Blast from the Past: Anatole Litvak Career Revisited
Litvak directed Blues in the Night, a bizarre hybrid of a musical film noir, starring Priscilla Lane, Richard Whorf, Betty Field, Lloyd Nolan, Elia Kazan, and Jack Carson.
The project began with the working title Hot Nocturne, the play upon which it is based, but was then named after its principal number “Blues in the Night,” which became a hit on its iwn right.
The film was nominated for the Best Song Oscar for “Blues in the Night” (Music by Harold Arlen; lyrics by Johnny Mercer).
Plot
While playing in a bar in St. Louis, jazz pianist Jigger Pine (Richard Whorf) meets aspiring clarinetist Nickie Haroyen, who wishes to put together a jazz band.
After drunk patron starts a fight, Nickie and Jigger, along with ghe drummer and bassist, are thrown in jail. Inspired, after overhearing a prisoner singing a blues song, they set out for New Orleans.
There they meet fast-talking trumpeter Leo and wife Character, a talented singer. Together, the quintet rides the rails, honing their style in dive bars across the country.
While sheltering in a boxcar they meet a mysterious stranger, Del, who robs them. But when they don’t turn him in to the authorities, Del offers them a job in New Jersey roadhouse, The Jungle.
The roadhouse is owned by Del’s former partners in crime – aspiring singer Kay, accomplice Sam, and her disabled sidekick Brad. Del has escaped from jail to retrieve his share of robbery; the moneym is gone, and so he decides to take over The Jungle and transform it into an illegal gambling club. Kay tries to rekindle her past romance with Del, but he rejects her.
Although successful, Jigger is unhappy because he is not playing authentic jazz. Kay lives on her own terms in New York, going out with different men, uninterested in Jigger’s career.
After Kay leaves him, Jigger descends into alcoholism. As he tries to show his music, he collapses into mental breakdown. Everybody sticks by him, helping to nurse him back to health, though hiding the fact that Character’s baby has died.
When Del comes in, Kay confronts him and demands he allow her to stay; he refuses so she threatens to turn him in herself. Del pulls a gun and Jigger comes to her defense. During the ensuing fight, Del drops the gun; Kay picks it up, shoots and kills him. Jigger decides to protect Kay and help her escape from the police; he tells her to go wait for him in Del’s car.
Comparing Jigger’s emotional and mental problems with Brad’s disability, they emphasize that, while Brad has no choice about his pathetic circumstances, Jigger does. Brad overhears all this and joins Kay in the car, claiming that Jigger has asked him to drive her away. He takes off into the violent storm, and deliberately wrecks the car, killing them both.
In the end, Jigger and the band return to their life on the road, playing their own version of jazz.
Kazan optioned the unproduced play by Edwin Gilbert, “Hot Nocturne,” and began retooling it for Broadway. He eventually sold the rights to Warner, which gave the script to Robert Rossen to complete. After initially retitling it New Orleans Blues, the studio named it after its principal musical number “Blues in the Night.”
Kazan agreed to give up his screenwriting credit and appeared as a clarinetist in the film. He later remarked that he could “direct better than Anatole Litzvak”.
John Garfield was initially cast as the pianist Jigger Pine (eventually played by Richard Whorf).
James Cagney and Dennis Morgan were the studio’s first choices to play the gangster Del Davis, but the role was given to Lloyd Nolan.
The film features the bands of Jimmie Lunceford and Will Osborne. Since none of the actors were musicians, their playing had to be dubbed by other artists. The trumpet music performed by Jack Carson’s character was dubbed by Snooky Young and Frankie Zinzer while the piano music was dubbed by Stan Wrightsman. Saxophonist and clarinetist Archie Rosate played Elia Kazan’s clarinet solos.
Blues in the Night received mixed to negatoive critical reception upon its release due to its being a screen oddity. It was also not commercially successful as its East Coast run occurred shortly before Pearl Harbor.
Cast
Richard Whorf as Jigger Pine
Priscilla Lane as Ginger “Character” Powell, the band’s singer
Lloyd Nolan as Del Davis, a gangster and racketeer
Betty Field as Kay Grant, Del’s scheming former girlfriend
Jack Carson as Leo Powell, Character’s loud-mouthed, conceited husband who plays trumpet for the band
Wallace Ford as Brad Ames, a disabled former guitar player
Elia Kazan as Nickie Haroyen, clarinetist who gave up law school for music
Peter Whitney as Pete Bossett, the band’s bassist
Billy Halop as Peppi, the band’s young drummer
Howard Da Silva as Sam Paryas, member of Del’s gang
Joyce Compton as Blonde
Herbert Heywood as the brakeman
George Lloyd as Joe, the St. Louis cafe owner
Charles C. Wilson as Barney
Matt McHugh as the Drunk
Uncredited cast members
William Gillespie as baritone singer in jail cell
Ernest Whitman as Black Prisoner #1
Napoleon Simpson as Black Prisoner #2
Dudley Dickerson as Black Prisoner #3
Anthony Warde as Del’s Henchman #1
Sol Gorss as Del’s Henchman #2
Mabel Todd as performer
