1h 39min | Drama, Music | 3 August 1966 | b/w, ws
Director: Leo Penn
Stars: Sammy Davis Jr., Louis Armstrong, Ossie Davis, Cicely Tyson, Frank Sinatra Jr., Mel Tormé, Peter Lawford, Johnny Brown.
Watched online, ok print. Several interruptions during playback, disconnected site.
12 songs in the Soundtracks.
The first thing I did when it finished playing was see how much to buy a copy. (At least $11).
I don't know if I like the film. But it is very good. I want to see it again, uninterrupted.
SD is a very troubled, clearly sick (coughing) jazz trumpet/singing star. He's faced a lot of racism, and one night (10 years past) drove drunk and killed his wife and child, and blinded one of his sidemen, whom he still employs with him. So it should not surprise that he is self destructive.
We see some of the racism he faces, and his volatility. I'm surprised he's only hooked on alcohol, because something stronger would seem attractive in his situation.
4th film for CT. I didn't get any farther than IMDb's info to see when she was with Miles Davis, except that apparently she was on an album cover of his in '67; they were married in the '80s. I know she nursed him during his final years (d. '91). In this film, she was trying to nurse SD through his troubles, and I kept thinking of MD, also a trumpeter.
distr. Embassy Pictures, dir. Penn; 7
