for any type of theatre.” Dorothy Dandridge, who plays Carmen Jones, needs no introduction to night-club devotees, nor to collectors of recordings. In both fields she is among the headliners. Her beauty and chic, her poise and style have es- tablished this soft-eyed beauty as a foremost song stylist and entertainer. Because her ambition is to be a dra- matic actress, Miss Dandridge looked upon her chance to play Carmen Jones as the greatest thing that has hap- pened to her, career-wise. When Miss Dandridge’s name was first submitted to producer Otto Prem- inger as a candidate for Carmen, he said he thought she was too sweet. Miss Dandridge’s answer to this was to appear in his office one day, every inch the sultry Carmen in dress and manner. Her effective "sales talk” brought a speedy change of opinion on Preminger’s part. Her Carmen is dressed in blues, pinks, white, black and orange instead of the proverbial red with which the operatic characteri- zation is associated. Page 24A