Pete Kelly's Blues

Although Jack Webb is best remembered for his iconic creation Sgt. Joe Friday, the no-nonsense hero of the police drama Dragnet, he also played a number of other characters on radio, TV, and the big screen, with one of his favorites being jazz cornet player Pete Kelly, whom he portrayed first on the radio in 1951 and then in this 1955 film. Webb directs and stars as Pete, the leader of a Dixieland jazz band in 1927 Kansas City, when speakeasies flourished and mobsters ran the streets. Produced in vibrant Technicolor and CinemaScope, it's a mix of musical melodrama and gangster movie, with struggling musician Pete pursued by well-to-do flapper Ivy (Janet Leigh), while ganglord Fran McCarg (Edmond O'Brien) runs the protection rackets. Webb, a big fan of Dixieland, fills out the narrative with club performances by Pete's band (performed by Matty Matlock's Dixielanders) and vocal numbers by costars Ella Fitzgerald and Peggy Lee (who earned an Oscar nomination for her performance as Rose, an alcoholic torch singer). Webb gives the colorful dialogue the terse, unemotional delivery of Sgt. Friday, and his direction is clean and straightforward—light on atmosphere but full of vivid characters and telling detail. Lee Marvin plays well against type as an easygoing clarinet player, while Andy Devine, best known for comic-relief roles, is a tough cop who wants to shut down McCarg. Bowing on Blu-ray, extras include the vintage Oscar-nominated short “Gadgets Galore,” and the classic cartoon “The Hole Idea.” A solid, old-fashioned story with great music and loads of period color, this is recommended. (S. Axmaker)