Too much of everything

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

The problem with Lady Sings the Blues is the director and the producer allowed Diana Ross and Richard Pryor, and others, to improvise. To the people doing the improvising it was wonderful fun but it is NOT interesting, it is not entertaining. It is TEDIOUS! It is sloppy. All I could think of was "let's move on!". I wanted to fast forward through some of it. Also, some of the sets have a very cheap look to them. The costumes were Bob Mackie? Okay, where was the creativity? The glamour? They all had this slightly cheap look to them and they were not showcased well at all. Diana Ross came off as an introverted, mousy, whiny little girl with no spine. This was her first role and it shows! No one was there to guide her and offer any ideas. They just let her go because to them it was wonderful. It's not! An annoying, tedious, poorly done film with poor dialog, poor acting and trite ideas.

In continuing my reviews of African-Americans in film in chronological order for Black History Month, we're now at 1972 with the biographical depiction of Billie Holliday as portrayed by Diana Ross called Lady Sings the Blues. While the movie itself isn't very accurate in recounting Lady Day's life and career and Ms. Ross herself hardly resembles the legendary singer, it does move along nicely as a drama especially with two of her costars-Billy Dee Williams and Richard Pryor-providing many scene stealing moments. As Holiday's lover Louis McKay, Williams oozes great romantic chemistry with Ross as we see him trying to get her out of whatever addictions she keeps coming back to. Then there's Pryor as Piano Man as we see many of his humorous moments, with or without Diana, bring some needed levity whenever things get heavy though there's some good drama concerning him at the end. Other black performers I'd like to mention include: Isabel Sandford as the first madame that Holiday encounters as we see her tell Billie she can keep the record she keeps playing. She was already familiar to TV viewers as Louise Jefferson on "All in the Family" which would later spin her off into "The Jeffersons". Then there's Lynn Hamilton as the second madame Ross encounters. Ms. Hamilton would later that year or next become familiar as Fred Sandford's girlfriend Donna Harris on "Sandford and Son". Harry Caesar plays a really creepy man who forces himself on teenage Billie in perhaps the movie's most chilling scene. There's also Jester Hairston-later familiar to me as Rolly on "Amen"-as a butler and, in perhaps the most humorous scene, Scatman Crothers as Big Ben, a client that prostitute Billie quits on to go audition at a night club. Ms. Ross was the second (or third since Cicely Tyson was also nominated that year for Sounder) African-American to be nominated an Oscar for Best Actress after Dorothy Dandridge's previous nod some 18 years before. It was much deserved especially with the drug-induced depictions handled realistically by her. The songs Holiday made famous are handled by Diana in a way that brings you back to the period depicted here. When the score plays during the Ross-Williams dialogue, however, it brings me temporarily out of the period and into the obviously-made-in-'70s mode. Other than that I highly enjoyed Lady Sings the Blues and recommend it to anyone who loves a good drama with good music.

I saw this during it's initial theatrical release and have seen it a couple times since and I guess it was an important film in the sense that it created interest in the music of Billie Holiday. It's a highly dramatized, melodramatic and largely fictional account of her life based on a book that was filled with unsubstantiated claims, embellished stories and exaggerations. It's too bad because Billie holiday was a musical giant who swam the waters of other musical giants and lived a tragic life while having a successful career that was more than interesting enough than to simply reduce it to pulp fiction. Yes, she became a drug addict and was a prostitute and went through some very horrible things in some very tough times but there was more than a talented, doomed train wreck that this film capsulizes her life as. The book Lady Sings the Blues by Billie Holiday and ghost writer William Duffy came out in 1956. Holiday claimed she never read it. The tapes that Duffy recorded of her talking about her life that he used to write the book on have never surfaced. Motown founder Berry Gordy secured the rights to make the film and from his Motown stable got Suzanne De Passe and Chris Clark along with Terrence McClay to write the screenplay. None of them had ever written a screenplay before and amazingly they turned out a creative story that earned them an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay. Gone from the life of Billie holiday in the film are Lester Young, Teddy Wilson, Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Jimmie Lunceford, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Roy Eldridge, record producer John Hammond, Bobbie Henderson, Ben Webster, Ralph Cooper, Norman Granz and her first two husbands Jimmy Monroe and Joe Guy and her last boyfriend John Levy. All that remains here from the real life of Holiday on the screen is her third husband Louis McKay who served as a technical adviser to the film and comes across in a mostly sympathetic and glamorous light to what he actually was. Holiday had a great professional relationship and musical collaboration with pianist Terry Wilson who she called Prez and he called Lady Day but instead of the Wilson the film made up a character called Piano Man. Diana Ross in an over-the top performance in her film debut as Holiday received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress for 1972. It was the first time in Academy history that three of the Best Actor and Actress nominees were black. Cicely Tyson and Paul Winfield had also been nominated for Sounder. Ross did win a Golden globe for Best Newcomer and picked up a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress. The film understandably also received Academy Award nominations for Best Art Director, Best Costume Design and Best Scoring Adaptation. The film looks good and the period costumes are great. Ross sings Billie Holiday without trying to imitate Holiday but despite the acting and singing performances she turns in it's hard to get past the fact that this Diana Ross and not Billie Holiday. Billy Dee Williams is Louis McKay the film's only other actual real life character. Richard Pryor is the piano man. Also in the cast are Scatman Cruthers, Isabel Sanford and Jayne Kennedy. Excellent cinematography from John A. Alonzo who had a hot streak in the 70's shooting such films as Vanishing Point, Harold & Maude, Sounder, Chinatown, Norma Rae, and the music documentary Wattstax. Sidney J. Furie who saw some success with a few films he directed in the UK in the 60's but otherwise has had a less than stellar directorial career is the film's director. It's an OK movie despite it's flaws but comes across like a made-for-TV movie. Unfortunately I doubt if a more accurate portrayal of the life of Billie Holiday will ever be made. I would give it a 6.0 out of 10.

I never quite understood the backlash this movie has received over the years. It amazes me when people always seek perfection. This movie is not perfect. But lets applaud what it does provide. A dynamic debut performance by Diana Ross, a memorable supporting performance by a young Richard Pryor. Great music and score by Michel Legrand. Great wardrobe worn by Ross in this movie.Any good film is made up of a few really good scenes. I can easily count 5 or 6 excellent scenes in this movie. #1-opening scene where they put a straight jacket on Ross and through her in a padded cell. #2-When she first lays eyes on Billy Dee and is carried out of the nightclub. #3- The "Good morning Heartache" scene at her birthday party at the club #4-The scene where she attacks Billy Dee in the bathroom, because he won't give her her dope #5- When Piano man is beaten to death #6-When she gets the call that her mother died,while she was in the middle of getting a fix..I COULD go on. People who dismiss this film for being standard Hollywood fare are really not doing this film justice. There is really nothing standard about it. It depicted several stages of the life of Lady Day..And as we know her life was anything but standard fare...