A real mish-mash of a movie which within its sub-90 minute running time contains enough characters and plot-lines to carry at least three films.
It starts off straightforwardly enough as talented pianist Richard Whorf's Jigger character puts together with his mates a hot swinging band who promptly hit the road looking for a break. Included in their ranks are Priscilla Lane as their vivacious girl-singer, her errant husband, trumpeter Jack Carson and mile-a-minute clarinettist Elia Kazan.
So it rolls along for the first third like a good-time, grown-up Rooney and Garland feature until, that is, the band crosses paths with escaped gangster Lloyd Nolan, who after initially repaying their collective kindness by robbing them of the little money they have, later relents and promises them a gig at his old haunt, where he reunites with his old flame Betty Field, shifty accomplice Sam and sad-sack drunken barman Brad, none of whom were expecting or are exactly appreciative of his return.
After Field tries and fails to lure Nolan back she eventually settles on Whorf and entices him away with her to the big city where he gets a job in a chintzy, fancy-dan band, all dress-suits and shiny shoes but who play the most appalling music, indeed I still can't decide whether the band's featured number "Sez You, Sez Me" is deliberately awful just to highlight how low Jigger has sunk, but believe me, it's about the worst musical number I've ever heard in a vintage Hollywood feature.
Anyway, there are a number of unlikely twists and turns from there till the end, taking in murder, domestic tragedy, a fist-fight and an automobile smash before the film leaves you breathlessly back where it started as if nothing had happened in between.
Director Anatole Litvak just about prevents the whole thing from going off the rails pretty much by just ploughing on regardless. Don Siegel contributes the innovative montage sequences, a typical Litvak trait, although he does overdo them a little this time. You also have to excuse or at least accept some un-P. C. treatment of a partially disabled character but overall, despite having more crossing-points than the New York metro, I was won over in the end by the movie's energy and drive.
I liked Whorf, an actor I've not come across before, who comes over like a cross between Dick Powell and Alan Ladd, which is exactly what his part demands, Lane brings her customary brightness and can hold a tune too while Field makes a good impression as the gangster's moll / femme fatale of the piece.
Best known today for containing the Oscar-nominated title song written by Harold Arlen - Johnny Mercer (and that one comic-clinker number apart, the music is excellent throughout) this curate's egg of a musical/gangster/noir movie is worth delving into.
