[Dixielandjazz] “Pete Kelly’s Blues” reviewed - New York Times, November 23, 2014

[Robert Ringwald]

‘Pete Kelly’s Blues’
by J. Hoberman
New York Times, November 23, 2014
In addition to his hyphenates, the writer-producer-director-actor Jack Webb had two
alter egos, both of which he played on radio, television and the movie screen. One
was the protagonist of “Dragnet,” the laconic, no-nonsense, somewhat sour Los Angeles
cop Sgt. Joe Friday, parodied for his insistence on “the facts”; the other, perhaps
dearer to Webb’s heart, was the laconic, no-nonsense and even more sour Kansas City
jazz cornetist, Pete Kelly.
Adapted from a short-lived radio series, Webb’s most elaborate movie, “Pete Kelly’s
Blues” (1955), newly out on an excellently digitalized Blu-ray from Warner Archive,
is a major artifact of the Dixieland revival. This wide-screen, Warnercolor production
may be longer on ambition than style but it is bookended by two notable set pieces
-- a traditional New Orleans jazz funeral with a tender regard for an extended trumpet
solo and a many-vectored shootout beneath the mirrored ball of an empty dance hall.
Such showmanship notwithstanding, “Pete Kelly’s Blues” received some savage pans
on its original release. Still, given that the tiresome narrative that pits Webb’s
grim bandleader against Edmond O’Brien’s blustering gangster periodically stops dead
to accommodate complete performances by a swinging Ella Fitzgerald and cool, sultry
Peggy Lee (nominated for a best supporting actress Oscar), the movie has carved out
a deserved niche among aficionados. The jazz critic Gary Giddins recently characterized
the music as “mostly superb.” “Pete Kelly’s Blues” is credited with helping to return
“Bye Bye Blackbird” to the jazz repertoire and, thanks to Fitzgerald’s rendition,
making a hit of the even older chestnut “Hard Hearted Hannah (The Vamp of Savannah).”
Webb’s long takes and wide-screen mise-en-scène have also been praised as has his
propensity to cast against type. (The scary Lee Marvin is here as a sweet-tempered
clarinetist; the amiable Andy Devine impersonates a tough cop; the nice girl Janet
Leigh appears as a man-hungry flapper.) Webb himself plays a version of Sergeant
Friday, glaring at the camera in frontal TV-style close-ups. He’s the resident divo
-- however buttoned-up, continually irritated and apparently determined to belie
the trailer included as an extra that hails him as “Today’s Most Exciting Entertainment
Personality.”
-30

-Bob Ringwald
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