Blues in the Night

1941 "2 GRAND BANDS! JIMMY LUNCEFORD'S and WILL OSBORNE'S! MUSIC GALORE!"
6.7| 1h28m| NA| en| More Info
Released: 15 November 1941 Released
Producted By: Warner Bros. Pictures
Country:
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Info

A struggling band find themselves attached to a fugitive and drawn into a series of old feuds and love affairs, as they try to stay together and find musical success.

Genre

Drama, Crime, Music

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Director

Anatole Litvak

Production Companies

Warner Bros. Pictures

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Blues in the Night Audience Reviews

Plustown A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.
KnotStronger This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.
Janae Milner Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.
Donald Seymour This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.
calvinnme 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.
ryancm This film could have been a lot better than it is. A strange melodrama where everyone gets their "due". In the old days, everyone pays for their sins and crimes. Part film noir, part musical, part thriller...doesn't really know what it wants to be. The main title BLUES IN THE NIGHT is not heard straight through even once, as noted in Maltin's book. Richard Whorf reminded me of Jerry Orbach, but not as talented. Jack Carson played Jack Carson. His performances never varied. Elia Kazan is fine as the one of the boys in the band. One writer noted that Betty Field and Lloyd Nolan were both in PEYTON PLACE years after this, but they had no scenes together. Wrong. They had a short scene outside Nolan's Hospital office. Field does just fine as the tart. Quite a contrast to her roles in PEYTON PLACE and especially PICNIC. Some interesting scenes and special effect montages, but really quite a dreary film filled with contrivances and plot holes. Looks like a lot was left "on the cutting room floor". Also the time element is confusing as is why these band players making money all live in a barn together in a barn yet. Like I said before, a strange film.
longrush The blues and swing music are quite good, what there was of it. Unfortunately the music keeps getting interrupted by the sort of sappy story that Hollywood usually attached to films that were billed as musicals.Down and out musicians, riding the rails like hobos, decide to form a band at Depression's end, but they keep getting involved with gangsters, stupid club owners and a woman of very questionable morals who would break up their happy family. There's a good girl, of course, a blond singer who belongs to a philandering trumpet player. Oh, what's the use--no one would watch this for the story or to see Jack Carson or Lloyd Nolan or the rest of them.If only there had been more of the music and less of what some might call "drama," and what I would call fast talking, poor acting treacle.
tbear_43 What an interesting idea: a film noir musical. While some of the acting was a bit over the top by today's standards, this film is a masterpiece of classic noir with great music, as well. The story line is formulaic, but weren't most of the in those days? I loved the song Bacall sang in THE BIG SLEEP, but BLUES IN THE NIGHT makes brings the music to the forefront, giving the viewer/listener a fuller experience. What a femme fatale Kay is, and she leaves us with no doubt about it: out for herself, jealous, envious, self pitying, willing to sacrifice anything for what she wants, but once she gets it, goes about making it as miserable as possible. Even her death at the hands of a man she scorns as unworthy in every way is poetic justice.I'm glad TCM is running BLUES IN THE NIGHT a bit more. I'm ready to see it again tight away!