Martin Ritt (director)
BFI Film (studio)
12 (certificate)
106min (length)
24 October 2016 (released)
24 October 2016
From the title one might get the idea that this 1958 offering is quintessentially a jazz film; especially in view of the fact that the score is by Duke Ellington and the Great Satchmo even makes a guest appearance. This, however, is in fact not quite the case. The film is more about relationships and focuses on the joint romances between two ex-pat jazz musicians and a couple of female American tourists newly arrived in Paris.
As the film begins in a smoky Parisian jazz club to the strains of the Ellington evergreen 'Take the 'A' Train', Ram Bowen (Paul Newman) is soloing on trombone (played by Murray McEachen) and is followed by Eddie Cook (Sidney Poitier) on tenor sax (played by Paul Gonsalves). Indeed, you could easily think it is all aboard for a mighty jazz treat. Ram, we soon find out, doesn't just want to be a successful jobbing jazz musician staying in ‘gay Paree’ for the time being but has ambitions to achieve greatness as a composer. Eddie, the more sympathetic of the two, more or less tells him he thinks his work is good but really just that. Meaning this boy has a way to go and some years of study ahead. The lady who runs the club has a bit of a thing for Ram but this is all by the by. Anyway, the legendary trumpeter Wild Man Moore (Louis Armstrong) is about to hit town and Ram wants to be at the station to meet his hero. By chance he also meets Connie Lampson (Diahann Carroll), a black woman to whom he takes an instant shine. She tells him that she is looking for her friend and travelling companion Lillian Cording (Joanne Woodward, Newman's real life wife). Ram, attempting a chat-up says “Is she attractive as you?” to which Connie replies, “She's a white girl”. Ram says - reversing the old and somewhat offensive adage – “I wouldn't know all these white girls look the same.”
He invites both to the jazz club that evening and Lillian, upon clapping eyes on Ram, is immediately smitten and is, unlike her friend Connie, also a bit of a die-hard jazz fan. Lillian is, if anything, even more impressed after she hears Ram play that night. Eddie arranges for them to take the girls to dinner and Connie has taken a shine to Eddie (this actually happened in real life… Poitier and Carroll had an affair). Meanwhile, Ram is put out because he also has his eye on her. After making a few rude remarks he tells Eddie to take both the girls to dinner and goes off on his own. However, Lillian is not put off by Ram’s initial preference for Connie and catches up with him in the street a few minutes later. The two end up spending the night together (outrageous behaviour for 1961). Lillian, by the way, has been married and has two kids back in the States. Naturally romance blossoms and both girls want their newly acquired lovers to return to the States with them, seeing how they are only on a two-week vacation; however, both Ram and Eddie have their own agenda for wishing to remain in Paris: from early on, Black American jazz musicians had been going to Paris and staying there for long periods of time, one of the more obvious reasons being that they were treated with reverence and respect. Unlike in the States where, if said musician had a brother, he might not be allowed in the club where his sibling was playing on account of his colour. Who can blame Eddie then for his sojourn in Paris?
Connie, however, has other ideas! She reckons Eddie owes the country of his birth some allegiance and should return to help get the race issue sorted so that black and white can start to live in harmony. As far as Eddie is concerned he has that in France… but now he has fallen in love with Connie and the seconds are ticking away. Ram is turned down by a record producer who feels that more studying is needed. Crestfallen, Ram agrees to return to the States with Lillian who feels she has met her dream man… but will he really return or will he have second thoughts? And what about Eddie and Connie?
All in all Paris Blues is quite well done, no complaints about the performances but we don't have much action and well, little is required. No Academy Awards would have been on offer. And one feels that with the issue of race and jazz music, the film could have gone considerably deeper instead of being merely touched upon. Briefly, the subject of substance abuse is brought up albeit a little patronizingly… Few people will have read Harold Flender’s book on which the film is based on. Also, more could have been made of the Paris locations. In one scene we just have what looks like a static picture in the background supposedly of a Parisian thoroughfare. Not exactly Ellington's best film score either, for that look up 'Anatomy of a Murder' – but really this is just a personal opinion.