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Pete Kelly's Blues

1955, Movie, NR, 95 mins

Pete Kelly's Blues: Review

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Webb directs, produces, and stars in this interesting tale of jazz and gangsters in Prohibition-era Kansas City. Opening with the funeral of a cornet player, the film moves on to show how Webb's combo is threatened when gangster O'Brien decides to diversify his operations by extorting agent fees out of the musicians. Webb and his boys try to stand up to him, but when drummer Milner is killed, Webb goes for revenge, and after a shootout in a nightclub, O'Brien's gunman crashes through the ceiling onto the dance floor, taking the mirrored globe with him. Webb's direction is craftsmanlike and exciting in a blunt way, but his performance is stiff and hardly different from his Joe Friday character from the DRAGNET movie and TV series. Leigh is only okay as his girl friend, and Marvin is quite good as his wisecracking best friend. By far the best reason to check out this late-night TV perennial, though, is the impressive collection of top jazzmen like Matty Matlock, Moe Schneider, and George Van Eps. Also contributing are Ella Fitzgerald, who sings two songs and does a small supporting turn, and Peggy Lee, surprisingly effective as a singer on the skids and on the bottle who is eventually beaten into insanity by O'Brien, a performance that garnered her an Oscar nomination. The film has a certain edgy realism and unsentimentality not usually found in films about jazz before this time (the bars where the band plays are crowded and smoky, and the drinks are probably overpriced), and the music is good. Webb's cornet playing was dubbed by Dick Cathcart. Music includes "Pete Kelly's Blues" (Sammy Cahn, Ray Heindorf, sung by Ella Fitzgerald), "Sing a Rainbow," "He Needs Me" (Arthur Hamilton), "Somebody Loves Me," "Sugar" (Maceo Pinkard, Sidney Mitchell, Edna Alexander, sung by Peggy Lee), "I Never Knew" (Gus Kahn, Ted Fiorito), "Hard-hearted Hannah" (Jack Yellen, Milton Ager, Bob Bigelow, Charles Bates, sung by Ella Fitzgerald), "Bye, Bye Blackbird" (Mort Dixon, Ray Henderson), "What Can I Say After I Say I'm Sorry" (Walter Donaldson, Abe Lyman), "Oh, Didn't He Ramble" (Bob Cole, J. Rosamond Johnson [Will Handy]). leave a comment
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