Daily Archives: April 7, 2016

The Benny Goodman Story
Directed by Valentine Davies
Written by Valentine Davies
1956/USA
Universal International Pictures
First viewing/Netflix rental

Alice Hammond: I can’t remember when I’ve been so moved.
Benny Goodman: That wasn’t me – that was Mozart.

The pacing of this fictionalized biopic is not too good but the music is glorious.

As a boy, Benny Goodman (Steve Allen) is the youngest and so receives the least coveted instrument.  It is a clarinet.  He proves to be a prodigy and his teacher dreams of a classical career.  His practice piece is Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto.  His family needs money so he gets a job in a dance band.  Once he hears jazz, he is in love.  High-society beauty Alice Hammond (Donna Reed) frequently accompanies her jazz-lover brother to Benny’s gigs.  She initially has nothing but disdain for popular music.  But when Benny plays the Mozart Concerto at a soiree at the Hammond family manse she begins to fall in love.

Movie is in color but the best stills are in black-and-white

The story takes us through the ups and downs of Benny’s career and the couple’s protracted romance.  It culminates when Goodman’s orchestra plays at Carnegie Hall with other jazz greats.  With Sammy Davis Sr. as Fletcher Henderson and Harry James and Gene Krupa as themselves.

I love swing music and Benny Goodman and enjoyed listening to the many selections included in this movie.  The story just kind of meandered on and on without many high points.  The acting is not bad though.  Steve Allen does quite well in a performance as restrained as Goodman was.

Warning from Space (Uchûjin Tôkyô ni arawaru)
Directed by Kôji Shima
Written by Hideo Iguni from a novel by Gentaro Nakajima; English dialogue by Jay Cipes and Edward Palmer
1956/Japan
Daiei Studios
First viewing/Amazon Instant

[box] After one look at this planet any visitor from outer space would say ‘I want to see the manager.’ — William S. Burroughs [/box]

I should have heeded the warning.

Aliens shaped like stars covered in cheap fabric hold a pow wow on Planet Paira.  Number 1 is chosen for a mission to Earth to contact Dr. Kamura.  Sightings of flying saucers begin to increase.  Unforunately, the terror of seeing the motionless alien causes panic among the Earthlings.  So Alien Number 1 returns to Praia where it is transformed into the likeness of a tap-dancing night-club singer.  Alien Number 1 reportedly does a number of very suspicious things before finally making contact with Kamura.  When she does, Paira delivers its message.  A runaway planet from another galaxy is due to enter the shared orbit of Earth and Paira and will wipe out both planets unless it can be stopped.  Paira wants the nuclear nations to cooperate to detonate atom bombs sufficient to alter Earth’s orbit (????).  The only other possibility is an untested explosive formula that some bad guys are after.

After I saw pictures of the aliens, I had high hopes for this movie.  Unfortunately, the smiles come only in the first five minutes.  After that, very little happens.  I watched a dubbed version but have no reason to believe subtitles would help in the least.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kC68EY6NvU

Clips