New Orleans (1947)

Surprisingly incoherent and boring

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.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Without Louis Armstrong and Billie Holiday and their musical supporting cast, this would be a forgettable melodrama. To me the most interesting aspect of this movie is the contrast of cultures - the stuffy white world symbolized by classical/operatic music (some very excellent), the blues/jazz world of the downtrodden but resilient black population and the white "early adopters" of their music. The music is tremendous. Although this movie would never win an Academy Award except for music, the cast is overall excellent given their material. Anyone who loves Armstrong or Holiday should own this. I saw this on Turner classic movies and I'm going to buy it.

Anyone unborn at the time High Society was released has had much more chance of catching it in regular airings on TV and Revival houses than they have of checking out New Orleans, released nine years earlier (1947) after which it more or less dropped off the radar. Late-blooming fans of High Society could therefore be forgiven for thinking that when Bing Crosby name-checked the jazz sextet - rhythm section, Barrett deems, Billy kyle, Arvell shaw; front line, Trummy Young, Ed Hall, Louis Armstrong - in the number Now You Has Jazz, he was being innovative. Not so, Satchmo himself name-checked his own combo here, nine years earlier, though he lacked Cole Porter's ability to interlard it with such lines as 'well, you take some skins, jazz begins ... take a bass, man, now we're getting' some place ...' etc. If you dismiss out of hand the peurile 'plot' you're left with some pretty good examples of 'early' jazz performed by Armstrong himself, Zutty Singleton, Barney Bigard and - moving up a decade - Meade Lux Lewis and Woody Herman and although she'd already appeared in 13 previous films Shelley Winters rated only an uncredited scene as a member of the audience. Music: Yes, Other: No

I just saw this in January, 2005 so this is a different view. It's difficult to know how professional movie people wouldn't know this is a terribly acted movie. DeCordova reprises his previously cardboard acting although he has something, but it doesn't come out. But the music of Armstrong, Holliday, and Herman etc. is magnificent. It surely is worth the time just to revel in the 1947 jazz. Bad acting doesn't destroy the movie. Wonder what happened to all those actors. It must have been the directing for all to be so bland. I think the attempt is to make this an epic picture showing the intrusion of jazz into classical music. The voice sync with the singer is also poor enough to be disturbing to the viewer. Dorothy Patrick is lovely but apparently not a singer. It's fun to see many old character actors that I knew by looks but couldn't remember their names. I'm sorry DeCordova didn't work out because I liked him in "Frenchman's Creek."

A fellow-jazz-fan in the US recently sent me this on video. I enjoyed it immensely. I can't pretend it's a good film. The story and its treatment are reminiscent of the straight bits in Marx Brothers films (the ones that had straight bits, that is). But instead of Groucho and Harpo, Louis Armstrong and Billie Holiday do their stuff, and bring the film to life.Plus points for jazz fans are that several of the numbers are seen and heard complete, rather than faded out; both Billie and Louis were still near their best; the other musicians, including Kid Ory and Barney Bigard, get to solo, and you hear -- and see - an early version of the Armstrong All-Stars really swinging. There's also a rare sight of the great (and now disappeared) Lucky Thompson behind Louis in one sequence.A personal note: one of my very first records (78 rpm, early 1950s) was Louis' "Where the Blues Was Born". I guess I had the studio, not the soundtrack version, but both are terrific. It was amazing to SEE that long-treasured performance."New Orleans" would not go down well with latter-day jazz musicians because Billie's shown as a maid, and Woody Herman (white) comes into the story for no earthly reason beyond the fact that he was a big name in 1947. But if you can see and hear past all that, the music makes it worthwhile.OK, it's not a good film. But how many jazz films are? "Jammin' the Blues," "Pete Kelly's Blues," "Sven Klang's Combo," "Round Midnight," and that's it. Only three of those are feature-length, and two are European. For anyone who loves the music, "New Orleans" is well worth viewing.