Jam Session (1944)

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Tap dance contest winner Ann Miller arrives in Hollywood hoping to get a studio contract and become a movie musical star. That's pretty much it for plot in addition to western star Jess Barker's interest in her. Like Reviles with Beverly, this is a collection of musical numbers collected into a single plot line, but when you got the amount of talent that this film engages, the results are going to be extremely entertaining to say the least. Being World War 2, the housing shortage is on, even in Hollywood and Annie has a hysterical predicament and trying to find a room which leads to the discovery of the one that is available. Louis Armstrong has a cameo at the beginning singing I can't give you anything but love, which Annie would later sing with Mickey Rooney on Broadway in Sugar Babies. There's a hysterical sequence where she disguises herself as an old lady to sneak into what is presume to be Columbia Studios to get an audition, and revealed herself to be wearing very little makeup even under her disguise. Practically every musical had a polka to go with it, and here it's the Victory Polka which is the lavish finale to end the film. Not a classic, but certainly a step above many of the be budgeted music homes that were coming out during the war. Annie is charming and is surrounded by a fun supporting cast. I really like Renee Riano who plays her hatchet- face landlady. She is a Margaret Hamilton / Mary Wickes type character actress that deserves more recognition then she has gotten.

I always used to wish Ann Miller had found herself at MGM earlier in her career but after viewing a few of these Columbia gems I don't think MGM could have used her more advantageously. Sure the story lines were juvenile and she usually only got to dance at the end of the movie but my, what dances!!! They were always spectacular and used her quick, rhythmic tapping to great advantage - And the movies themselves were filled with the top bands and singers performing their latest hits!!!The film starts off with a bang - the fabulous Louis Armstrong and his rendition of "I Can't Give You Anything But Love", obviously slotted in at the beginning so it could be discreetly removed for some Southern audiences. The story, such as it was, involved a dancing contest winner, Terry (a vibrant Ann Miller) storming Hollywood then realising she is just a small fish in a big pond. The eight musical numbers, to be fair, are incorporated into the plot ie a taxi driver turns on his radio and suddenly there is the Jan Garber Orchestra performing "I Lost My Sugar in Salt Lake City"!! With a passing nod to the wartime housing shortage, Terry wangles herself into a secretarial job with George Haven (Jess Barker), an up and coming script writer for "Superba Pictures", even though she doesn't know the first thing about taking shorthand. "You're easy on the eyes" George coos and she certainly is!! Another musical break with the Alvino Rey Orchestra taking a novel approach to "St. Louis Blues" featuring a steel guitar no less. Another novelty song "Murder, He Said" is given a feisty rendition by vocalist Peggy Mann to her zoot suited romeo, backing by the Teddy Powell Orchestra and yet another singing interlude featuring The Pied Pipers showing they were never as good once Frank Sinatra left them.In between acts the story progresses - George dictates a sure fire story but because Terry can't take shorthand she doodles, then has to hire a stenographer while she dictates what she remembers. The finished product is pronounced very amateurish ie "we ate tons and tons of ice cream", George loses his job and Terry pours out her woes to a nice tramp in the park, who just happens to be the head of the studio. Terry and George go dancing to the Glen Gray and His Casa Loma Orchestra with "No Name Jive". There is a very limp rendition of "Cherokee" by Charlie Barnett's Orchestra but "Brazil" as sung by Nan Wynn is more like it - you can't go wrong with "Brazil". Terry finally gets an audition but when they enthuse she thinks they are making fun of her and she storms out, fortunately she storms back for a scintillating finale "Vict'ry Polka" and I agree with another reviewer, if only she had been given a couple more dances at the expense of some of the bands.Jess Barker didn't have a huge career - his wife's left him completely in the shade - she was Susan Hayward!!!

Watching JAM SESSION, the big question that comes to mind is why on earth did it take ANN MILLER so long to break into A-films and become a big musical star? She had pep, verve, charm, an overload of personality and those twinkling dancing feet. She plays a girl with aspirations for becoming a Hollywood movie star, even breaking into studios to pretend being secretary to handsome JESS BARKER, or onto movie sets to watch a musical number being filmed while she watches from the sidelines.The big drawback is that Ann doesn't get to do her own "Victory" dance routine until the final five minutes or so. Then she gets her big production number with a sizzling routine that ought to have convinced MGM to take her away from Columbia much earlier than they did.Several popular bands and band singers of the day are featured in a thin plot that has the usual predictable ending for these sort of show biz stories. For fans of 1940s nostalgia, there are The Pied Pipers with Jo Stafford, Nan Wynn, and bands like Charlie Barnet, Glen Gray, Alvino Ray, Teddy Powell, etc., all squeezed into the running time of this Columbia B-film with Ann Miller in the lead.A pleasant diversion, the sort of programmer Miller was featured in more often than not.

Sprightly Ann Miller musical featuring many of the top bands and vocalists of the day. Notable too for a rather tough-minded look at the movie industry, as Kansas contest winner Miller tries to break into the big time. The studio scenes are an occasional hoot-- like the stagecoach driving in from the street to shoot an Old West scene! However, the business side gets a pretty realistic and none-to-flattering treatment (maybe the writers' revenge). Some other nice touches-- Alvino Rey's "echo-box dummy" that sings electronic lyrics (that one spooked me); Miller's under-the-staircase bedroom, about big enough for a midget if she doesn't stand up; and the big-finish "marching at ya" tribute to the boys overseas. Miller is engaging throughout, wholesomely pretty with a lot of verve and sparkle. This was perfect war-time escapism, a programmer with no pretensions that despite the years continues to entertain.