musicjune-957-115337 This is a superb flick with the finest music and musicians ever put into one great flick. I knew most of them and used to listen to them in the Metropole Cafe, The Famous Door, Birdland and more. They were all gentlemen and were genuinely pleased to hear people say how much they loved their efforts. One night in the Metropole I was standing at the bar listening to Charlie Shavers and Sol Yaged came in off the street and challenged Shavers to a Battle Royal. Shavers and Yaged went at it for 25 minutes and finally we all gave the nod to Shavers. Yaged briefly got angry and I heard him mutter an expletive under his breath. But the surprise was the smile and the sweat covered hand shake that he offered to Charlie Shavers. These were wonderful people of which I cannot say enough good things about. Please do not miss this one. It is in a class by itself.

richwgriffin-227-176635 I loved this movie. Yes, it's "inaccurate" - from all accounts Benny Goodman was a horrible man to work for and with, difficult, and conflicted - but this film IS accurate - musically! (: And what music! Big band swing at it's brashest and most beguiling! I also wish Barry Truex, who played the teenaged BG, had made more movies - he's marvelous! He is completely convincing as someone secure in his musical knowledge and know-how.Yes, it is bothersome that they don't do enough with period detail - 50's clothing and feel instead of 20's and 30's (the film ends with the 1938 Carnegie Hall concert; he was more interesting AFTER that concert!) It's also a HUGE pleasure to hear Martha Tilton sing too!

agent_dscully It is was interesting to figure out what footage was the movie and what footage was from the actual 1938 performance at Carnegie Hall. There are two ways to figure it out: watch the color of the piano and what type of shot is taken by the camera. In close up shots with Steve Allen as Benny, the piano is brown. In far away shots, the piano is black. The far away shots are the actual 1938 footage. And of course, if you see Steve Allen (the close up shots), it is the movie footage. Without knowing that the original 1938 performance was spliced in with the 1955 movie footage , the viewer might see this as a continuity error.Although Steve Allen was not a clarinetist, one can see by his "performance" that he went to a lot of trouble to look as if he was actually playing (spoiler: Benny Goodman himself was actually playing clarinet off camera with the other musicians in the movie). As a musician and music historian, I am often annoyed when an actor or actress pretends to play a musical instrument: his or her performance usually looks fake. Excellent movie for all musicians! Very seldom do you see movies with so many great performances. It was also terrific to see some very famous musicians like Gene Krupa and Harry James.

john.palmer Growing up in the 40's in Brooklyn, I heard the music of BG, Miller, Dorsey, Shaw, etc. on the family radio(Martin Block's "Make Believe Ballroom"). I became a big fan of Benny's in 1950, with the release of the Columbia LP of the Carnegie Hall concert and the 1937-1938 radio broadcast albums.The music on these live performance albums was outstanding and spontaneous as opposed to the sterile studio recordings locked into a 3 minute format for 78 rpm records. These albums resulted in a resurgence of Benny's popularity and, ultimately lead to the movie.Steve Allen, while not a great choice, was probably the best at that time, since he was a popular TV personality and was a music lover and musician in his own right. As for Donna Reed, well what can anyone say except that she was as beautiful as ever and the consummate pro as the female lead. A fairly fast paced film with loads of musical guest stars and some pretty good tunes made famous by and played by BG for the soundtrack.Benny was not an exciting or controversial guy, so how do you generate enough interest to draw people to the movie,as is the case today. In 1955, good music did the trick. About the only controversy about Benny was his reputation of staring down any band member who diverted from the the arrangement. One former musician described in an interview how "the old man gave me the evil stare for the whole number after hitting a wrong note early on".Too bad they could not synchronize the actual concert music with the movie. In particular, the quartet version of "Stompin At The Savoy" in which Gene Krupa's cymbal flew off the stand and was hit by Lionel Hampton on the way by without missing a beat, or the concert rendition of "Sing,Sing,Sing", probably the best ever recorded.If you like this film go out and buy the newly released CD of the Carnegie Hall concert complete with 2 numbers previously excluded from other releases with intros by BG and no interruptions between numbers allowing you to hear the sounds of the band setting up for the next number, etc. Just like being there.