Blues in the Night

1941

Action / Crime / Drama / Film-Noir / Music / Musical

3
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 53% · 1 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Spilled 53% · 100 ratings
IMDb Rating 6.7/10 10 1489 1.5K

train ride jazz drug addiction blues jazz singer or musician jazz club

Plot summary

A struggling band find themselves attached to a fugitive and drawn into a series of old feuds and love affairs, as they try to stay together and find musical success.

Director

Anatole Litvak Photo
Anatole Litvak

Top cast

William Hopper Photo
William Hopper as Billiard Player
Fred Kelsey Photo
Fred Kelsey as Bartender at The Jungle
Joyce Compton Photo
Joyce Compton as Blonde
William Gillespie Photo
William Gillespie as Baritone Singer in Jail Cell
720p.WEB 1080p.WEB
804.47 MB
956*720
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 27 min
Seeds ...
1.46 GB
1424*1072
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 27 min
Seeds 6

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by AlsExGal 8 / 10

Film Noir meets Jazz

This is a very offbeat kind of film that is not well known. You'll either really love it - I do - or you'll not care for it at all. Anatole Litvak, who directed so many womens' pictures, directs this odd little film that starts out as a kind of "small town band does good" picture, takes a turn into gangster territory, and then gets really dark with a venture into film noir and mental illness. Nobody in this film was a big name at the time, and I get the feeling it was one of those films that Warner's liked to grind out like sausages in the 30's and 40's that just happened to turn out to be rather special. Great performances are turned in from everyone involved, which includes Priscilla Lane as a good girl with depth, Lloyd Nolan as a gangster with a touch of the entrepreneurial and even a bit of a mentor, Jack Carson as a heel with a large bag of excuses for his behavior, Betty Field as the gangster's moll who aspires to be a singer and also ruins men as a hobby, and Richard Whorf as the musician and bandleader who falls for the moll and also into temporary insanity. Also note that future great director Elia Kazan shows up playing a small part as one of the bandmembers.Released just three weeks before the beginning of World War II, it provides a snapshot of how the Depression and the era of the gangster were receding into memory just as an age of optimism was beginning that would go on hiatus during the war effort, and restart and peak after the war was over. Great atmosphere and great acting - highly recommended.
Reviewed by edwagreen 7 / 10

Blues in the Night *** Well Paced, Fast Action

Interesting film by director Anatole Litvak creating film-noir with a musical.Two future excellent directors, Richard Whorf, who bore a strong resemblance to Robert Taylor, and Elia Kazan star. Kazan was also in Litvak's 1940 film "City for Conquest."The picture has an excellent cast. A group of musicians led by Jigger (Whorf) meet up with gangster Lloyd Nolan while hitching a ride on a train. Nolan likes them when they don't turn him in despite the fact that he holds them up for $5.00!He brings them to a Road House where the group perform. We have some great musical settings here and the various montage depiction is excellent.The film is extremely well paced. There is never a dull moment. He moves beautifully from film noir to musical and back to film noir again.In addition, there is a terrific performance by Bette Field as a Road House girl in love with Nolan, who spurns her. Whorf is hopelessly in love with her and her rejection of him leads to his mental breakdown. How ironic that 16 years after this film, Nolan and Field both appeared in the 1957 film "Peyton Place" but had no scenes together. Field is both catty and quite vicious in this film. It's her viciousness that shall prove to be her undoing.Jack Carson toots his horn and is wed in the film to Priscilla Lane. One major flaw of the film is their lack of emotional outburst when it is revealed that their baby boy has died.
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