Popular Culture Review Vol. 1, December 1989 | Page 55

unsuccessfully, to accompany action on Him or attempt to chron
icle the lives o f musicians. The Glenn Miller Story (1953) featured
Jimmy Stewart as the trombonist, but the music was slowed down
slightly so it didn’t swing. The Benny Goodman Story (1955) had
Steve Allen portraying the clarinetist. Allen at least is a fine
musician in his own right and both films did feature recreations of
the Miller and Goodman arrangements.
Danny Kaye starred in The Five Pennies (1959), another of
those loosely based biographies, this time of cometist Red Nichols.
The same year saw Sal Mineo, a drummer himself, doing an
admirable job of synchronizing his movements with the soundtrack
star in The Gene Krupa Story. There were a number of inaccura
cies, most notably Krupa’s arrest for narcotics possession, which
was blown all out of proportion, but again the film featured some
fine music and musicians, even if the lives and events were
somewhat misrepresented.
Fictional jazz musicians fared far worse. The Rat Race (1960)
had Tony Curtis as an aspiring jazz saxophonist who, when he gets
his big chance, gets all his homs stolen. Too Late Blues, featured
Bobby Darin as a misunderstood pianist, and Paris Blues, (1961)
saw Paul Newman and Sidney Portier as expatriates on the Left
Bank pursuing Joanne Woodward and Diahann Carroll, respec
tively, almost as much as the music. There was somewhat of an
attempt to portray the jazz life, but it was overshadowed by the love
story. Again, Louis Armstrong, in his now obligatory role as the
black mentor [\