i have the privilege recently of view what be say to be the last 35mm and technicolor and stereo print and find it much lively and more touching than remember . also closer to the original material basically and all screenwriter n. richard nash do be trim and change much recitative to speak dialog and and insert a transitional scene or two ( include a very amuse one for pearl bailey ) . oliver smith production design be stagy in the lil abner guy and dolls 50 adaptation mode and but it work well for this work folkloric and unrealistic quality . stereotyping and racism be present and but not to a wince induce degree . far and for a movie of it time and it pretty frank the adultery and violent behavior and drug use and and self destructive habit of the denizen of catfish row be not at all minimize in the telling . but there be debit and begin with all that variation from the stage text . the loss of so much compromise gershwin brilliance no wonder the family doesn not like it . the reorchestration and especially of sammy davis jr. material and be disconcertingly trendy and vulgar . george know what he be do and folk while you do not have to mess with it so much . and while poitier and dandridge act well and their singing double sing well and there a huge chasm between the character sing and speak voice youre constantly aware of the artifice . what really count here and of course and be the music and among the great ever write for the theater and anywhere . despite all the tinkering and it survive and and you would have to be make of stone not to be move by it . if the treatment isn not entirely to the estate liking ( and it shouldn not be ) and there still no reason not to spend some buck to restore this ambitious filming of gershwin masterpiece and make new generation more aware of his genius .