Otto Preminger has transferred it to the screen with taste and imagination in an opulent production.

Impeccably liberal in its time, the film has not aged gracefully, although Dorothy Dandridge's performance in the lead remains a testimony to a black cinema that might have been.

Every frame, you feel, is freighted with the tension imposed by the never-appearing white folks. It was, however, laudable in its desire to showcase the talents of African-American performers who were denied opportunities in Hollywood.

The running time is stretched a little thin, stuffed with a song or two that serve only to vocalize inner monologues, while the finale is also overlong, thanks to a climactic pugilist duel that delays the inevitable final confrontation.