By Jeff Swindoll Jul 23, 2008, 15:45 GMT
“He’s got the miseries!”
Sometimes when you think of the 1940s you don’t imagine them as very rough times. Blues in the Night turns out to be rather suspenseful and even has a murder or two when you’d imagine that such might not appear in a movie about the blues.
Jigger Pine (Richard Whorf) is told by his pal Nickie (Elia Kazan) that he wants to join Jigger’s band on clarinet instead of becoming a lawyer. A fight at the band’s latest gig gets Jigger, Nickie, and drummer Peppi (Billy Halop) thrown in the clink. There they meet a bass player named Pete (Peter Whitney) who joins up with the group.
Pete in turn introduces them to shifty trumpet player Leo (Jack Carson) and his wife Character (Priscilla Lane). A quick loan of $4 from the rest of the bandmates allows Leo to get his horn out of hock and he soon proves that he’d be a valuable addition to the band (though Pete is still owed money by Leo and thinks it’s not a good idea to have him join up).
The band begins to travel by hopping the rails across the countryside (it must be pretty tough to try and hop a car with the gigantic bass fiddle and drum set, but these were simpler times). One night Del Davis (Lloyd Nolan) hops on the train and robs them. The band is rather nonchalant about it and says that maybe he needs their money more than they do since he has to steal.
Del keeps the money but says that he’s impressed with the band and tells them to meet him at a roadhouse. The roadhouse is run by Sam (Howard Da Silva), singer Kay (Betty Field) is the entertainment, and the crippled Brad (Wallace Ford) is around and fawning over Kay.
Del shows up and it’s obvious that he’s the leader of the group, which was until a little sojourn in prison, but now he’s back and sets up the kids as the roadhouse’s band. However, things don’t exactly work out for the best as Jigger takes up with Kay.
I was somewhat surprised with Blues in the Night as I was expecting a jaunty blues filled number. My first surprise was seeing director Elia Kazan in an acting role as well as finding out that the star of the show, Richard Whorf, would also parlay his career into a directing gig (helming 1950’s Champagne for Caesar as well as numerous other television gigs in the 50s and 60s).
Kazan, of course, went on to have a better directing career than Whorf, but it’s fun to see him here bouncing off the walls as the flighty Nickie. Director Anton Litvak takes Blues in the Night in some interesting directions and what we would think of as a musical turns into a mobster film, film noir, drama, and even has some sequences reminiscent of Salvador Dali thrown in for good measure.
Perhaps it was the surprise of seeing all of these genres mixed together that made it my favorite of the evening of jazz films. Some of the conventions of the film will not set well with today’s audiences since the band has an “aw shucks” somewhat naïve attitude that makes them gladly give up their money when robbed and then trust in the guy that robbed them.
The bad girl that makes the good guy fall into the gutter is pure noir and this leads to one of the better sequences of the film as the character has an insane dream sequence (“He’s got the miseries!”). Quite a few nice surprises are packed in the film’s 88 minutes. It also was nominated for an Academy Award for the song “Blues in the Night.”
Blues in the Night is presented in fullscreen. Special features include the 10 minute short “Jammin the Blues,” the 10 minute short “Melody Master: Jimmie Lunceford and his Dance Orchestra” (who appear in the film), the 7 minute cartoons “My Favorite Duck,” “Swooner Crooner,” and “Kitty Kornered.” There’s also a 2-minute audio outtake and the 3-minute theatrical trailer.
It may be an acquired taste for today’s audiences but I think that film buffs will find a lot to love in Blues in the Night.
Blues in the Night is now available at Amazon. As of yet, there is not a release date for this version of the DVD in the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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