All That Jazz

All Night Long (1962) is pretty high-concept - Othello set in an early 60s London jazz jam session. Patrick McGoohan plays the Iago part. Interested yet? How about if I tell you that Charles Mingus, Dave Brubeck, John Dankworth, and a pack of British players not only play on screen, but have minor speaking roles? That was enough to sell me.

It's set mostly in a warehouse by the docks, done up as a party pad by rich jazz fan Richard Attenborough. It's going to be a surprise party for hot pianist Aurelius Rex (Paul Harris) and his wife Marti Stevens, on their first anniversary. Attenborough comes in to find Mingus already at his bass, just grooving. Other band members and guests show up - most everyone is a musician so there isn't much distinction. McGoohan is a drummer, Johnny Cousins AKA Cousin Johnny. He comes in with other people carrying his drums, so you know he's going to be a jerk. 

He is in Rex's band, but wants to start his own. He can get backing and booking, but only if he can get Stevens as a singer - and she has retired since her marriage. But he knows she has been rehearsing a song for the party and thinks she might be ready to come out of retirement.

When that doesn't look likely, McGoohan gets cagey. He starts working on Cass (Keith Mitchell), Rex's band manager. He has had trouble with narcotics and is in therapy (paid for by Rex), and McGoohan gets him high on reefer. Then he starts telling Rex that Cass has been meeting with Stevens - but surely it's just for rehearsal. He keeps pushing the idea that there's something between them, in the end even making a tape and editing it to sound like Mitchell talking about an affair.

SPOILER - this movie has a happy ending. Everyone turns on Johnny, including his wife. Our loving couple goes off into the London dawn hand in hand, tested but strong. I hope that doesn't offend anyone.

But the plot, and honestly, some of the acting, isn't really the point. There's some silly jazz slang, and the marijuana cigarettes are pretty powerful, considering they are pin-sized. But the milieu is so cool. There are plenty of hot numbers, including Brubeck and Mingus duetting on a "Raggy Waltz", and Rex playing two Ellington numbers, "Sentimental Mood" and "Mood Indigo". There's a Brazilian bongo number, and some tight British horns. 

There's also some interesting race stuff, as befits a story based on Othello. Rex's wife is white, of course. But also Cass has a black girlfriend, and it just isn't a big deal. I guess director Basil Dearden (League of Gentlemen) doesn't mind putting a touch of drugs or race mixing in his films. Sort of an iconoclast, I guess. 

In conclusion, I saw John Dankworth in college - he gave a concert with his wife Cleo Laine. Laine had laryngitis, but still sounded amazing. She's a contralto with rich "pear-shaped vowels" and an amazing high range. In the movie, Dankworth's line is "Sorry Cleo couldn't make it." We are too.