Tamango (1958)

User Rating:

6.4/10   

Director:

John Berry

Writers:

John Berry (writer)
Lee Gold (writer)

Release Date:

24 January 1958 (France)

Genre:

Drama | History

Tagline:

Love and Adventure as Bold and Daring as the Casting!

Plot:

A Dutch slave captain, on a voyage to Cuba, faces a revolt fomented by a newly captured African slave...

Plot Keywords:

Slave | Historical | Slave Trader | Slavery | Beautiful Woman

Cast

Dorothy Dandridge	...	Aiché, Reiker's mistress
Curd Jürgens	...	Captain John Reinker
Jean Servais	...	Doctor Corot
Alex Cressan	...	Tamango
Roger Hanin	...	1st Mate Bebe
Guy Mairesse	...	Werner
Clément Harari	...	Cook
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Doudou Babet	...	Chadi
Habib Benglia	...	Le chef noir
Karamoko Cisse		(as Cissé Karamako)
S. Damiz
Eboué
Hassane Fall
René Hell
Samuel M'Bondi
Abesakar Samba
Douta Seck
Bachir Touré	...	Zaru
Julien Verdier	...	Fernando
B. Vitalien

Also Known As:

La rivolta dell'esperanza (Italy)

Runtime:

USA:98 min

Country:

Italy | France

Language:

French

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Cagnes-sur-Mer, Alpes-Maritimes, France

Company:

CEI Incom

Trivia:

At initial release, depiction of interracial romance caused the film to be banned in the United States and in the French colonies.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar (1995)

Factually based tale of slave revolt

"Tamango" is a rousing and intelligent tale of a slave ship revolt in the 18th century. It strives to avoid transparent moralizing and overt stereotypes, particularly by placing the gorgeous Dorothy Dandridge in the pivotal role of the Captain's mistress. She must decide whether to send him to his certain demise among her fellow Africans (as Leonard Maltin avers, it's way ahead of its time). Perhaps this even-handedness is not all that surprising given the fact that it was directed by the blacklisted John Berry, who found refuge in France after helming several sensitive films noirs about the urban American underclass.

Most references give the film's literary source as a novella by French author Prosper Merimée. However, I recently stumbled upon an article in the "New York Times" (August 24, 2005) concerning a South African archaeologist who is combing a beach off Cape Horn for the wreck of a Dutch slave ship named the Meermin. The history given of this particular ship is pretty much a blow-by-blow description of this film (apart from the miscegenation), even down to the very details of how the slaves were given their chance, and how the surviving crew foiled them at one point. I can't remember if the film acknowledges any true-to-life origins, but this shivery narrative certainly lends the movie even more credence.