Die Benny Goodman Story (1956)
49KDie Benny Goodman Story: Directed by Valentine Davies. With Steve Allen, Donna Reed, Berta Gersten, Barry Truex. The young Benny Goodman is taught clarinet by a Chicago music professor. He is advised by bandleader Kid Ory to play whichever kind of music he likes best, but to make a living, Benny begins by joining the Ben Pollack traveling band.
“I may have seen this film more than 20 times, unfortunately it has been unavailable in the UK for 10 years and not on TV all that time so Iu0026#39;m missing it right now. It is such a good film whether you enjoy Benny Goodmanu0026#39;s music or jazz for that matter or not. Benny Goodmanu0026#39;s life was pretty interesting anyway and itu0026#39;s portrayal in this movie is fairly accurate. The music score covers all the best from Benny Goodman and his Orchestra and is a tribute to one of the earlier band leaders in Jazz. There were not too many bands with both black and white members at that time but this was such a band. What was great for the Benny Goodman Orchestra was the fact that many of the members were such well known and respected performers themselves. There was such talent in that group of musicians and how fortunate it was that they should all come together at that time to create and play some brilliant music.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eWith regard to the film it is based on the life of Benny Goodman and if you know about him the presence of spoilers here would not ruin things. In short though this film shows Benny Goodman from a young boy through to after he has made a success of himself. His challenges, disappointments, love interests are all a part of the story through the film.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI couldnu0026#39;t fault anything in this film, direction, acting, all of it is just right and it makes for a film you can enjoy over and over again.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThey certainly donu0026#39;t make movies like this anymore.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003e9 out of 10. (I reserved 10 out of 10 for my very best 3 or 4 films, this is a top 10 of mine still).”
