BLUES IN THE NIGHT

US, 1941, 88 minutes, Black and white.
Priscilla Lane, Betty Field, Richard Whorf, Lloyd Nolan, Jack Carson, Wallace Ford, Elia Kazan, Peter Whitney, Billy Halop, Howard Da Silva.
Directed by Anatole Litvak.

Blues in the Night is a rather offbeat drama/melodrama of 1941 from Warner Brothers. It is a film about music – as the title would indicate with the song and various arrangements of Blues in the Night played throughout the film.

The focus of the film is a piano player and composer played by Richard Whorf, later a director of musicals and comedies at MGM. He is friendly with some other musicians who form a band with him. They include Jack Carson who is married to Priscilla Lane who sings for the group. Of particular interest is Elia Kazan, the celebrated stage and screen director (Oscars for Gentleman’s Agreement and On the Waterfront, as well as films like A Streetcar Named Desire, Viva Zapata, Wild River, America America, The Arrangement). He plays a musician, very lively, with a devotion to his mother.

Also in the cast are Lloyd Nolan as a gangster and owner of the club, Betty Field as his rather fickle girlfriend, Wallace Ford as a rather weak gambler and Howard Da Silva as the club manager.

The film was directed by Anatol Litvak, better known as a director of Warner Brothers dramas: Sisters, All This and Heaven To and, later, The Snake Pit, Sorry Wrong Number, The Night of the Generals.

1. The title, the tone, the song, jazz, performance?

2. Music, the 1930s and 40s, the range of the score, jazz, bands, piano performance? Songs?

3. Warner Brothers production, St Louis and the American cities, the clubs, accommodation? The cast?

4. The black-and-white photography, light and dark, shadows – and the significance of the different montages, illustrating action, mental states?

5. Jigger’s story? Himself, his skills with the piano, his friends, Nick and his enthusiasm, earnest, Leo and his skills, happy and his friendship, Pete and his skills, prison, his being urged to join the band?

6. Getting together, the music, the personal tensions? Going on the train – and the reprise at the end when they returned? Playing? Del, his interest, willing to help? His club, the gambling, Sam and his running of the club? Kay and her presence, with Del, with Sam, spurning Brad, flirting with the Leo? Her intentions towards Del? The group, Character and her pregnancy, love for Leo? Leo and Kay? Their cramped accommodations, managing?

7. In prison, the blues in the night, the black singers, the rhythms?

8. Performance, the crises, Jigger and Kay? His sessions? The decision to leave, Kay, the money? The high life? The separation from the band? His working with the new band, performance? The effect of Kay? The separation? The band coming to find him, his collapse, the months of recovery? His compositions? Final confrontations with Del and melodrama?

9. The group of the band, their characters, the bonds, the pregnancy, the loss of the child? Nick and his continued contact with his mother?

10. The character of Brad, gambling problem, a weak man, the relationship with Kay and her looking down on him? Del mocking him? Gambling, borrowing the money, Sam allowing him?

11. Kay, with Sam, telling Del that Sam was going to report him to the police? Del and his harsh reaction?

12. Brad, overhearing the discussions, his decision to take the car, to kill himself?

13. Del, prison, his business, relationships, not a loving man, gambling? His violence, the confrontation with Jigger? With Kay, his death?

14. The confrontations, the reconciliations, on the train – and their future?