2hotFeature one of my absolute favorites!

Pacionsbo Absolutely Fantastic

Ketrivie It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

kapelusznik18 ****SPOILERS*** Jack Webb riding high in his "Dragnet" TV series fans out here as a "Just the Music Mame" clarinet jazz musician Pete Kelly coupled as a crime fighter, like his Sgt. Joe Friday, in battling the mob headed by the whale like mobster Fran "Francis" McCarg, Edmond O'Brien. It's McCarg who's attempting to take control of Kelly's "Big Seven Band" working out of "Rudy's Speakeasy" in downtown Kansas City as well as all the other big bands in the Mid-West. That by McCarg forcing him to pay, 25% of the take, homage to him and his homeboys or else get his arms & legs broken. Acting at first like a tough cop instead of a sensitive clarinet player Kelly change his act when his drummer boy Joey Firestone, Martin Milner, who refuses to give into Mcarg's demands is gunned down by his boys one rainy evening leaving "Rudy's" to dry out after an all night binge of heavy boozing.Kelly now giving into McCarg's demands has his entire band start to check out on him for better pastures, or gigs, in the east which includes his fellow clarinet player Al "Gunny" Gunnaway, Lee Marvin. It's Gunnaway who takes Kelly's lucky mouthpiece, in revenge for breaking up that band of his, for his clarinet that he once gave him as a present.Living in limbo with no futures in the music or band business to speak of by being controlled by McCarg Kelly gets his big break when McCarg slips up by beating his girlfriend singer Rose Hopkins, Peggy Lee, almost into a coma. That by Rose, who was too drunk, being unable to belt out a song at the nightclub she was preforming in making him, who kept saying what a big hit she is, look ridicules.***SPOILERS*** Kelly soon finds out that Rose now mentally damaged with the mind of a five year old has information about Firedtone's murder that can send McCarg, who ordered it, straight to the electric chair! The ending is something like a scene out of "Gunfight at the OK Corral" with Pete and his girlfriend ivy, Janet Leigh, who just came along for the ride confront McCarg and his henchmen in this empty ballroom for a final dance. It's interesting to see how Jack Webb can pull all this off going from a crime fighter in "Dragnet" to a jazz clarinet player in "Pete Kelly's Bules" and does a fairly good job in doing it. It's just that the public warn't ready to see Webb change horse in mid-stream which had him go back to playing Sgt. Joe Friday for the rest of his career until the early 1970's with only one film "-30-" in between!.

dougdoepke A returning army vet travels to 1920's Kansas City and sets up a jazz band, only to fall prey to nightclub gangsters.Rather tedious film except for the blues offerings which are too few to make up for the slow pace and a dour Webb in the lead role. He's in about every scene, which means there's no escaping his non-acting. Actually, Webb's an interesting Hollywood figure. Dragnet (1951-1959) came along at just the right time for him. The Cold War meant authority was put in the best possible light, and Webb's Sgt. Friday embodied that no-nonsense professional. Plus, as director, Webb knew when to let human interest take charge, resulting in some of the best dramas of the day. Trouble is that, as an actor, Webb was a one-trick-pony. What worked so well in early Dragnet did not adapt to other scenarios, as is the case here. In fact, his romantic scenes with Leigh are almost painful. Plus, Dragnet's half-hour format enforced a pacing discipline that's not evident in this slow moving 90-minutes.Nonetheless, Warner's backed up production with colorful sets and eye-catching photography. So when the pace slows, the visuals don't. Then too, the supporting cast is just that, good support. Too bad, though, that Lee Marvin doesn't get more screen time. His upbeat tough guy amounts to a needed animated presence. I kept hoping he and Webb would have a snarling face-off— now that would be a real heavyweight treat. But I'm still wondering how they got a name performer like Janet Leigh to make do with such an incidental role.Anyway, the movie's mainly for fans of blues and vintage 20's styles. But it also looks like Webb learned a valuable lesson. Except for the misbegotten Last Time I Saw Archie (1961), his screen time would stick to either the authority figures or the voice-overs he was so good at.

edwagreen 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.

Kordermamet23 Very little to say that this movie doesn't say oh so very well. Jack Webb is definitely the Man. Disregard what others say about him being too stiff--how the hell else is someone supposed to get by in this cutthroat business of gangsters and con-men? Webb's stoicism is very much in the tradition of Joe Friday, no doubt about it. But as Pete Kelly, we get to see the tender side that had already been killed off by the daily drudgery of police work in Dragnet. Dig: the sincerity on his face while watching Ella perform. Dig: the do-or-die determination that gets him out of (and into) so many dangerous situations. Webb's performance gives us a hero worth rooting for: sincere, tough, unsentimental, and totally honest: no fakery here, no razzle-dazzle. He just does what he has to do. Enough words. Go see the movie!