Tamango (1958)

Tamango: Directed by John Berry. With Dorothy Dandridge, Curd Jürgens, Jean Servais, Alex Cressan. A Dutch slave captain, on a voyage to Cuba, faces a revolt fomented by a newly captured African slave, Tamango. The slaves capture the captain’s mistress, forcing a showdown.

“I was quite impressed with this film, mostly for the incredible strides forward it made in portraying the horrors of the slave trade and horrific abuse of the kidnapped and enslaved Africans. The epic miniseries Roots, two decades later, and Spielbergu0026#39;s Amistad some 40 years after this film offer more detail and arguably higher production values, but Tamango is well worth watching, especially for those keen on either film or world history. Like another reviewer, I found the acting a little flat, despite the presence of the talented Curd Jurgens and Dorothy Dandridge. But the performances of all were engaging enough for me to want to stick with it to see the resolution of the conflicts. I was also very impressed to see the relationship between CJu0026#39;s and DDu0026#39;s characters, at a time in the US when white mobs were trying to prevent children of different colors from going to school together, and a decade before the US Loving case forced states to accept marriages between people of different colors.”