Porgy and Bess (1959)

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Originally bought as a film property by Columbia Pictures in 1942 to star an all-white cast in blackface: Al Jolson as Porgy, Rita Hayworth as Bess, and Fred Astaire as Sportin' Life. When that proved unrealistic, the property was sold to 20th Century Fox, where it was hoped to have been a follow-up to Stormy Weather. Rouben Mamoulian (who directed the original Broadway play) was announced as director and the following cast was announced: Paul Robeson as Porgy, Lena Horne as Bess, Hattie McDaniel as Maria, Canada Lee as Crown, Cab Calloway as Sportin' Life and Fredi Washington as Clara. When Horne proved to be unavailable after 'Stormy Weather' and Robeson clashed with 'Daryl Zanuck' due to his political beliefs, the film was shelved until 1957 when it was bought by Samuel Goldwyn.
Sammy Davis Jr. sings and acts the role of Sportin' Life in the film, but for contractual reasons his vocals could not be used on the soundtrack album, so another legendary Sportin' Life, Cab Calloway, recorded his renditions of the songs for posterity, singing to the film's orchestral and choral tracks.
For the film's screenplay, screenwriter N. Richard Nash simply converted much of the opera's sung recitative into spoken dialogue, although he did add several lines of his own. He even retained many of the same lines word-for-word. The recitative in "Porgy and Bess" is especially easy to turn into spoken dialogue because, unlike the main musical numbers, it closely follows the pattern of ordinary conversation, and does not rhyme.
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