Tout au long de la nuit

Just imagine: That Shakespearian bigger-than-life plot line, a sixties touch of psychoanalysis, a movie set entirely inside a party of swingers, great interludes featuring amazing jazz performances from some great artists such as Charlie Mingus(music scenes that also explain story line and characters), a slight bit of over-acting in colorful black and white, good filmmaking, interracial couples and drug taking in a 1961 movie, love, hate and, of course, jealousy. Who could possible miss out on these ingredients?

Just beautiful.

For lovers of jazz and racial harmony, this groovy British movie has it all. Some of the best jazz musicians of the era. Blacks and whites getting along just fine. And a fascinating performance by Patrick McGoohan -- who plays a scheming drummer hell-bent on splitting up an inter-racial marriage in order to form his own band.

The movie is set in the docklands area of London with a plot loosely based on Shakespeare's "Othello". The acting and direction are generally good with noirish cinematography. But the main attraction is the jazz -- with such luminaries as Dave Brubeck, Johnny Dankworth, Tubby Hayes, and Charlie Mingus happily jamming throughout the movie.

Paul Harris delivers an impressive performance as an African-American band leader with a stage presence similar to Morgan Freeman. The rest of the cast are natural and convincing, especially the lovely Maria Velasco, who is in another inter-racial relationship. But the movie belongs to McGoohan, whose deeply flawed character, insanely brilliant drumming (not dubbed!), and maniacal scheming are a wonder to behold.

This minor classic is available as a high-quality German all-region DVD (Die Heisse Nacht) with an English sound track.

I had never heard of this film, so I didn't know what to expect. I figured that anything featuring Attenborough and McGoohan had to be good...and I was right.

The film begins with preparations for a big jazz party honoring Rex and Delia's first anniversary. When they walk through the door, we get a big surprise: Rex is black and Delia is white. (Mixed-race couples were rare on screen in 1962, although they're now "de rigeur" in British TV and film.) When McGoohan's character started his scheming, it finally dawned on me that I was watching OTHELLO in a warehouse!

The screenwriters did a decent job of condensing Shakespeare's play into 90 minutes and bringing it up to date, but they chose to change the ending, which may disappoint die-hard fans of the Bard.

What makes this movie stand out is the cast of supporting characters: great jazz players of the early 1960s. The three headliners are Dave Brubeck (playing "Unsquare Dance"), bassist Charles Mingus, and sax player/bandleader Johnny Dankworth. But there are many second- tier players who contribute to the swinging atmosphere.

This film would be of interest to students of Shakespeare, or lovers of jazz. And if you like the idea of a "jazz summit" in a film, also check out A SONG IS BORN, a Danny Kaye comedy from 1948. The jazzers outshine the actors in that one; in ALL NIGHT LONG, it's a dead heat.

About 20 to 30 minutes into the film, I felt like I was watching a play--a familiar play, at that. Thanks to IMDb, I learned it's inspired by Shakespeare's Othello. I haven't read it in 40 years, but at least that mystery was solved.

The mystery that's not solved for me is the actual genesis of this project. Whose idea was it to fashion a script loosely based on Othello against the backdrop of the late 1960s British jazz scene? The producer? The script's co-authors? Honestly, that's a head-scratcher, in my book.

As far as the music, it's never truly "featured" in this film. It's either used as a transition from one scene to the next or as a background element. Make no mistake: what performances we do get are high-end, time capsule-like delights; but they are often interrupted with storyline.

If you're a diehard fan of the jazz artists featured in this film or of some members of the cast, like Betsy Blair, Richard Attenborough, or Patrick McGoohan, you'll probably like this movie. And if you are into older movies that test the boundaries regarding interracial relationships, this one may interest you. It's good but definitely an oddity.

The film, based on Othello, is neatly positioned as a vehicle to showcase some of the best Jazz musicians of the period -- including Dave Brubeck and Charlie Mingus.

What is most interesting about this film is how it handles racial relations. That was an important part of "Othello", but really defined the 1960s. I love how 1963 was the year of the "I Have a Dream" speech, but already in England films like this had blacks and whites mingling without any sort of trouble. How much more mature they were...

The film was released by The Criterion Collection in January 2011, and it deserved to be. Criterion has done a great job of finding lost classics and cleaning them up -- the beautiful black and white cinematography deserves to be seen, and the jazz soundtrack deserves to be heard.