Noche de pesadilla

Just imagine: That Shakespearian bigger-than-life plot line, a sixties touch of psychoanalysis, a movie set entirely inside a party of swingers, great interludes featuring amazing jazz performances from some great artists such as Charlie Mingus(music scenes that also explain story line and characters), a slight bit of over-acting in colorful black and white, good filmmaking, interracial couples and drug taking in a 1961 movie, love, hate and, of course, jealousy. Who could possible miss out on these ingredients?

Just beautiful.

I had never heard of this film, so I didn't know what to expect. I figured that anything featuring Attenborough and McGoohan had to be good...and I was right.

The film begins with preparations for a big jazz party honoring Rex and Delia's first anniversary. When they walk through the door, we get a big surprise: Rex is black and Delia is white. (Mixed-race couples were rare on screen in 1962, although they're now "de rigeur" in British TV and film.) When McGoohan's character started his scheming, it finally dawned on me that I was watching OTHELLO in a warehouse!

The screenwriters did a decent job of condensing Shakespeare's play into 90 minutes and bringing it up to date, but they chose to change the ending, which may disappoint die-hard fans of the Bard.

What makes this movie stand out is the cast of supporting characters: great jazz players of the early 1960s. The three headliners are Dave Brubeck (playing "Unsquare Dance"), bassist Charles Mingus, and sax player/bandleader Johnny Dankworth. But there are many second- tier players who contribute to the swinging atmosphere.

This film would be of interest to students of Shakespeare, or lovers of jazz. And if you like the idea of a "jazz summit" in a film, also check out A SONG IS BORN, a Danny Kaye comedy from 1948. The jazzers outshine the actors in that one; in ALL NIGHT LONG, it's a dead heat.

The film, based on Othello, is neatly positioned as a vehicle to showcase some of the best Jazz musicians of the period -- including Dave Brubeck and Charlie Mingus.

What is most interesting about this film is how it handles racial relations. That was an important part of "Othello", but really defined the 1960s. I love how 1963 was the year of the "I Have a Dream" speech, but already in England films like this had blacks and whites mingling without any sort of trouble. How much more mature they were...

The film was released by The Criterion Collection in January 2011, and it deserved to be. Criterion has done a great job of finding lost classics and cleaning them up -- the beautiful black and white cinematography deserves to be seen, and the jazz soundtrack deserves to be heard.

About 20 to 30 minutes into the film, I felt like I was watching a play--a familiar play, at that. Thanks to IMDb, I learned it's inspired by Shakespeare's Othello. I haven't read it in 40 years, but at least that mystery was solved.

The mystery that's not solved for me is the actual genesis of this project. Whose idea was it to fashion a script loosely based on Othello against the backdrop of the late 1960s British jazz scene? The producer? The script's co-authors? Honestly, that's a head-scratcher, in my book.

As far as the music, it's never truly "featured" in this film. It's either used as a transition from one scene to the next or as a background element. Make no mistake: what performances we do get are high-end, time capsule-like delights; but they are often interrupted with storyline.

If you're a diehard fan of the jazz artists featured in this film or of some members of the cast, like Betsy Blair, Richard Attenborough, or Patrick McGoohan, you'll probably like this movie. And if you are into older movies that test the boundaries regarding interracial relationships, this one may interest you. It's good but definitely an oddity.

I came to this little-known British movie after watching another film director Basil Deardon had made not long before called "Sapphire" which as its main theme addressed the issue of interracial relationships in today's England. Here, he returns to this territory as he not only transposes the main plot elements of Shakespeare's "Othello" to the then present day but also imaginatively sets it in the jazz world of the time.

I'm no jazz-buff but readily appreciate that for those who are, the presence of big names like Charles Mingus, Dave Brubeck and Johnny Dankworth in the cast will make this film a draw almost for that reason alone. Actually they none of them are on screen for long and only get a few cursory lines and some brief musical interludes between them, so that they don't affect the action elsewhere, but I guess they add a flavour of authenticity to proceedings.

That action revolves around Patrick McGoohan's conniving and devious drummer Johnny, whose only way to forward his career is to co-opt retired singer Marti Stevens into joining his band. To do this he has to remove the two men he sees are in his way, Stevens' former musical accompanist, trumpeter Keith Michell and her new husband, black band-leader Paul Harris.

It all kicks off at a swinging first wedding anniversary party for Harris and Stevens hosted by promoter Richard Attenborough, the guest-list of which includes big-shot record company executive Bernard Braden as Johnny gets to work spinning his web even if it means innocent people's lives will be destroyed.

Deardon daringly posits two mixed-race relationships in the film and laudably does so in a natural and unobstrusive way. The movie itself is very set-bound with the camera rooted in Attenborough's massive apartment, contributing to the theatricality of the piece. McGoohan dominates as the twitchy, scheming Johnny and certainly impresses with his drumming skills, but there's good support for him provided by Michell, Stevens and particularly Harris, who you could easily imagine portraying the tragic Moor in the original "Othello". Betsy Blair also contributes a brief, but telling performance as Johnny's overlooked wife. Interestingly, the tragedy of the original play is given a more Hollywood-style ending, which particularly to those of us familiar with the original, seems a bit of a cop-out, although I can perhaps understand Deardon's reluctance to openly vilify Harris's character, under the circumstances.

Like I said though, the music didn't move me much and the hep-cat jive talk of this cloistered world rather grated after a while, but all in all this was an interesting and provocative modern-day take on the Bard, with a good cast, solid direction and the additional ingredient of some contemporary jazz music for those who really care for it.