Pete Kelly's Blues (1955)

Very disappointing...

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Pete Kelly Blues is pure Jack Webb, stiff as a board and solid storytelling. I love Jack Webb, and I like the movie but it's just good enough for fans. Warners put up a lot of support to Webb, and lavish production design by Walt Disney's best Harper Goff, and a ripping score with Ella Fitzgerald and Peggie Lee (Oscar Nom)make it a near great movie. Shot almost entirely with master shots (except the final act)is Webb's efficient style. Lee Marvin is great as a fellow traveler jazz-man, and Edmond O'Brien is menacing as the main gangster. Sadly enough, the wonderful Janet Leigh is stuck in a very crappy role as a rich flapper love interest. Webb even cast future kiddie show host Andy Devine and a tough lawman, and he is amazingly good. Webb's next film was his classic "The D.I.", a much better film. For fans and music buffs!

Not only did Jack Webb star in the film, he also directed it. Trouble is that with his meek character at the beginning of the film, Webb was weak here and should have handed over the role to Bob Mitchum or Alan Ladd.That being said, the film chronicles the 1920s jazz era in Kansas City. Pete and other bands are subjected to the protection racket by Edmond O'Brien. When a drunken Martin Milner, a band member, resists, he is shot dead and Kelly (Webb) falls in line.Lee Marvin plays a band member who makes Kelly see the light and Janet Leigh is along for the ride as Kelly's love interest. With her '20's look, she is ready to start shimmering at any time.Credit must be given to Peggy Lee for her boozy moll to O'Brien. Her appearance on screen was memorable and she earned a supporting Oscar nomination for it. She was generally trying to make a take-off of Claire Trevor's Oscar win in 1948 for "Key Largo."After Kelly gets the nerve, the film turns into a shoot out by the end.

This could be my favorite movie of all time. Why? Because of Jack Webb's deadpan delivery and some of his "corny" (may I use that word?) acting? Could be, along with great jazz music, great performances by top name actors, and entertainers, 1920's setting, and interesting story line. Jayne Mansfield made her first screen appearance here very briefly as the cigarette girl. Janet Leigh and Lee Marvin show up along with Martin Milner of Route 66 fame, and Andy Devine in a surprise roll (anyone remember "Pluck your magic twanger, Froggy?"). Edmund O'Brien has a major role as a hard ass.Peggy Lee and Ella Fitzgerald give great singing performances. I plan to buy the soundtrack with vocals. There apparently are two soundtracks; one with some vocals and the other only instrumental.I always thought of Jack Webb as just a Dragnet guy until I came across the VHS movie version about 10 years ago. What a great surprise and it finally hit DVD status the past year. This movie and the actors may not register with anyone under age 40 but I recommend you give it a try especially if you like jazz.

Jack Webb takes up the trumpet and takes on local gangsters in this colorful if at times somewhat peculiar movie about jazz musicians in the Kansas City of the Roaring Twenties. The story is disappointingly shallow and by-the-numbers, but there's some great music and songs from, among others, Peggy Lee and Ella Fitzgerald, courtesy of Ray Heindorf and Sammy Cahn.Webb was a strange case. A true pioneer of early television production, and in his way a true innovator, he made a virtue out of impassivity. He directs this one with more energy than his TV shows, but the dryness and apathy are still there. When he's dealing with conventional players, like Martin Milner, it's like he's directing himself. But when he's got a live wire, like Lee Marvin, who has a colorful supporting role in this one, or Andy Devine, who has an offbeat one, he seems almost to have the makings of an American Fellini. Deep down, I suspect, that Webb really loved crazy people. He just didn't know how to show it.