“INTRODUCING DOROTHY DANDRIDGE”:
FLAWLESS ACTING-FLAWED FILM
[Postscript: Congratulations Halle, on your Golden Globe Award!!! You EARNED it! Dorothy is proud...]
Halle Berry is one of my favorite actresses. I admire her for her chosen afrocentrism. As many bi-racial persons are increasingly eurocentric, seeking special labels to whiten the blackness of their racist realities, Halle stands out as a realistic voice of reason.
As a fellow fiery Leo, I can relate to her public passions and personal pains. I congratulate her on her new love. I also adore the music of Eric Benet. And, I think they are a beautiful couple. May they know an eternal love supreme.
Halle is a gifted actress. Her talents are evident in all of her work. “Introducing Dorothy Dandridge” is her most excellent work to date. Her physical resemblance to Dorothy is haunting. Halle captures Dorothy’s entire spirit in this film...
The casting is superb. The sets are glamorous. I especially love how Halle and the crew recreated the filming of Carmen Jones. I adore that opera and have watched it countless times. It was a thrill to see it so superbly recreated in this film.
Halle’s lip synching is flawless. But, no film is ever flawless. This one does come close. But, Dorothy’s life was far too great, complex, tragic, and grand to be fully told by one film.
The most severe flaw in this film is its sexist and homophobic editing. Fortunately, Donald Bogle has penned an excellent book that is not curiously edited like this film. I urge you to read Dorothy Dandridge: A Biography. It is a 613 page definitive volume that tells the complete story of Dorothy Dandridge.
In this book, you will find that Dorothy’s mother Ruby was a closeted lesbian. Like most gays, especially in her era, Ruby was forced to live a lie that led to a meaningless marriage and obligatory children. Ruby was bitter, selfish, abusive and devoid of any maternal instincts. Her lover Neva was also divorced and closeted. Ruby designated Neva to be surrogate mother and manager to her daughters, Dorothy and her sister Vivian.
Both Ruby and Neva were emotional child abusers. Dorothy was betrayed by all she knew from birth. Ruby betrayed her ex-husband Cyril by pretending to be heterosexual. She betrayed her children by refusing to allow Cyril to share his life and love as their father. Ruby betrayed Dorothy and her sister by not loving and protecting them. Ruby also betrayed Neva by leaving and robbing her for a rich white woman. Neva betrayed Ruby by abusing her children.
Like the typical psychotically jealous stepfather, Neva was most abusive to Dorothy, because Dorothy looked most like her father. The homophobic, homohating editors of this film expertly shot a painful scene where Neva rapes Dorothy. Neva was a control freak obsessed with the virginity of her famous stepdaughters. Neva committed this horrific and blatant sexual assault under the guise of a physical inspection to detect intercourse.
In the film, Dorothy is depicted as a passive victim of this lesbian rape. In reality, this sexual assault was Dorothy’s last straw! After years of abuse by Neva, DOROTHY WHIPPED NEVA’S ASS!!! Dorothy beat Neva down so badly that Vivian had to pull Dorothy off of Neva. Neva’s abuse ceased immediately. Later on, when Dorothy gave birth to a retarded daughter, Harolyn, Dorothy trusted the forcibly reformed Neva as her own baby-sitter.
I hate that this film deliberately depicts the abusive lesbian Neva as the critical problem in Dorothy’s complex and problematic life. Dorothy’s life was filled with far worse traumas. Her mother was never nurturing. Her father was forcibly absent. Even her brief husband, dancer Harold Nicholas, has admitted that his ruthless, adulterous, heterosexual, whoring was abusive to Dorothy. He said he married her only to satisfy his lust and ego. Dorothy adored him. He wounded her far more deeply than Neva. Yet, Neva is portrayed as the only emotional villain in this film.
Harold was not the only man who betrayed Dorothy. This film sanitizes her abusive relationship with director Otto Preminger. It completely ignores her abortion of his baby. It also sugarcoats Dorothy’s realization that, as most racists with jungle fever, Otto reserved black lovers for mistresses only. Dorothy loved Otto. She wanted to be his wife. Like most white men still do, Otto married a woman of his own race.
Many other heterosexual men wounded, used, and betrayed Dorothy. All of them played major roles in her insecurities and depression. All of their collective evil played far bigger roles in her demise than Neva’s singular brutal, sexual attack. Yet, only Neva’s evil is exposed in this film.
We have enough films that demonize lesbians and gays! I hope the next film about Dorothy shows: How much of Dorothy’s success is due to the positive aspects of Neva’s professional management and surrogate parenting? How many times did Cyril try to fight to be a father to his daughters? How did living lies in the closet contribute to the evil in both Ruby and Neva? Why did Harold reject his retarded daughter? What became of Harolyn? etc...
The greatest evil in Dorothy’s life was the evil of racism. Nothing contributed to her despair and destruction as much as the white supremacy that still rules Hollywood. It is the same racist arena that has given us only one film about Dorothy.
I urge you to see this film. It is a great introduction to Dorothy’s
story. There is so very much
more of her story that is untold in this film. Rather than wait for
Hollywood to complete this
saga, I suggest you read the book today.