TrueJoshNight Truly Dreadful Film

Laikals The greatest movie ever made..!

Gary The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

Cissy Évelyne It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

LeonLouisRicci Almost Every Professional Critic, for Some Unknown Reason, is Reluctant to Label This "Film-Noir". They Hedge by Using Hyphens Like Musical-Noir, and While the Film is Surely About Musicians and there are a Number of Musical Numbers, None are Filler or Unwanted. The Music is True to its Black Roots and in One Sequence Eviscerates White-Bread Sell-Out Fluff in No Uncertain Terms. This is the Real Deal. This is Film-Noir. In Fact, it is One of the First True Film-Noir, Made in the Era of "Stanger on the Third Floor" (1940) and "The Maltese Falcon" (1941). This is Pure Left-Wing, Down and Dirty Stuff. Hard Boiled and Hard Hitting, Electric and Eccentric. The Surreal Dream Montages are Some of the Best in Noir (done by Don Siegel). It's a B-Picture to be Sure. The Dialog Comes Fast and Furious, the Melodrama is Ripe, and the Characters are Straight Out of the Pulps. The Film Touches on Heavy Themes and Hardly Ever Pulls Back. A Cripple that is Bullied, Death of a Newborn, Alcoholism, Gambling, Gangsters, Gunplay, Fisticuffs, Double Crosses, and an Evil Femme Fatale as Gut-Wrenching as Ann Savage in "Detour" (1945).This Short Review Only Scratches the Surface of this Seminal Work and Even More Great Stuff can be Found if One Approaches this Mini-Masterpiece with an Open Mind.This is an Underrated Film-Noir Gem and the Fact that You don't Find it Listed in Some of the Noir Encyclopedias is an Oversight and is Unforgivable. One Hopes that Later Editions will Make the Necessary Inclusion.

writers_reign This is a rarity that deserves a much wider audience. Lots of interesting credits from Anatole Litvak who was nothing if not eclectic shooting stuff as diverse as Mayerling, The Snake Pit, Sorry, Wrong Number, Anastasia and The Deep Blue Sea. Robert Rossen who wrote the screenplay was one of three future directors involved in the project the others being Richard Whorf and Gadg who weighs in with a frenetic acting performance. Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer provided two all-time great standards though neither one, This Time The Dream's On Me and the title song gets a workout worthy of them. The cast is a movie buff's dream with the likes of Howard da Sylva, Betty Field, Lloyd Nolan, Prisscilla Lane and Jack Carson all emoting for local 802. There's a certain melodramatic element which does no harm and tends to move the whole thing to the outskirts of noir. Catch it if you can.

RanchoTuVu A jazz/blues band forms out of St. Louis after the members spend a night together in jail. An interesting travelogue by boxcar ensues as they move through the southern half of the US, the progress seen on a map with the names of a lot of small towns and medium sized cities rather than through their individual gigs. While back in the boxcar again, they meet up with a fugitive who takes a liking to them and gets them a job in New Jersey with the New York skyline beckoning in the distance, in a road house known as The Jungle. The story gets quite interesting. This is not a musical, though it has a lot of music in it. Things really start going over the top with the arrival of Betty Field as Kitty, fugitive Lloyd Nolan's ex-girlfriend, a tough exterior over a brittle interior. With Nolan is Howard DaSilva as his assistant who helps run the place and has plans for Kitty if only he can pull off a major double cross. The band, led by future director Richard Whorf and featuring clarinetist (and future director Elia Kazan) is fairly interesting, though the characters are not that believable. But once they start their extended stay at The Jungle, with DaSilve, Nolan, Field, and Wallace Ford as Brad (another lost soul), it becomes totally unique.

dougdoepke Great first twenty minutes: the hip dialogue, the jazzy atmosphere, the lively camera action, and especially the jailhouse scene where white men's ambitions meet up with black men's soul. I thought this would be something special, but the last half blows it. I'm guessing scripter Robert Rossen didn't know where to go with his novel characters and noirish ambiance. So he ends up with a melodramatic love affair that's neither believable nor well-acted.Ahh, but that first part. It's sort of like the 1930's meeting up with the 40's-- the jive band jumping aboard a freight train like any other footloose hobo. But they don't care; they're making cutting-edge music and it's a special bond. Halop and Kazan make great hipsters, as does Carson's shifty-eyed trumpeter. Whorf hasn't much range, but as a dreamy-eyed composer, he's perfect. Notice how up-tempo are the dialogue delivery and camera moves-- it's a super-charged atmosphere even as the the night hangs heavy over their vibrant little spark.Things go downhill once they hook up with The Jungle and Betty Field. The roadhouse is okay and a good fringes-of-the-law place for them to perform. But Field has all the seductive charm of fingernails across a blackboard, while having Whorf fall for her is totally out of character. Maybe if she had seduced him first, his obsession would make sense. But the way it's handled, his plight is little more than a poorly done contrivance. Maybe the plot jumps overboard, but the visuals remain fascinating They're exotic and artistically composed. And those surreal montages show real flair, especially Whorf's delirious fantasies. All in all, the movie's a genuine oddity, something like a noirish musical. But the only number played to completion is that novelty tune with the buck-toothed singer. So calling it a musical is a stretch. Actually, it's an animal without a pedigree. Nonetheless, there's a really compelling image that stays with me-- the band making with the blues in a boxcar as the train rolls on through the night, going who knows where. Now, there's a final note to ponder.