Blues in the Night

Everybody's heard of this movie because of the famous title song, but almost nobody's ever seen it. It defies genre classification -- both a musical drama and a sort of missing link between the Warners gangster movies of the 1930s (mugs, molls, and rat-a-tat dialogue) and 1940s film noir (femme fatale, dark shadows, smoky atmosphere, seamy underside of life). It's a genuine one-of-a-kind movie that deserves to be much better remembered than it is.

However, one commenter here needs to refresh his memory; BLUES IN THE NIGHT has nothing whatever to do with the career of Jimmy Lunceford or any other famous musician of the period. It's about a small jazz combo, not a big band, and they begin and end the movie as obscure journeymen living from hand to mouth between gigs.

A band lead by Jigger (Richard Whorf) has trouble landing a job. They get involved with gangster Dell (Lloyd Nolan) who gives them a job at his club. His jealous girlfriend Kay (Betty Field) sets out to destroy the band. Will she?

I'm only giving this a 9 because of the overly familiar story. That aside this is incredible. Nobody in the cast was a name at the time, but they're all very good actors. Field has a fun time in her bad girl role. Nolan is just great as Dell. Whorf is OK as Jigger. Also in the cast (and band) is Jack Carson, future director Elia Kazan and Priscilla Lane (who does wonders with the thankless 'good girl' role). The film is beautifully directed in gorgeous black and white by Anatole Litvak--he makes good use of his low budget and has some very nice sequences using light and shadows. Also there are a few truly bizarre (but fun) montages--they're unlike ANYTHING you'll see in a 1940s film. Also there's some really great music in here.

So...great music, good acting, beautiful photography...and just an OK story.

Still, well worth seeing.

Strange thing about this film--everybody seems to know about it, but it's almost never shown! Try catching it on TCM--their print isn't that great (the image kept shaking) but it's still worth seeing.

A real mish-mash of a movie which within its sub-90 minute running time contains enough characters and plot-lines to carry at least three films.

It starts off straightforwardly enough as talented pianist Richard Whorf's Jigger character puts together with his mates a hot swinging band who promptly hit the road looking for a break. Included in their ranks are Priscilla Lane as their vivacious girl-singer, her errant husband, trumpeter Jack Carson and mile-a-minute clarinettist Elia Kazan.

So it rolls along for the first third like a good-time, grown-up Rooney and Garland feature until, that is, the band crosses paths with escaped gangster Lloyd Nolan, who after initially repaying their collective kindness by robbing them of the little money they have, later relents and promises them a gig at his old haunt, where he reunites with his old flame Betty Field, shifty accomplice Sam and sad-sack drunken barman Brad, none of whom were expecting or are exactly appreciative of his return.

After Field tries and fails to lure Nolan back she eventually settles on Whorf and entices him away with her to the big city where he gets a job in a chintzy, fancy-dan band, all dress-suits and shiny shoes but who play the most appalling music, indeed I still can't decide whether the band's featured number "Sez You, Sez Me" is deliberately awful just to highlight how low Jigger has sunk, but believe me, it's about the worst musical number I've ever heard in a vintage Hollywood feature.

Anyway, there are a number of unlikely twists and turns from there till the end, taking in murder, domestic tragedy, a fist-fight and an automobile smash before the film leaves you breathlessly back where it started as if nothing had happened in between.

Director Anatole Litvak just about prevents the whole thing from going off the rails pretty much by just ploughing on regardless. Don Siegel contributes the innovative montage sequences, a typical Litvak trait, although he does overdo them a little this time. You also have to excuse or at least accept some un-P. C. treatment of a partially disabled character but overall, despite having more crossing-points than the New York metro, I was won over in the end by the movie's energy and drive.

I liked Whorf, an actor I've not come across before, who comes over like a cross between Dick Powell and Alan Ladd, which is exactly what his part demands, Lane brings her customary brightness and can hold a tune too while Field makes a good impression as the gangster's moll / femme fatale of the piece.

Best known today for containing the Oscar-nominated title song written by Harold Arlen - Johnny Mercer (and that one comic-clinker number apart, the music is excellent throughout) this curate's egg of a musical/gangster/noir movie is worth delving into.

This is a very offbeat kind of film that is not well known. You'll either really love it - I do - or you'll not care for it at all. Anatole Litvak, who directed so many womens' pictures, directs this odd little film that starts out as a kind of "small town band does good" picture, takes a turn into gangster territory, and then gets really dark with a venture into film noir and mental illness. Nobody in this film was a big name at the time, and I get the feeling it was one of those films that Warner's liked to grind out like sausages in the 30's and 40's that just happened to turn out to be rather special. Great performances are turned in from everyone involved, which includes Priscilla Lane as a good girl with depth, Lloyd Nolan as a gangster with a touch of the entrepreneurial and even a bit of a mentor, Jack Carson as a heel with a large bag of excuses for his behavior, Betty Field as the gangster's moll who aspires to be a singer and also ruins men as a hobby, and Richard Whorf as the musician and bandleader who falls for the moll and also into temporary insanity. Also note that future great director Elia Kazan shows up playing a small part as one of the bandmembers.

Released just three weeks before the beginning of World War II, it provides a snapshot of how the Depression and the era of the gangster were receding into memory just as an age of optimism was beginning that would go on hiatus during the war effort, and restart and peak after the war was over. Great atmosphere and great acting - highly recommended.

This film took me by surprise because it is a musical black and white film with fast movement of the camera and goes from Jazz and Blues music smack into a drama and murder. The film starts out with a piano player named Jugger, (Richard Whorf) who wants to organize a band and he has as his female singer, Ginger Powell, (Priscilla Lane) and her husband, Leo Powell, (Jack Carson) his trumpet player. Kay Grant, (Betty Field) plays the role of a gal who meets men and leaves them as quick as she meets them. Del Davis, (Lloyd Nolan) is an escaped convict who runs into this jazz band in a box car and decides to hold them up for all their money. There are many old time actors in this film and it really is a gem of a 1941 Classic. You could also call this film, riding the railroad through out the United States.