A Disappointing Continuation

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

I caught this one on TCM just yesterday morning. Based on the title(because I happen to love the song),I thought it would be a lot better than it was. Basically, "Blues In the Night" is a hot mess! It's a musical/noir/melodrama and therein lies the problem. Too many genres,with no clear vision of what story it wants to tell. The saga of a struggling band? The mental breakdown of a guy hopelessly in love with a no-good woman? The trials and tribulations of a married couple trying to be keep it together while on the road? This last bit reminded me of Scorcese's 1970's film, "New York,New York" and for all we know,this film may have been in the back of his mind when he made that one.One thing that bugged me a lot while watching this film was the over the top performance of Betty Field.Waaaayyy too much! How could any man fall for a woman that acted like her? Loud mouth,loud clothes,no class,awful make-up,etc.etc.Some of the musical performances are good,especially the title song,sung by the black guy in jail,the appearance of the Jimmie Lunceford Band and the one song that Priscilla Lane gets to sing after they start their gig at the roadhouse. It also boasts one of the worst musical performances I've ever seen on film, when the band goes to visit Jigger at his new gig and that blonde with the back-up singers does that weird song where she's making a lot of faces. She's like some 1940's version of Miley Cyrus with the outrageous bouncing around and facial contortions.In general,it wasn't horrendous,but it could have been so much better. No wonder John Garfield turned down the role of Jigger. If that was the script he read,who could blame him?

The song that Harold Arlen and Johnnie Mercer wrote for this movie turned out to be a gem. "From Natchez to Mobile, from Memphis to Saint Joe, Wherever the four winds blow, I've Been in some big towns, I've heard me some big talk, And there is one thing I know...." The music has real blues feeling, and the lyrics are as good as you'll ever find in a popular tune.So why is it that a movie which is named after the song and repeatedly alludes to it in its soundtrack never actually lets us hear the entire song from start to finish? The nearest thing to an extended performance is the rendition early on by the black man in jail. A good job, too, but cut short so we can return to the silly plot.There's also another good Arlen / Mercer song, totally different in spirit: "This Time the Dream's on Me." It's nicely sung by Priscilla Lane.There are interesting montages at two points in the movie, both created by Don Siegel. And the usual good performance by Lloyd Bridges.But for the most part it's a wildly arbitrary, melodramatic plot. The members of the band move about in unison, as if they were a flock of ducks. Two are named "Jigger" and "Character," a naive attempt to portray jazz musicians as colorful characters. Betty Field does a decent job with a part that makes her into a kind of female Iago. And Elia Kazan shows us why he ceased being an actor after this picture and focused on directing.

Some viewers feel this is a Noir Musical, but to me it just didn't have the feel of a Noir film. The best I can do for it is to call it a musical melodrama, and a good one at that. A refreshing change from musical comedies, this one has some very recognizable actors from Hollywood's Golden Age, including Priscilla Lane, Lloyd Nolan, Jack Carson and Wallace Ford. The nominal star of the picture is a not-so-recognizable name, Richard Whorf, perhaps best known for playing Sam Harris, James Cagney's song writing partner in "Yankee Doodle Dandy". You can also see a youthful Elia Kazan, before he became more famous as a director."Blues In The Night" has some excellent musical numbers, especially for jazz fans, and you can get a rare look at Jimmy Lunceford and his band, who were riding a wave of popularity about this time. But the number I liked best was "This Time The Dream's On Me", sung by Priscilla Lane (unless she was dubbed), the 'band canary' for the group.There is very little down time here as director Litvak keeps the picture moving at a good clip. Despite a few illogical instances the film is very interesting; I think you can use the word absorbing and not go wrong. If you like musicals and 'almost-noir', I would recommend this picture. It makes you wish they made many more in the same vein, but they don't make this kind of movie anymore - not in a long time.

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.