Review for All Night Long

Man, this is one cool movie daddy-o! This 1961 black and white release is an ambitious and creative re-working of Shakespeare’s `Othello`, set in late 1950`s London at the height of the cool Jazz era. All the action takes place in a giant Warehouse apartment in the Dockland area of East London, an idea that didn`t really grow wings until three decades later, owned by wealthy Jazz enthusiast and benefactor Rodney Hamilton (Dickie Attenborough no-less). The first guests to arrive are (I kid you not, Jazz fans) Charlie Mingus, Johnny Dankworth and Dave Brubeck - who`s wearing those de rigour `geek` glasses that no hipster would want to be seen without. They appear throughout the movie, peppering it with some excellent `cool` jazz and for many this should justify the purchase price alone. Nice!



But set against this groovy backdrop is some fine drama. The action is pretty much confined to the spacious apartment and its rooftop terrace - and this makes the film appear to be a little `stagy`. But as a loose ‘Othello’ adaptation, this seems entirely forgivable.

Patrick McGoohan is great as a scheming drummer who, fuelled by raging ambition, will stop at nothing to get what he wants. His drumming is impressive too, almost too real to be completely fake. Sadly the same cannot be said for his faux-American dialogue which is of the same par as Dick Van Dyke`s cockney accent in Mary Poppins, so I guess that makes us even. It`s an oddly convincing performance despite that, perhaps as the result of the intensity of McGoohan’s performance. He is a very fine film and TV actor indeed, able to communicate volumes through the tiniest, almost imperceptible twitch of his mouth or wince of an eye.

There are also get some classy performances from Marti Stevens (Delia Lane) and Paul Harris (Aurelius Rex). Keith Michell does a fine turn as a moody saxophonist who is easily manipulated by the scheming Johnny Cousins (McGoohan) for his own ends.

For those undertaking GCSE`s, the parallels with `Othello` are anything but cryptic. Cousin/Lago, Rex/Othello, Delia/Desdemona, Cass/Cassio, Emily/Emilia and Lou/Lodovico all go through roughly the same motions. I guess the only significant change to the Bard`s original plot is the `happy ending` - though I don`t want to spoil it for you. Maybe it was the presumptuousness of this re-writing that made the movie an easy real target for reviewers on its release in the early `60`s.

The DVD transfer that had to suffice until now (released some 12 years or so ago) was really very good but this Blu-Ray edition looks fabulous. If it’s a favourite film of yours then it’s definitely worth the double-dip. A beautifully flawless high definition transfer with incredible rich contrast and detail.

The mono soundtrack works well too which is just as well. Some of the jazz is sublime and anything less than great would have been disappointing given the quality of the image.

It’s light on features sadly (a making of documentary with surviving cast, crew and musicians would have been great though probably very few are left standing in truth). It has a trailer, a small image gallery and (apparently) a booklet, although the review check disc I have didn’t come with that.

Overall, this ambitious cool jazz era re-working of Shakespeare`s Othello is well-worth checking out. Apart from the wall-to-wall backdrop of first class jazz jamming, there are some sterling and dramatic performances from its cast. This stagy, low budget black and white movie may not have much in the way of effects and production value, but this is more than compensated for in atmosphere and high drama. Despite the uneasy mix of Shakespeare and Jazz, you don`t have to be an aficionado of either to enjoy it. Highly recommended.