Too Late Blues *** (1961, Bobby Darin, Stella Stevens, Everett Chambers) – Classic Movie Review 5756

Producer/ director/ co-writer John Cassavetes’s intriguing and haunting 1961 movie tale stars Bobby Darin as John ‘Ghost’ Wakefield, an ideological jazz player who meets an unbalanced and introverted beautiful singer, Jess Polanski (Stella Stevens). He develops a passion for her and falls in love with her.

[Spoiler alert] Things go awry, Jess comes between Ghost and his fellow band members, he meets a rich woman, Stevens’s character Jess takes to the streets as a streetwalker and he dumps his pure blues dreams in a search of fame.

The movie gets a lift from the pretty smart cast and it is a strong attempt by innovator Cassavetes, doing good work in four different capacities, even if it is perhaps a bit arty and gloomy for popular taste. Following his improvised 16 mm debut with Shadows (1959), it is Cassavetes’s first commercial movie for a mainstream film studio (Paramount).

Everett Chambers, Nick Dennis, Vince Edwards, Val Avery, James Joyce, Cliff Carnell, Seymour Cassel, Marilyn Clark, Rupert Crosse, Mario Gallo, J Alan Hopkins, Richard O Chambers, Dan Stafford and Allyson Ames.

It is shot by Lionel Lindon in black and white. Cassavetes writes the screenplay with Richard Carr.

Cassavetes’s fourth capacity is as uncredited On-Screen Trailer Host and Narrator.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5756

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com