Mr. Entertainment
FILM: Louis Prima: The Wildest!
DIRECTOR: Don McGlynn
STARRING: Louis Prima, Keely Smith
GRADE: B
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ANOTHER FINE MESS: ETHAN HUNT (TOM CRUISE) FINDS HIMSELF CAUGHT BETWEEN A ROCK
AND THE BIG WIDE OPEN IN MISSION:IMPOSSIBLE-2.
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Don McGlynn's documentary Louis Prima: The Wildest! is an excellent
musical remembrance of the legendary native-son trumpeter and vocalist.
Utilizing family photographs from Prima's youth, interviews with friends and
business associates, and astonishing film and video clips from the great
entertainer's long and glorious career, McGlynn traces Prima's rise from the
streets and small clubs in the French Quarter to the Famous Door at the height
of New York's jazz age, to the big band era as a contemporary of Benny Goodman
and Glenn Miller, to his landmark performances in Las Vegas and on to The Ed
Sullivan Show. The film places him on the Mount Rushmore of
Italian-American performers along with Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett, while
music historians break down the strategy of his act in which he generously
shared the limelight with saxophonist Sam Butera and wives Keely Smith and Gia
Maione, all the while milking comedy out of almost every number, no matter how
serious the lyric.
McGlynn's work largely succeeds in recalling Prima's storied energy
and undeniable charisma. I hungered, however, for some reflection on Prima's
connections with the great African-American jazz men who were his
contemporaries and musical soulmates. Amazingly, the film doesn't even mention
Louis Armstrong, though the two men came from the same town and were about the
same age. Elsewhere, I would have liked a greater understanding of the
off-stage Prima. His onstage chemistry with Smith was so great that we wonder
what demons ultimately destroyed their marriage.
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