1h 41min | Biography, Drama, Music | December 1959 | b/w, ws
Director: Don Weis
Stars: Sal Mineo, Susan Kohner, James Darren, Susan Oliver.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052840/
12 songs in the Soundtracks.
I'm a big Gene Krupa fan. He was playing with Benny Goodman when they did the Carnegie Hall concert in '38. I've seen him in many films.
SM does a good job imitating Krupa's hunched posture while playing.
This story shows his early days, never mentions BG. Once he has some success, he tries smoking pot, and eventually gets busted for it. This supposedly puts him on a blacklist, where he can't get work. Eventually he gets a break from Tommy Dorsey, and that's where this ends.
Per IMDb trivia on Krupa:
The Gene Krupa Orchestra became one of the most popular swing bands in the U.S., but it folded in 1943 after Krupa was arrested and jailed on a marijuana possession charge. Eventually rehabilitated after the charge was dropped (the chief witness recanted!), he was again voted the most outstanding drummer in the U.S. in January 1944 and soon started up another big band.
Per GK's IMDb bio, he married Ethel MacGuire (SK's character) twice, so they were married from '34 to '55 (her death), with 4 years off in the middle ('42-'46) while divorced. The film does not show them married.
Although the cast list includes Krupa (uncredited) for archive audio, I don't know that all of what SM is shown doing is backed by actual Krupa sound.
I can't say that I like the film, nor that I enjoyed its music.
Columbia, dir. Weis; 6
