Too Late Blues
Too Late Blues | |
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A.C.E. | |
Music by | David Raksin |
Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release dates |
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Running time | 103 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $750,000[1] |
Too Late Blues is a 1961 black-and-white American film directed by John Cassavetes and starring Bobby Darin, Stella Stevens and Everett Chambers. It is the story of jazz musician "Ghost" Wakefield and his relationship with both his fellow band members and his love interest, Jess, a beautiful would-be singer. The film was written by Cassavetes and Richard Carr.[2]
It was the first film that Cassavetes produced for a major Hollywood studio, Paramount,[3] and Darin's first nonsinging role.[4]
Plot
"Ghost" Wakefield is the leader of a struggling jazz band. At a party he meets the attractive singer Jess, who is in a relationship with the Ghost's agent, Benny. At Ghost's insistence, she joins the band, and he begins a relationship with her, antagonizing Benny.
Benny arranges for the band to cut a record. In a party at a bar celebrating the recording session, Benny encourages a tough guy, Tommy, to pick a fight with the band. Ghost avoids fighting, causing a rift with Jess. She leaves the band, and it breaks up. Ghost becomes the protege of a rich patron, playing the piano in night clubs, his career in decline, while the rest of the band plays inferior music to make a living.
Ghost locates Jess, who has become a prostitute, and goes with her to the other band members, who reject him but begin playing their old music with Jess singing.
Cast
- Bobby Darin as John "Ghost" Wakefield
- Stella Stevens as Jess Polanski
- Everett Chambers as Benny Flowers
- Nick Dennis as Nick Bubalinas
- Vincent Edwardsas Tommy
- Val Avery as Milt Frielobe
- Marilyn Clark as The Countess
- James Joyce as Reno Vitelli
- Rupert Crosse as Baby Jackson
- Mario Gallo as Recording engineer
- J. Alan Hopkins as Skipper
- Cliff Carnell as Charlie
- Richard O. Chambers as Pete
- Seymour Cassel as Red
- Dan Stafford as Shelley
- Slim Gaillard as himself
Special recordings by (as listed in opening credits)
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Production
The film's musical score was by
Billed 4th in the film's credits,
Critical reception
At the time of its release, the film received a poor reception from critics and had a mediocre box office performance. Darin's acting was criticized, as was the film's plot.[9]
At the release of a DVD of the film in 2012 however, Dennis Lim of the Los Angeles Times said Darin and Stevens were surprisingly good in the lead roles, with Darin "willing to appear both arrogant and weak", and Stevens proving her "range and nerve". He also praised Chambers' "indelible, cold-eyed performance".[4] On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an aggregate score of 80% based on 8 positive and 2 negative critic reviews.[10]
Legacy
The conflicts in the film paralleled Cassavetes' own difficulties adapting to the studio system, embodied by the Ghost's conflict with Benny. Ghost is portrayed as a purist dedicated only to his art, while Benny seeks to make Ghost compromise to make money. When Ghost refuses, Benny seeks to destroy him. New Yorker critic Richard Brody observed in 2012, when a DVD of the film was released, that "there’s something Beckett-like in the incantatory force of Cassavetes’s dialogue and images, as well as in his blend of degradation and exaltation."[3]
This film and A Child Is Waiting are often viewed "as footnotes at best, or compromised failures at worst", film critic Dennis Lim commented in the Los Angeles Times in 2012. But the Cassavetes hallmarks ("the delicate way of handling emotional messiness, the tough but ultimately generous view of human behavior") were evident in the film. Lim described the film as "something like a confessional manifesto from the emerging director, 31 when he made it." [4]
In a 1971 interview with Playboy magazine, Cassavetes lamented that Too Late Blues never had a chance. He regretted that he succumbed to studio pressure and shot the film in California, not in New York, and in only 30 days, and not the six months that he felt it needed.[9]
The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray for the first time on May 29, 2012 by Olive Films.[11]
Paperback novelization
Concurrent with the release of the film, Lancer Books issued a novelization of the screenplay, by Stuart James (1926 – ?). James's previous published work included over 300 short stories sold to crime, mystery, adventure and men's-interest pulp magazines; five original novels of a "higher order" for paperback houses that specialized in soft-core "adult" reading, two under the pseudonym "Max Gareth"; and novelizations of Jack the Ripper, The Stranglers of Bombay, and The Enemy General, the last also as Gareth. His by-line would disappear for almost three decades until the late '80s, when he re-emerged as the author of three consecutive espionage novels published as lead titles by Bantam Books.[12]
See also
- A Child is Waiting
- Shadows
- Bobby Darrin
Notes
- ^ "Cassavetes 'Blues' Invading Europe Before US Dates". Variety. 20 September 1961. p. 5.
- ^ Miller, Frank. "Turner Classic Movies Film Article Too Late Blues"
- ^ a b Brody, Richard (5 September 2012). "DVD of the Week: "Too Late Blues"". The New Yorker. Retrieved 24 January 2015.
- ^ a b c d e Lim, Dennis (27 May 2012). "A Second Look: John Cassavetes' touch is clear in 'Too Late Blues'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 24 January 2015.
- ^ "Of Local Origin" (The New York Times, December 9, 1960, page 39)
- ^ Schumach, Murray. "Paramount Plans Art-House Movie Cassavetes to Produce and Direct 'Dreams for Sale' in Studio Experiment" (The New York Times, February 9, 1961, page 36)
- ^ S.P. "When Actors Star Behind the Camera". (The New York Times Sunday Magazine, July 30. 1961)
- ^ Adams, Val. "Two 'Physicians' on TV Next Fall" (The New York Times, May 18, 1961, page 71)
- ^ ISBN 0711975442.
- ^ "Too Late Blues". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved September 1, 2022.
- ^ Amazon.com
- ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2016-10-30. Retrieved 2016-10-30.
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: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
External links
- Too Late Blues at IMDb
- Too Late Blues at the American Film Institute Catalog
- Too Late Blues at the TCM Movie Database
- Too Late Blues at AllMovie
- Too Late Blues at Rotten Tomatoes
- Too Late Blues at TV Guide (revised form of this 1987 write-up was originally published in The Motion Picture Guide)