Blues in the Night Reviews

Musical melodrama about a jazz quintet featuring sharp dialog from the pens of Gilbert (who wrote the original play) and Rossen (screenplay), who went on to become an important director/writer. Lane toplines as the wife of Carson, leader of the group, and sings several of the tunes. Mercer and Arlen got an Oscar nomination for the title tune, but lost out to "The Last Time I Saw Paris." Field is the bad girl and Nolan is the heavy (an escaped convict lost in New Jersey. What a fate!) and whatever plot there is takes second position to the characterizations. Two well-known directors appeared in the cast: Elia Kazan (ON THE WATERFRONT, A FACE IN THE CROWD, VIVA ZAPATA) and Richard Whorf, who alternated between acting (Sam Harris in YANKEE DOODLE DANDY) and directing (CHAMPAGNE FOR CAESAR, TILL THE CLOUDS ROLL BY). Whorf's son was his assistant director in television. Whorf died while producing and directing the ill-fated "Tammy Grimes Show" for Fox.