A Man Called Adam

Great movie the best SAMMY DAVIS JR film to date,did anybody notice MORGAN FREEMAN doing background extra work, when i was young I heard old people talk about his film people like my DAD, I know he saw this film this film was very appealing to him, I know,he was in to this type of music pure jazz, all the actors were great, know I would love to own it on DVD, it help me to understand the emotionally charged 1960s I lived thru that period.and the only program that bought laughter into our hope was a show called I DREAM OF JEANNIE which MR DAVIS did a guest spot and the number that OLD BLACK MAGIC if you look carefully you'll notice the cast is mesmerized at Sammy's performance Barbara Larry Hayden and bill even the background club atmosphere was awed by this man energy,,,,,wish I could've meet him

Just watched this on Netflix disc with my mom. We both enjoyed this obscure film from 1966 about a jazz musician who suffers ups and downs because of a past he can't escape. Sammy Davis Jr. is Adam Johnson, a trumpeter with a short temper and a messed up social life. Ossie Davis is his club owner friend Nelson, Frank Sinatra Jr. is his Caucasion protégé Vincent, Cicely Tyson is his activist lover Claudia, Louis Armstrong is her grandfather who's also a jazz musician named Willie, and Peter Lawford is his agent Manny. All are very compelling in their roles which takes on many issues with racism and why Adam feels the way he does. Also interesting seeing such up-and-coming stars like Ja'net Du Bois, Johnny Brown (both eventually of "Good Times"), and Lola Falana in some roles. Oh, and the director is Leo Penn, father of Sean Penn. So on that note, I highly recommend A Man Called Adam. Oh, and I also loved Mel Torme doing his thing in one number.

The good:

• The great performance from Sammy Davis, who has such screen presence and exudes cool. Cicely Tyson (RIP!) is good in this too.

• The jazz soundtrack, with performances from Louis Armstrong and Mel Torme, who were both a treat to see.

• The spotlight on racism in society and in the police force, and in a minor key, allusions to the tension between passive nonviolence and fighting back in reaction to it.

The bad:

• Davis's character is unlikeable. He's been traumatized but is a complete jerk to everyone around him, and I think we're meant to have the same reaction as the other characters, which is to forgive him because he's so talented.

• The plot is melodramatic and lacks creative focus. It's too bad it kept going back to Davis imploding instead of other more interesting things.

The ugly:

• The treatment of Tyson's character. I hated how she succumbed to Davis after he forces himself on her, failing the first time and succeeding the second (just keep assaulting 'em fellas, and they'll give in). She forgives his bad behavior like a saint, and in one nausea-inducing moment, blames herself for having softened him too much by telling him to behave better. Ugh.

For some reason this film has gone sadly neglected over the years when assessing Sammy Davis, Jr. The man sung and danced and acted with the best. His trumpet playing may have been dubbed, but Davis was as real a deal talent wise as we've ever had.

A Man Called Adam casts Davis as a trumpet player who's been on a downward spiral for 10 years ever since he lost a wife and child in a car accident. Even dissipated and drunk as he is the talent is there and he still gets bookings. But the jazz clubs are disappearing as well as his concentration.

When he gets himself involved with Cicely Tyson the only question has she come too late to be a salvation for him?

Ossie Davis plays Tyson's uncle and guardian and the great Louis Armstrong is Davis's mentor. No doubt Sammy was learning from the best. Might have been nice to see some of Satchmo's own playing.

I'd love to know how Davis managed to get Peter Lawford and Frank Sinatra, Jr. in the same film. Lawford and Sinatra Sr. had broken off all relations four years earlier. Still Davis of all the clan members kept up a friendship with Peter Lawford who plays a big booking agent. Sinatra, Jr. plays an up and coming jazz trumpeter who idolizes Davis and takes quite a bit of guff from him during the film.

A Man Called Adam is a nicely acted film all around by its cast and it should be better known. Especially when assessing the whole career of Sammy Davis, Jr.

This film, made in 1966, was a bold attempt at addressing the contemporary conflicts of race and identity as it affected an African American jazz musician during the turbulent civil rights era. Adam (Sammy Davis Jr.) is a celebrated yet self destructive jazz musician and womanizer. Possessing a mean temper with a short fuse, he also has a serious drinking problem. In the opening scenes we are introduced to Adam leading his band in a sensuous slow number to an appreciative audience at a jazz club. When a drunken audience member insists he play something up-tempo, the volatile Adam abruptly stops playing and nearly assaults his heckler before storming out of the club and hopping a plane back to New York without explanation. Arriving home drunk with a sexy stewardess whose name he can't remember (a very lovely Lola Falana in her first screen role, which amounts to a brief cheesecake walk-on) Adam inconveniently discovers his apartment has been loaned for the week-end by his best friend (played by Ossie Davis) to a respected, elderly jazz musician (Louis Armstrong) and his chaperon/grand-daughter, a young civil rights activist (Cicely Tyson). Honored by the presence of the senior musician and attracted to his grand- daughter's sharp wit, politic-ism, and natural beauty (unlike the other African American actresses in this film, Tyson wears her hair in a short afro and wears little to no make-up). To his best friend's dismay, Adam attempts to embark upon a serious relationship with the activist, and to meet her challenge to him to be "nothing less and nothing less" than what what he is, "a man. With the support of his no-nonsense girlfriend and his young protégé (Frank Sinatra Jr.) Adam's efforts to tame his drinking and his anger look promising until an unexpected confrontation with the police tips the scale. Neither the elder musician's (Armstrong) brand of courteous subservience nor Tyson's subscription to non- violent protest works for Adam, In an era where his art cannot shield him from the stigma and crisis of his race, Adam is a time-bomb waiting to happen. Davis' performance is riveting as is Tyson's. The issues presented in this film were raw at the time of its making, and Davis and Tyson present African American characters that were almost unprecedented in their dramatic intensity and three dimensionality--an exception would be Ivan Dixon and Abbey Lincoln's startling performances in "Nothin' But AMan", (1961). Rat-pack bad boy Peter Lawford joins the cast as Adam's powerful and vindictive agent who, after twice being humiliated by Adam (don't miss the scene in famed NY restaurant, 21), blackballs him, then forces him back to the humiliation of the segregated south. Also look for a brief yet strong performance from an uncredited Jan'et DuBois ("Willona" on 1970s TV show, "Good Times") as Adam's pride-less sometimes girlfriend, and Academy award winning actor Morgan Freeman an extra in a party scene featuring singer Mel Torme.