Blues in the Night (1941)

To me, this movie is perfection.

I'll tell you why so serious

To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

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.

This is a rarity that deserves a much wider audience. Lots of interesting credits from Anatole Litvak who was nothing if not eclectic shooting stuff as diverse as Mayerling, The Snake Pit, Sorry, Wrong Number, Anastasia and The Deep Blue Sea. Robert Rossen who wrote the screenplay was one of three future directors involved in the project the others being Richard Whorf and Gadg who weighs in with a frenetic acting performance. Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer provided two all-time great standards though neither one, This Time The Dream's On Me and the title song gets a workout worthy of them. The cast is a movie buff's dream with the likes of Howard da Sylva, Betty Field, Lloyd Nolan, Prisscilla Lane and Jack Carson all emoting for local 802. There's a certain melodramatic element which does no harm and tends to move the whole thing to the outskirts of noir. Catch it if you can.

This film stars mostly second and third-tier actors from Warner Brothers. Familiar actors like Jack Carson, Priscilla Lane, Lloyd Nolan and Wallace Ford are here, but there is also a starring role by the relatively unknown Richard Whorf as well as a supporting role by Elia Kazan--before he made a REAL name for himself as a director. And while none of these folks are huge stars, they do a fine job and the film has the usual high quality and polish you'd expect from the studio.This film is sort of like a fairy tale about a group of musicians who love Blues, though it's NOT exactly the same style you'd find in Black America--it's more like a big-band/Hollywood idea of the Blues! It's filled with various clichés (such as the BAD girl who might break up the band) but because it's made so well and the music quite enjoyable, it's still worth seeing. Just be sure you aren't looking for THE Blues! Not great but for old movie fans (like myself), it's worth seeing.

A jazz/blues band forms out of St. Louis after the members spend a night together in jail. An interesting travelogue by boxcar ensues as they move through the southern half of the US, the progress seen on a map with the names of a lot of small towns and medium sized cities rather than through their individual gigs. While back in the boxcar again, they meet up with a fugitive who takes a liking to them and gets them a job in New Jersey with the New York skyline beckoning in the distance, in a road house known as The Jungle. The story gets quite interesting. This is not a musical, though it has a lot of music in it. Things really start going over the top with the arrival of Betty Field as Kitty, fugitive Lloyd Nolan's ex-girlfriend, a tough exterior over a brittle interior. With Nolan is Howard DaSilva as his assistant who helps run the place and has plans for Kitty if only he can pull off a major double cross. The band, led by future director Richard Whorf and featuring clarinetist (and future director Elia Kazan) is fairly interesting, though the characters are not that believable. But once they start their extended stay at The Jungle, with DaSilve, Nolan, Field, and Wallace Ford as Brad (another lost soul), it becomes totally unique.

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.