Linbeymusol
Wonderful character development!
Jeanskynebu
the audience applauded
ShangLuda
Admirable film.
Nessieldwi
Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.
edwagreen
Not only did Jack Webb star in the film, he also directed it. Trouble is that with his meek character at the beginning of the film, Webb was weak here and should have handed over the role to Bob Mitchum or Alan Ladd.That being said, the film chronicles the 1920s jazz era in Kansas City. Pete and other bands are subjected to the protection racket by Edmond O'Brien. When a drunken Martin Milner, a band member, resists, he is shot dead and Kelly (Webb) falls in line.Lee Marvin plays a band member who makes Kelly see the light and Janet Leigh is along for the ride as Kelly's love interest. With her '20's look, she is ready to start shimmering at any time.Credit must be given to Peggy Lee for her boozy moll to O'Brien. Her appearance on screen was memorable and she earned a supporting Oscar nomination for it. She was generally trying to make a take-off of Claire Trevor's Oscar win in 1948 for "Key Largo."After Kelly gets the nerve, the film turns into a shoot out by the end.
taw2016
I saw Pete Kelley's Blues in the movies in 1955 as a 16 year old kid. I enjoyed the music so much I bought a 33 LP with the music which I still possess. I recorded the movie on VHS tape off TV several years ago and before the tape faded too much I put it on DVD for my use. The title doesn't seem to be readily available these days. Not sure why. The music and artists are first rate in my aging opinion. Jack Webb is somewhat less of a wise guy than he usually seemed to me on TV. There may be one scene I recall in the movie which did not appear in the TV version I recorded---the view of some guy shot in the face with a shotgun---that is my memory from 1955 or so. Bloody etc. I think it was in the theater version--maybe I'm mixing up movies in my memory. Does anybody remember the scene I recall?
larryliddell
"Pete Kelly's Blues" is, in my humble opinion, like a lot of Jack Webb's work, an underrated movie. Even as a teenager, I realized in 1955 that the movie had a dark plot but at the same time was highlighted by great musical performances. Jack got an academy award performance from Peggy Lee and outstanding performances from Ella Fitzgerald, Edmund O'Brien and Martin Milner, to say nothing of Janet Leigh, whose performance was good. Jack was not liked by a lot of people in Hollywood who panned his work. With the exception of "Dragnet", the TV show and the movies, "Pete Kelly's Blues" was Jack's most important work, if not the most appreciated. It's a shame when personalities interfere with an appraisal of someone's work.
Kordermamet23
Very little to say that this movie doesn't say oh so very well. Jack Webb is definitely the Man. Disregard what others say about him being too stiff--how the hell else is someone supposed to get by in this cutthroat business of gangsters and con-men? Webb's stoicism is very much in the tradition of Joe Friday, no doubt about it. But as Pete Kelly, we get to see the tender side that had already been killed off by the daily drudgery of police work in Dragnet. Dig: the sincerity on his face while watching Ella perform. Dig: the do-or-die determination that gets him out of (and into) so many dangerous situations. Webb's performance gives us a hero worth rooting for: sincere, tough, unsentimental, and totally honest: no fakery here, no razzle-dazzle. He just does what he has to do. Enough words. Go see the movie!
