Porgy and Bess (1959) Poster

Parents Guide

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Certification

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Certification

Sex & Nudity

  • No actual sex or nudity is shown, but Porgy and Bess clearly live together out of wedlock and are lovers. At the end of each of their big duets, "Bess You Is My Woman Now" and "I Loves You Porgy", they kiss passionately, with Porgy kissing Bess on the neck as well as on the lips.
  • Crown and Bess are former live-in lovers; Bess is a former prostitute and Crown is her pimp.

Violence & Gore

  • There are two important fights, and each one of them leads to a murder.

Profanity

  • None. The word "damn" has been omitted from the screenplay, and no serious profanity could be used in a 1959 Hollywood film, so the word "bastard" has also been eliminated.

Alcohol, Drugs & Smoking

  • Crown, the main villain of the story, gets so drunk during the crap game that he starts to think others are cheating when they are not.

Frightening & Intense Scenes

  • The two fights mentioned above; there is also a hurricane scene. Neither scene is truly frightening, however.

Spoilers

The Parents Guide items below may give away important plot points.

Sex & Nudity

  • On Kittiwah Island, Crown encounters Bess after a long separation and forces her to stay with him, apparently raping her offscreen. She returns to the mainland ill and delirious.

Alcohol, Drugs & Smoking

  • Sportin' Life (played by Sammy Davis, Jr.) is a dope pusher who is seen trying to sell "happy dust" (cocaine) several times. He eventually gets Bess high on cocaine so that she will run off with him to New York.

See also

Taglines | Plot Summary | Synopsis | Plot Keywords


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