Pete Kelly's Blues

source: Pete Kelly's Blues

This film is musically great with a couple of numbers by Ella Fitzgerald. However, this is not anything close to a musical. Rather it is a 20's gangster tale that involves Pete Kelly (Jack Webb) and his band. For those of you who remember Dragnet, Webb's narration might have you thinking of Dragnet just a little too much. Webb also directed this film, and he did a great job of giving it a real 20's feel. You don't feel like you're looking at a bunch of people from the 50's dressed up for a 20's costume party. The only thing bad I can say about it is I had a hard time figuring out Pete Kelly's motivation. A person close to him is killed, and he is ready to give in to the gangster responsible and forget the whole thing ever happened. He finds out another person he barely knows has been killed by the same gangster and he's ready for war. He tosses an eager and beautiful Janet Leigh out of his room in one scene, and in the next scene he's overjoyed to see her to the point of wanting to marry her. The clinical acting style that worked so well for Webb in Dragnet just left me a little confused here. Still, overall, I would recommend it.

I was eager to see this film, as it was a rare chance to see Jack Webb star and direct a film where he does not play a cop. While the topic of the film (jazz) might surprise some, it didn't catch me by surprise as I have read a biography about Webb and know he adored jazz. He had one of the best record collections anywhere and in the 1950s and 60s, he was responsible for many collections of jazz recordings. Apart from playing a cop, jazz was Webb's love. Webb plays the title character--a cornet-playing band leader in the 1920s. His band has a moderate amount of success when they are approached with an 'offer' from a mobster (Edmund O'Brien) who wants to be the band's agent...and collect 25% of their take. The bottom line is that they must work with this cheap hood or, if they are lucky, just have their heads kicked in! Well, through some bad choices, one of the more headstrong members of the band is killed and Webb just walks away---forming a new band and knuckling under to O'Brien's thuggish tactics. But, despite swallowing his pride, deep within Webb's conscience is eating at him...as he has trouble sleeping with this devil. The film is very interesting for its look and sound. While I am no fan of jazz, I really liked the cool jazz sound and it gave the film a great ambiance. Webb chose his selections well. I also liked all of the characters...save one. Webb was just too laconic--too stiff. While this worked well when he played Joe Friday on "Dragnet", here he seems too wooden--at least until the end. He wasn't bad...he just wasn't as good as he could have been. Otherwise, some fine performances by Janet Leigh, Rosemary Clooney (in a pretty tough role) and O'Brien. Despite the lovely Warner Brothers color, the film played a lot like film noir with its gritty dialog and heavies. An interesting film--and one well worth seeing even with its faults. Plus, despite his oddly controlled acting, Webb directed this film very well--keeping it taught and entertaining throughout. By the way, you gotta love that scene with the disco ball. When you see it, you'll know what I mean.

PETE KELLY'S BLUES (1955) has finally made it to DVD and a fairly enjoyable issue it is too but mostly because of the music - which I'm sorry to say there isn't an over abundance of either. From a lean enough screenplay by Richard L. Breen it is nevertheless well directed by the picture's star Jack Webb. The light plot has cornetist Pete Kelly (Webb), leader of a Dixieland Jazz band in 20s Kansas, going up against racketeer Fran McCarg (Edmond O'Brien) who wants a "piece" of the band. Trouble follows when Kelly's drummer Joey Firestone (Martin Milner) objects and pays for his objection with his life (In classic old Warner gangster movie style he is mowed down with a Tommy gun in a back alley by a passing Limousine in the teeming rain). A stoic Webb tells Rudy, the nightclub owner, "get someone to bring Joey in - it's raining on him". The picture ends with Kelly having a showdown with the mob boss and a couple of his "goons" in a well executed shootout in a deserted ballroom. In between all the drama and gunfire there are some fine jazz numbers "played" by the on-screen band which is ghosted on the soundtrack by popular jazz band of the day Matty Matlock's Dixieland Jazz Band. Matlock himself ghosted for Lee Marvin on clarinet while Matlock's trumpet player Dick Cathcart doubled for Webb on the Cornet. It is reputed that Webb - an avid jazz fan - based the band in the movie on his own favourite Dixieland band - Eddie Condon's Dixielanders (who themselves in real life had problems with gangsters). But the movie is disappointing in that there aren't enough numbers played by the band in the film. We could have tolerated quite a few more of them from Matlock's great band! However as compensation we are treated to some terrific songs. The great Peggy Lee gives us her wonderful and unique renditions of such standards as "Sugar" and "Somebody Loves Me". Then there's a marvellous cameo by the First Lady of Jazz herself the inimitable Ella Fitzgerald belting out "Hard Hearted Hannah" and the title tune "Pete Kelly's Blues" (composed by Warner Bros. musical director Ray Heindorf). Interestingly Peggy Lee won an Acadamy Award nomination for her portrayal of McCarg's drunken moll in the picture. So not too bad a movie really - saved mostly as I've said by the music. But it is stylishly photographed in Cinemascope and colour by Hal Rossen and has some clever rapid-fire dialogue. Thanks to Webb's expert direction he imbues his film with an exceptional jazz era atmosphere and his knowledge of Dixieland jazz helps it along. Dixieland jazz was the pop music of yesteryear. Hearing it here and in the light of what we have to listen to today it's a great pity it still isn't. Hmmm! Now a word about the DVD! Although it is in a well defined 2.35 widescreen format Warner's presentation of "Pete Kelly's Blues" leaves a lot to be desired! There are no extras to speak of! Just a silly very dated short about the early days of motoring and a Looney Tunes cartoon. Surely they could have scraped up, from their archives, some short about jazz or something jazz related. No?? Also why was there no attempt to have a commentary? And to add salt to an already blistering wound - there isn't even a trailer! For shame Warner Home Video! However, nothing can diminish this classic line from "Pete Kelly's Blues"........... The deadpan Webb (the only actor who could walk without moving his arms) in a confrontation with gangster O'Brian : "I've heard about you McCarg - down south they say you have rubber pockets so you can steal soup"!

It was Teddy Buckner playing the trumpet in the funeral scene that first turned me onto this film back in 1957.A Louis Armstrong - inspired trumpeter.(hear his "West End Blues" on the Goodtime Jazz album "Dixieland Jubilee")he totally outshone the eponymous Pete Kelly's playing throughout.(believed to have been ghosted by Jimmy McPartland). Ella Fitzgerald had a minor hit with a 78 of "Hard Hearted Hannah" b/w "Pete Kelly's blues".Although nearly half a century old,Webb's movie remains the best "jazz film" ever made.It was 100% fiction whereas "Bird" was 80% fiction presented as fact.Not that I'm knocking Clint Eastwood - it wouldn't have been made without his clout and it certainly served as an introduction to Charlie Parker's music. I absolutely agree with the people on this site who consider Jack Webb's contribution to films due for a revision."The D.I." is far better than it's reputation suggests and until F.Lee Ermey came along remained the ur USMC movie. "Pete Kelly's Blues" is an astonishingly accomplished piece of work. Mr Webb gets fine performances from veteran and tyro alike(although I am a dissenter in the "Peggy Lee for an Oscar" debate),she does well for a singer playing a singer but was wise not to give up her day job. The "Wild Party" scene is brilliantly orchestrated and never allowed to spiral out of Mr Webb's control.The complex relationship between gangster,jazz musician and cop is given the attention it merits and reflects the reality of the time. Pete Kelly himself is given verisimilitude by a marked physical resemblance to dixieland trumpeter Muggsy Spanier who would have been around at the same sort of time. In an era full of method actors over-emoting,Jack Webb could be said to be internalising his characters - or,on the other hand,you might think he was monolithic.Whichever,it made him stand out amongst his fellow thesps in an era when it wasn't considered the mark of a man to shed an easy tear. In the "Not a lot of people know that" dept.:- the solo banjo player is Harper Goff,member of the "Firehouse Five",a band formed by Walt Disney artists in the early fifties. You don't have to be a jazz lover to enjoy "Pete Kelly's blues",but if you watch it you might end up buying the sort of records your grandma used to dance to.

Oh, the music!!! And the voices of Ella Fitzgerald and Peggy Lee!! When has there EVER been a greater exposition in a dramatic movie of such gorgeous blues and jazz? Tell me. Wherever this sound track is sold, get it. I have no idea who is playing that trumpet, but it was transporting!!! Peggy Lee in the insane asylum is worth the price for that scene. And Ella becomes more dear as the years go by!!! Andy Devine as a cop knocks me out!! Where is the genial fatherly old man? Trying to be a good cop. A few laps in rationality, but no more than usual in movie-land. Before the editing started, the audience MIGHT have found out what happened to the missing go-fer. But, he seems to have slipped by the gaudy Miss Janet Leigh in one of the closing scenes. I'm sure some director today has imitated the corpse-falling-on-the-revolving-dancehall-globe, and if not, they should. Quite a memorable sight. In these days of cookie-cutter movies, 'Pete Kelly's Blues' is a unique gem. Don't rent it: buy it....you'll want to revisit the music again and again, as well as the sight of Lee Marvin being knocked sprawling by a much smaller Joe Friday, uh, I mean, Pete Kelly. (What cute buns!! Is it OK to say that about the dead?)

This is a movie that satisfies on so many levels and even manages to overcome a less than perfect print (I have long coveted this title and mentioned it to the guy in Norway who has been so generous in supplying me with French Classics: he located a print which, bizarrely is dubbed into Spanish whilst RETAINING the original English soundtrack). It also has to overcome Jack Webb's wooden acting and my personal aversion to Janet Leigh and it does this in Spades. On the first level it's a wonderful mixture of the visual and oral with Webb's eye for detail, period and otherwise, perfectly complemented by Richard L. Breen's brilliant screenplay liberally laced with faux-Chandler narration and dialogue (Webb in voice-over setting the scene, a brownstone in KC where his band is resident: It used to belong to a dentist but he moved to Chicago to get a piece of the flu epidemic. This line is so good that it doesn't really matter that the great flu epidemic was in 1928, one year later than the setting of the film. Later, when the hot-headed drummer Joey Firestone, is gunned down in front of Webb in torrential rain in an alley outside the club, Webb goes back inside and addresses Rudy, the owner: Webb: Get someone to bring Joey in. Rudy: Why? Webb: It's raining on him. Webb may have been wooden but he sure knew how to tell a story cinematically with touches like the one where he comes off the stand after a set, walks to the bar, leans against it, facing away from it, stretches a hand backwards into which the bartender places a towel, with which Webb (Pete Kelly) proceeds to wipe his brow. The movie is replete with touches like this, note, for example, the recurring motif when the band are relaxing in the kitchen in between sets and each time the door opens it creates a draught in the pizza oven. The beauty of this is that it ISN'T a plot point and no one remarks on it, it's just wonderful attention to detail. I could go on and on citing visuals like this and low-key dialogue because this movie is so rich in both. In a rare sympathetic role Lee Marvin is outstanding as Al Gannaway, the clarinet player and longest serving member of Pete Kelly's Big Seven, world-weary and tired of trouble, who leaves the band and returns again. Equally outstanding is Edmund O'Brien's Fran McCarg, a local gangster who offers the band both 'protection' and the services of a singer, his alcoholic girlfriend, Rose Hopkins, a truly outstanding performance by Peggy Lee. The final shootout is very reminiscent of Orson Welles, with one of McCarg's heavies lurking in the rafters above the glitter ball in a ballroom and Webb's camera shooting from above the man and looking down through both rafters and ball. Add Ella Fitzgerald to the mix plus some fine Dixieland Jazz (Dick Cathcart played cornet for Webb) and this is a true neglected gem.

This movie has great music, competent acting(except for some weak Jack Webb moments), superb music, cool 1920's sets, damn good singing, decent storyline and dare I say some OK music. It has that big, 1950s, gangster movie feel about it. Maybe, because, it was a big, 1950s, gangster movie. I recommend it, if only for the music.

This could just as easily be titled 'Joe Friday's Blues'! Webb still has the cop demeanor in this rather routine story of a blues band leader during the 20s. Lord, even the narration is reminiscent of Dragnet. Now, having said all that, how can you not like a movie with a supporting cast of Marvin, Milner, Divine, Leigh, Lee, O'brian, and Fitzgerald? The musical numbers are sensational, and one can detect real admiration on Webb's face when he watches Lee and Ella perform; accordingly, this was Webb's labor of love. Watch for Andy Divine in a role unlike any you've seen him in before.

"Pete Kelly's Blues" was a do-or-die project for Jack Webb, best known for playing Sgt. Joe Friday on the TV series "Dragnet". Riding on the success of his previous film "Dragnet" (1954), Webb decided to make this film as his next project. If it did well at the box office, Warners would greenlight a TV show of the same name. "Pete Kelly's Blues" did respectable business (about 5 million), and garnered an Oscar nod for singer Peggy Lee in the Supporting Actress category, but, for reasons unknown, Warners decided to pass on the TV show. Today, "Pete Kelly's Blues" fails to muster much interest and is nearly forgotten today. Webb's film is dripping in atmosphere, which is a major plus considering the setting (New Orleans during the Roaring Twenties)and the script (by Richard L. Breen, who wrote "Dragnet")is so airtight and taut that you just can't help getting involved in it. I know I've raked Blake Edwards over the coals for paying attention too much to the story sometimes, but with Webb, concentrating on the story is a plus. The acting is excellent, especially by Webb, who some might consider too stiff, but others will consider to be realistic. And using the CinemaScope frame for the first and only time in his career, Webb really creates some complex and stunning compositions. It should be required viewing for all budding cinematographers. It should only be seen widescreen. AMC often airs it this way, showing "Pete Kelly's Blues" in all its 2.55:1 glory. Webb is one of the most interesting of directors and also the most underappreciated. "Dragnet" told a riveting murder mystery that transcended the TV series. "The D.I." was fairly realistic and daring for its' time (you can't fault it for being more mellow than most Marines films, this was 1957 people!)"-30-" was an interesting clash of styles set in the newspaper industry. With "Pete Kelly's Blues", Webb surrounds it with top notch talent (the cast includes Janet Leigh in an early role and recent Oscar winner Edmond O'Brien and future Oscar winner Lee Marvin)and turns in his most original and best work. If you love jazz, you get lots of it here and Webb shows that besides Clint Eastwood, he is one of the only directors able to understand jazz enough to successfully film it. Webb deserved a Best Director nomination as well as a Best Picture nod (he also produced the picture; making him one of the first auteurs in film) In any case, "Pete Kelly's Blues" deserves to be treated as much more than a throwaway; it deserves respect and earns it from me. I think anyone will enjoy it though Webb fans will like it even more. You know who you are. **** out of 4 stars