Anna Lucasta

Introduction and comments following Anna Lucasta, 1958, with Lee Thomas and Kelley Carter from the African American Film Critics Association.

TCM's Saturday afternoon host Tiffany Vazquez introduces Anna Lucasta, 1958.

Sailor Danny (Sammy Davis Jr.) and Eartha Kitt (title character, a San Diego streetwalker), with his pal Lester (Charles Swain) are settling plans for after his discharge when her father (Rex Ingram) from Los Angeles arrives, apparently seeking reconciliation, in the 1958 remake of Philip Yordan's Anna Lucasta.

With a title tune written by composer Elmer Bernstein and Sammy Cahn, Sammy Davis Jr. vocal opening his first movie as an actor, Eartha Kitt in the title role as a San Diego streetwalker, the 1958 re-working of screenwriter Philip Yordan's Anna Lucasta.

Unlike every other stage or screen production of the title, this one has a mambo-dance number for sailor-turned-cabbie Danny (Sammy Davis Jr.), partying with ex-girlfriend Eartha Kitt (title character), who's had a change of heart just hours after getting married, in Anna Lucasta, 1958.

The jazz score kicks back in as Sammy Davis Jr. (as sailor "Danny," his first scene in his first dramatic role) and pal Lester (Charles Swain) arrive at the San Diego waterfront bar run by Noah (Alvin Childress), come to see the streetwalker title character (Eartha Kitt), in the 1958 version of Anna Lucasta.