George Gershwin and DuBose Heyward's magnificent 1935 folk opera Porgy And Bess has had a challenging production history. The original production, under the direction of Rouben Mamoulian was a critical success but a box office failure. Samuel Goldwyn's 1959 film adaptation, which was directed by Otto Preminger and starred Sidney Poitier, Dorothea Dandridge and Sammy Davis, Jr., faired even worse: While it enjoyed a modicum of success, reviews were mixed, the Gershwin Estate withdrew its support, and the film was withdrawn from ciculation. It is considered a "lost film", existing today only in bootleg copies.
There is plenty to criticize about the film; most notably, the singing of both Poitier's and Dandridge was dubbed, the recitative was converted to spoken dialog, some underscoring by Andre Previn was introduced, and the songs and character of Sportin' Life was rendered, to the minds of some critics, unfortunately. But overall Goldwyn's commitment to present a film version that adhered musically close to the original was achieved. It is worth a viewing, even in its low-quality state.