Wednesday, May 27, 2020

FAVOURITE MOVIES: All Night Long, 1962


Do you like Shakespeare? Do you like jazz? Have you seen Basil Dearden's 1962 film All Night Long? If not, you are in for a unique and memorable treat in this riff on Othello.

Marti Stevens, Richard Attenborough, Paul Harris

We are invited to Rod Hamilton's place, one of his places, for a late night party and jam session. Richard Attenborough plays Hamilton, a rich man who indulges his love for music in an out of the way loft to avoid complaining neighbours. His hosting duties this evening are extra special. It is a celebration of the first anniversary of bandleader Aurelius Rex and his ex-vocalist wife Delia Lane. Paul Harris plays Rex and Marti Stevens plays Delia. Marti sings two songs in the film, All Night Long and I Never Knew I Could Love Anybody Like I'm Loving You.

Patrick McGoohan, Paul Harris

Delia gave up her career as proof of her devotion to her husband, but music is a part of her and she can't help working up a new style "for fun." Friends are wondering if she'll stick to this odd bargain. One friend hopes she won't. Drummer Johnny Cousin played by Patrick McGoohan wants his own outfit and has been going after Rod Hamilton for the financial backing and agent Lou Berger played by Bernard Braden by telling them both that Delia will be part of his group. All he has to do is get her away from Rex.

Maria Velasco, Betsy Blair

Cass Michaels played by Keith Michell is Rex's manager and a close friend to the couple. Johnny does more than hint to Rex that Delia and Cass are cheating on him. In reality, Cass is stuck on Benny played by Maria Velasco and things are starting to get serious with the couple.

Keith Michell, Marti Stevens

Johnny will do anything and manipulate anyone to achieve his ambition. Only his downtrodden wife Emily played by Betsy Blair realizes to what depths her husband will sink. There is no foible or weakness he will fail to exploit no matter the consequences.


Note the personnel on the soundtrack album above. In between the serious drama of the party, there is some serious music. It is the sort of thing you expect when the host arrives to find Charlie Mingus has already made himself at home. 

Paul Jarrico
1915-1997

All Night Long was written under the pseudonym Peter Achilles by blacklisted screenwriter Paul Jarrico. In the 1930s Jarrico wrote crime and comedy pictures for Columbia studios and was Oscar-nominated for the original screenplay of Tom, Dick and Harry, 1941. Following a WW2 stint with the Merchant Marines, he worked for Howard Hughes at RKO. Jarrico's earlier involvement with America's Communist Party came under scrutiny by HUAC in the 1950s. Along with fellow blacklistee Herbert Biberman they independently made Salt of the Earth in 1954. The story of poor workers organizing themselves was placed on the National Film Registry in 1992.

Basil Dearden
1911-1971

Director Basil Dearden made some of the most interesting and progressive films of his era. Check out Violent Playground, 1958 tackling delinquency with a great showcase for David McCallum. Sapphire in 1959, shows racial prejudice complicating a murder investigation. Victim in 1961 deals with the blackmail of prominent gay professionals starring Dirk Bogarde as a barrister. On the lighter side,  check out Benny Hill in Who Done It?, 1956 and the all-star caper The League of Gentlemen, 1960.

Of note:


According to IMDb trivia, at the completion of filming Patrick McGoohan kept the drum kit.












17 comments:

  1. KEITH MICHELL and PATRICK MCGOOHAN were guest stars on MURDER, SHE WROTE. Another guest star was LEE MERIWETHER who turns 85 today! Did you watch the movie THE COURTSHIP OF EDDIES FATHER with GLENN FORD and RONNY HOWARD? Glenns name in the movie was TOM and as soon as I saw Toms secretary I said-that's Lee Meriwether. It was a small role and Lee was uncredited. Of course, later she played BETTY JONES, the secretary(and daughter-in-law) of BARNABY JONES(BUDDY EBSEN). Lee was one of the most attractive women on TV and a good actress.

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    1. I grew fond of Keith Michell's character Dennis Stanton on Murder, She Wrote. It made me forget about Henry VIII.

      My introduction to Patrick McGoohan was Danger Man on TV and Disney's The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh and The Three Lives of Thomasina. I admire his acting and his directing on Columbo.

      I think The Courtship of Eddie's Father is an adorable movie and it is fun to see that early role for Lee Meriwether. It is nice to think that both Lee and Julie Newmar are still with us. There must have been something about that Catwoman suit.

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    2. I remember reading about SALT OF THE EARTH over at Jacqueline’s blog.

      Never seen Betsy Blair in anything other than MARTY. I know she was Mrs. Gene Kelly, but did she make a lot of movies? MARTY seems like the kind of role with which she could’ve gotten typecast— and if she played a “downtrodden wife” here, I’m thinking maybe she did...

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    3. Betsy tended to be cast as a woebegon figure, but she made them work for the different stories. I like her as Birdie in Another Part of the Forest, Hellman's prequel to The Little Foxes. A woman who wants to be brave in Kind Lady. She gets to show some spunk in Mystery Street. One I really want to see is Main Street which was made in Spain. She had moved to London in the late 1950s after her divorce from Gene.

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  2. I really like the DENNIS STANTON ep of MURDER, SHE WROTE with RICARDO MONTALBAN and PATRICIA NEAL. HALLIE TODD played the secretary in the Dennis eps. Hallie is the daughter of ANN MORGAN GUILBERT who is best known as MILLIE on THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW. Her father was producer/writer GEORGE ECKSTEIN and her stepfather was actor GUY RAYMOND.

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    1. That's very interesting. I thought Stanton would have been an interesting spinoff but we must be happy with the episodes they made.

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  3. I want to mention two more guest stars from MURDER, SHE WROTE. RUTA LEE is 85 today! She has been married to WEBSTER B. LOWE, Jr. since Feb. 1976-thats 44 years! If you get a chance to see her on her two eps of THE LUCY SHOW I think you will like them especially the second time she was on the show. She played herself and it starred MILTON BERLE. His wife RUTH was also on it.

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    1. The other one is DAVID ACKROYD who is 80 today! He was the original GARY EWING on a two-part ep of DALLAS back in 1978. There was only five eps before that. When I would see him on TV later I would think-theres the original Gary Ewing. Sometimes I call him the brown-haired Gary Ewing. David and his wife Ruth married on March 30, 1963-that was 57 years ago! So David got married two months before he turned 23. I didn't watch the show but I read that he had played a doctor on ANOTHER WORLD(I think in the 70s).

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    2. Ruta Lee is a favourite around here for many movies and shows, and for being a fellow Canadian. One of my sisters is a fan of Lucy's shows and I recall Ruta guesting very well.

      David Ackroyd is familiar to me firstly from The Secret Storm, and I hate to think how long ago that was!

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  4. As you wrote, this is a fascinating variation on Othello. It’s always fun to see Patrick McGoohan. Basil Dearden directed some of my favorite British films of this era, with the best being Victim with Dirk Bogarde. But All Night Long is a winner, too!

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    1. I am pleased to see that TCM is included this movie in its Jazz in Film spotlight. There are some terrific and favourite movies but I am sorry they couldn't find room for Too Late Blues and Paris Blues.

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  5. Speaking of BETSY BLAIR she had a part in THE SNAKE PIT which starred OLIVIA DE HAVILLAND. MARK STEVENS played the husband to Olivia. Mark was also in FROM THIS DAY FORWARD where he played the husband to...JOAN FONTAINE, the sister of Olivia.

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    1. Mark Stevens had musical talent and sang in I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now, a biopic of songwriter Joe Howard. The studio dubbed his voice in Oh, You Beautiful Doll. Who knows why they did these things? Perhaps a serious role with music would have done wonders for his career.

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  6. This looks so cool! You kinda had me at "Othello adaptation," but toss in all that jazz and I'm hooked. I'll have to see if I can find this.

    BTW, I nominated you for the Sunshine Blogger Award. Play if you want to!

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    1. It's a fabulous movie. I'm sure you'll be impressed.

      Thank you very much for thinking of me for the Blogger Award. I shall forego participating, to enjoy the reading.

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  7. Very nice movie i could not expect about it...Instagram pro

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