All Night Long (1962)

All Night Long (1962), directed by Basil Dearden.

An Othello plot done all in one night at a British jazz club.

Rex and Delia are jazz royalty, loved and respected by all. Weaselly drummer Johnnie (Patrick McGoohan, talking American and smoking dope) needs singer Delia to come out of retirement and join his new band. He'll break up the couple by spreading rumors about her and another musician. It doesn't take much to stir the green-eye monster.

It's not a bad little drama in its own right and has considerable historical interest. The vision of racial amity at the jazz club is just taken for granted and includes mixed race couples, rare in movies then. We have a huge set of real musicians playing themselves, including Charles Mingus and Dave Brubeck. It works pretty well, which is unusual when you have so many non-professional actors.

Available on DVD from Criterion.

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