Pete Kelly's Blues

Pete Kelly's Blues is arguably the most stylish of director/star Jack Webb's theatrical features. Beginning with a brilliantly evocative pre-credits prologue, wherein we see how WWI vet Pete Kelly (Webb) came into possession of his precious trumpet, the film traces Kelly to his 1927 gig at a Kansas ...more

With another actor in the title role, Pete Kelly's Blues might have been a compelling, memorable little film. Not a classic, mind you, for the Richard Breen screenplay too often gives us the familiar and comfortable rather than the fresh and exciting, but it's good enough to have provided the basis for a small little gem. Jack Webb's direction is actually good; at all times solid, it sometimes moves beyond that to show imagination and creativity, and it's quite successful at creating and ...more