BLUES IN THE NIGHT, a pastiche of noir, drama, crime and musical elements, stars future directors Elia Kazan and Richard Whorf as a brash clarinetist and a neurotic band-leader, respectively. Their small jazz band, which includes a manic-depressive trumpeter (Jack Carson) and a girl singer (Priscilla Lane), travels from one small-time gig to another, always looking for their big break but always denied fame due to their personal demons. Lane and Betty Field portray (again respectively) the good and bad girls in the musicians' lives. What sets BLUES IN THE NIGHT apart is its melodramatic set pieces, including a gutsy climactic murder-suicide sequence involving Field and escaped convict Lloyd Nolan, and an interesting fantasy montage, brilliantly edited by another budding film director, Don Siegel (INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS, THE KILLERS, DIRTY HARRY).
BLUES IN THE NIGHT (1941)
Little band struggles to be big
BLUES IN THE NIGHT, a pastiche of noir, drama, crime and musical elements, stars future directors Elia Kazan and Richard Whorf as a brash clarinetist and a neurotic band-leader, respectively. Their small jazz band, which includes a manic-depressive trumpeter (Jack Carson) and a girl singer (Priscilla Lane), travels from one small-time gig to another, always looking for their big break but always denied fame due to their personal demons. Lane and Betty Field portray (again respectively) the good and bad girls in the musicians' lives. What sets BLUES IN THE NIGHT apart is its melodramatic set pieces, including a gutsy climactic murder-suicide sequence involving Field and escaped convict Lloyd Nolan, and an interesting fantasy montage, brilliantly edited by another budding film director, Don Siegel (INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS, THE KILLERS, DIRTY HARRY).
