The final minute is what I would have expected from the entire film: dark, slow, some blues music, and moody. Regrettably, that last minute is an aberration in a script wherein the intended blues theme is overwhelmed by way too much dialogue. And the story lacks focus.
A troupe of blues musicians never quite gets around to playing much blues music. Instead, lots of contrived situations keep the film plot bound, with assorted conflicts swirling around the various characters. Jigger Pine (Richard Whorf) is a piano player and the troupe leader, with lots of problems. But as soon as the angry, brittle Kay (Betty Field) appears, about a third of the way through the film, the story's emphasis seems to switch to her. Kay is nothing if not embittered, and she hisses her way through the remainder of the film, as she crosses paths with Jigger.
All that angry talk drains away a blues atmosphere, which could have made the film sultry and moody.
Casting and acting are acceptable. But characters talk ninety miles an hour. It's as if the director is timing actors' lines of dialogue with a stopwatch. The music is generally disappointing. One of the production numbers in the second half, "Says Who? Says You, Says I" is just awful.
The B&W cinematography is okay, but there are too many dissolves. And a montage that details a psychiatric problem is so visually juvenile that it looks like something from a high school drama class experiment.
Production design is drab, bleak, and cheap looking. But at least it gives what is probably a fairly accurate representation of film sets used during the Great Depression.
Overall, "Blues In The Night" is disappointing, mostly because of a script that is too talky and so rigidly plot bound that the intended musical blues theme gets smothered.
A troupe of blues musicians never quite gets around to playing much blues music. Instead, lots of contrived situations keep the film plot bound, with assorted conflicts swirling around the various characters. Jigger Pine (Richard Whorf) is a piano player and the troupe leader, with lots of problems. But as soon as the angry, brittle Kay (Betty Field) appears, about a third of the way through the film, the story's emphasis seems to switch to her. Kay is nothing if not embittered, and she hisses her way through the remainder of the film, as she crosses paths with Jigger.
All that angry talk drains away a blues atmosphere, which could have made the film sultry and moody.
Casting and acting are acceptable. But characters talk ninety miles an hour. It's as if the director is timing actors' lines of dialogue with a stopwatch. The music is generally disappointing. One of the production numbers in the second half, "Says Who? Says You, Says I" is just awful.
The B&W cinematography is okay, but there are too many dissolves. And a montage that details a psychiatric problem is so visually juvenile that it looks like something from a high school drama class experiment.
Production design is drab, bleak, and cheap looking. But at least it gives what is probably a fairly accurate representation of film sets used during the Great Depression.
Overall, "Blues In The Night" is disappointing, mostly because of a script that is too talky and so rigidly plot bound that the intended musical blues theme gets smothered.