Pete Kelly's Blues
US (1955): Crime/Drama/Musical
In 1919, returning soldier Pete Kelly (Jack Webb) wins a cornet in a crap game. By 1927, he has a small jazz band playing in a Kansas City speakeasy. Gangster Fran McCarg (Edmond O'Brien) wants extortion money from Pete; hot flapper Ivy Conrad (Janet Leigh) wants Pete in person; but Pete just wants to keep the band together. Against a background of Dixieland jazz, pervasive corruption and angst may finally force Pete to take action. (Rod Crawford, IMDb)
Webb's cast also features Peggy Lee, Andy Devine, Lee Marvin, Ella Fitzgerald, Martin Milner and Jayne Mansfield. Lee and Fitzgerald sing almost all the songs in the picture, including "Sugar," "Somebody Loves Me," "He Needs Me" and "Sing a Rainbow" (Lee) and "Hard Hearted Hannah," "Pete Kelly's Blues" and "Ella Hums the Blues" (Fitzgerald).
Pete Kelly's Blues was a do-or-die project for Jack Webb, best known for playing Sgt. Joe Friday on the TV series "Dragnet". Riding on the success of his previous film Dragnet (1954), Webb decided to make this film as his next project. If it did well at the box office, Warners would greenlight a TV show of the same name. Pete Kelly's Blues did respectable business (about 5 million), and garnered an Oscar® nod for singer Peggy Lee in the Supporting Actress category, but, for reasons unknown, Warners decided to pass on the TV show. Today, Pete Kelly's Blues fails to muster much interest and is nearly forgotten. (Bill Treadway, IMDb)
1 nomination
· Supporting Actress 1955: Peggy Lee