Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Just the sax, ma'am, just the sax, 6 Mar 2009
Pete Kelly's Blues is everything people used to go to the movies for - a great cast speaking great dialogue in a good story imaginatively told and well paced without a single dull moment. Great music, too.
Pete Kelly (Jack Webb) is a hard-bitten jazzman in the Bogart mode, albeit with the added and very visually striking ability to walk without moving his arms. We know that there's a heart of gold under his stone-face because he keeps a bird in his apartment, but he's having none of it: "I'm nice to him because I may get hungry some day and have to eat him. In the meantime, he can hit G above C so I keep him around."
Set in the Prohibition era when musicians were thrown out of hotels because they had an instrument case ("If it had been a machine gun it would have been alright"), Kelly's Big Seven soon find themselves the latest clients of Edmond O'Brien at his meanest ("They say you got rubber pockets so you can steal soup"), a violent racketeer who is moving into the agent business. His first act as their representative is to kill one of the band and add a singer to the lineup - an Oscar-nominated Peggy Lee as his alcoholic girlfriend who ends up in the asylum - making Joe Esterhaus' infamous complaints about Michael Ovitz pale into insignificance.
And that's all without his difficult romance with society dame Janet Leigh - she wants to be married before she's so old that the confetti knocks her down, but he thinks they're incompatible because he doesn't know where his next meal's coming from and she doesn't know where her next country's coming from. Add endlessly quotable dialogue ("Rudy's a puny little guy - sew an extra button on his vest he'd fall down."), some great faces in the supporting cast (Lee Marvin, Andy Devine, even Jayne Mansfield) and a terrific and very credible gunfight finale in a deserted ballroom with a killer of a last line from O'Brien's bodyguard and they don't come much better than this.
Beautifully designed for the CinemaScope screen in the days when CinemaScope was CINEMAScope and with a great stereo soundtrack, don't let the cult movie tag put you off - this is solid mainstream entertainment at its best and terrific with it. If you love movies, you'll probably love Pete Kelly's Blues.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Pete Kelly's Blues, 28 Oct 2008
I have just read a very bilious review of this film which is considered, quite rightly to be a classic.
Not only do we have a decent 20's era story but we have an excellent jazz soundtrack provided by first class jazz musicians, commendably and convincingly synched by the cast. Add to that the vocal talents of Peggy Lee and Ella Fitzgerald. A bonus is the surprise when we see the acting talent of Peggy Lee. Janet Leigh looks fabulous and is convincing as the gangster's singing discovery.
OK the genre is a tad dated but the story draws you in until it does not matter. The gorgeous colour of the print stuns.
Jack Webb plays 'Jack Webb' playing 'Joe Friday' but that does not matter as the argot of the day falls convincingly from his lips.
I am so glad this is now on DVD, it will have many viewings here.
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0 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
i was bluer than pete kelly after watching this, by steve hannaway, 23 Sep 2008
Not a patch on " young man with a horn" excuse the title,starring Kirk Douglas, a vastly superior jazz movie. The acting is like in Eastenders where they bark @ each other in stacatto, i mean people just dont talk like that, Webb in his usual wooden style is exceptionally bad, apparently,he was the man responsible for directing this tripe, Janet leigh does her best @ least she looks good, she looks very good but unconvincing in the romantic part with Webb, she looks as if she cant stand him, they just look wrong together.Ella ,Marvin & O Brian are good,though even they are really up against it with this silly daft totally unconvincing story,i mean who writes this sort of stuff & more importantly how do they get away with it, i mean for Petes sake this was nominated for an Oscar, its a classic case of when utter met crap,it really is soup in the basket, i"m floggin this on E Bay.
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