User Reviews

This movie was made just a few years after the publication of Young Man with a Horn, a fictionalized homage to pioneer jazz cornetist Bix Beiderbecke who had died in 1931 at the age of 28. The film story parallels Beiderbecke's career more closely, although still fictitiously, and with the bluebird of happiness making an improbable appearance in the last reel. At the beginning of the movie, you could be misled into thinking the story is going to be about Louis Armstrong, for his fictional equivalent is the first shown. But the plot takes us north and Louis is left behind in New Orleans to reappear only briefly years later for an odd non-depiction of the legendary all night jam session featuring Bix and Louis. By "non-depiction" I mean that none of the playing at the session is heard, just a shot of the musicians looking weary as the sun comes up. To my thinking, this was a missed opportunity as Louis was alive and well when the movie was made and could have provided a sound track, and the Bix character's playing was done by Bunny Berigan, who had played in bands with Bix, and who could have stood toe to toe with Armstrong in a jam session for some really exciting music.

Oh, I almost forgot. There is some sort of a plot involving a girl and her father. They quickly become totally irrelevant.

The listing of the famous swing musicians in the cast of characters is very misleading: they do not appear in the story at all, just in a tacked on musical number at the end.

To sum up: the movie is something of a formless mess. It will be of interest only to Jackie Cooper fans and Beiderbecke fans curious about another fictionalization of their hero's life.

Good intentions do not make a good film, and unfortunately this jazz musical drama is an artistic failure from the start. It appears to be emulating the recent success of Orson Welles' "Citizen Kane" in presenting story on film in a different manner, utilizing opening credits that deals with the actors as in front of the camera and the people behind the scenes as back of the camera, never indicating who did what. The film is episodic from the start, and the real success in there is the use of the jazz music taking the story back and forth between New Orleans and Chicago. Adolph Menjou give his usual elegance performance as a struggling Southern gentleman who longs to see his children succeed as jazz musicians. The story focuses on his daughter, played by Bonita Granville, who moved to Chicago and found romance with a struggling trumpet player played by Jackie Cooper. Of course, there's a criminal element involved, and the story loses its itself in misguided melodrama that never seems to hold interest. The film tries to reach back to its artistic beginnings, bur continuously fall short of its goal.

There is a sequence at the very beginning with the extraordinary gifted Hall Johnson choir, and they are singing some heavenly spirituals. They truly are the highlight of the film, which unfortunately means that the first 10 minutes which is uneven anyway ends up being more memorable than the remaining 80. I truly wanted to love this film, but I just found it torturous and tedious, mostly as a result of its constant mood swings, acting like many a brooding jazz musician whose lives were documented in many films of the Jazz Age.if only the film had tried to just capture one mood and not move into so many different directions, it would have been tremendously more successful. It is lavishly filmed, and the dubbed musicians on screen do a great job in pretending that they are actually playing whatever instrument happens to be in their hand.

The film certainly deserves an A for effort, but I can't see the teeny boppers of the Judy Garland/Mickey Rooney era making it through this without yawning, and I couldn't see the adults dealing with the jitterbug and jam sessions that this put in in spots where the writer seem to think that the younger crowd might be getting restless. So ultimately, in trying to please so many different types of audiences, my guess is that this pleased very few, making this an artistic flop and a missed opportunity that needed a better sense of direction and a more consistent theme.

I expect to post my 3,000th review here in a matter of days and I can't believe I've never heard of this valentine to Jazz let alone seen it. As far as I can ascertain it's unavailable commercially - I caught it at the Regent Street Cinema in London where they have a policy of screening musicals every Wednesday at 2 p.m. For jazz fans this is a must-see as it traces the growth of the art form from its roots in New Orleans through all the styles up to the swing that was current when it was released in 1942. Although there is a story of sorts involving Bonita Granville a New Orleans stride pianist and Jackie Cooper a Chicago-style trumpeter this isn't allowed to get in the way of the music and overall this film has arguably more music than anything outside of an out-and-out biopic like Night and Day or Words and Music. It concludes with a jam session featuring Charlie Barnet, Benny Goodman, Alvino Rey, Harry James, Jack Jenny, Gene Krupa, and Connee Boswell is thrown in for good measure. Unmissable.

I only comment on films when I either really like them, or rarely when I really don't like them. This one really caught me by surprise. Bonita Granville as her usual likable self, but playing a character unlike anything I have seen her do. Befriending at a young age, the black housekeeper, and her cornet playing prodigy of a son in New Orleans, she falls in love with the music. This is the key for every character in the film. Their passion for the roots of jazz and its variations. Moving to Chicago, at an early age (what luck for a jazz lover) it goes from Bourbon to Basin Street, and it is quickly exposed that New Orleans Jazz is different from Chicago. She has just befriended a homeless person, Jackie Cooper, who instead of robbing her or worse, takes her to a jazz party, as he is a jazz loving cornet player. (only in the movies). She sits down and shows everyone New Orleans style jazz, by playing some boogie-woogie on the piano! All the emotions of trying to make a go of it as a musician, bring the movie full circle. Even at the end, Jackie Cooper is wondering if there is really ever going to be a future in it. The performances alone are worth watching for a true jazz lover, but I liked the story! Of course, I'm a pushover for someone passionate about jazz.