Lady Sings the Blues
by Sidney J. Furie
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Billy Dee Williams, Diana Ross, James T. Callahan, Paul Hampton, Richard PryorDirector: Sidney J. Furie
Brand: PARAMOUNT HOME VIDEO
Producer: Berry Gordy
Producer: Brad Dexter
Writer: Billie Holiday
Writer: Chris Clark
Writer: Suzanne De Passe
Writer: Terence McCloy
Writer: William Dufty
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; English (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Collector's Edition, Color, DVD, NTSC, Special Edition, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.66:1
Running Time: 144 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-11-08
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Paramount
Movie Reviews of Lady Sings the Blues
Movie Review: Ain't No Mountain High Enough For Diana Ross
Summary: 5 Stars
Soul music legend Diana Ross broke down many racial barriers between blacks and whites and opened doors for many other black entertainers. The oscar-nominated, critically-acclaimed Lady Sings The Blues (1972) is a prime example of her remarkable achievements.
Lady Sings The Blues (1972) is (very) loosley drawn from Billie Holidays startling autobiography (co-written by William Duffy) of the same name though as i'm sure many of you are aware lots of the incidents that take place in the movie are completely fictionalised, re-worked supposedly for dramatic clarity. Die-hard Billie Holiday fans were up in arms for the films often fictionalised account of the tortured Jazz legend but they all rightly joined in to praise Diana Ross's truly dynamic and riviting silver screen debut. Incredibly Diana Ross had never before taken an acting lesson in her life and her only acting credit before this was a guest apperance in the U.S T.V series, Tarzan, playing a singing nun as well as some impressive comedy sketches in her 1971 television special Diana! (which included an amusing sketch with a very young Michael Jackson). Critics (wrongfully) doubted almost immediatley that she could truly carry out this challenging role. However once the film was released, critics were silenced and astounded by Diana's masterful playing.
The film follows Billie Holiday (born Eleanora Fagin) as a teenager where she worked as a prostitute in a brothel run by her mothers friend and chronicles her rise and fall of the days greatest Jazz/Blues singer. It largely focuses on her complex relationship with her husband, Louis Mckay, which is superbly played by Billy Dee Williams and details her horrific and physical decline into heroin addiction. There is also a fantastic supporting turn from Richard Pryor as the Piano Man who really bites into his part and makes the most of every scene he's in.
However the ultimate fact here is that Diana Ross is the star and she is just amazing! Watching her play those harrowing scenes as Billie goes through cold turkey from her heroin addiction, makes you appreciate her deep, raw talent. Her acting is purley instinctive and as one critic accuratley pointed out that wherever the eyes of the film makers may have been, the heart of it's star was certainly in the right place.
Diana doesn't once try and emulate Holidays vocal style, instead making the songs surprisingly her own. She completley escaped and shook off the traditional Motown sound and never does a Supremes-type number. What emerges in her vocal performances on the films soundtrack is some of her strongest and most passionate work. Her diction and phrasing is so precise and when you hear her sing such quintessential jazz classics such as Strange Fruit, God Bless The Child, Lover Man (Oh Where Can You Be), Good Morning Heartcache and the tear-jerking, My Man, you just get goose bumps from her almost stark delivery.
What Lady Sings The Blues often draws upon is racial predujice, a fact which Diana could certainly relate too as she began her career (during one of Motown's early tours around America their coach was shot at). There are some very emotionally moving scenes as Billie saw a black man hung from a tree during one of her early tours. It sends shivers down the spine when she sings Strange Fruit which had been based on that horrific occurence Billie had witnessed. Diana also projects the unhappy and vulnreable side to Billie which some didn't know about and plays it out with such conviction and gritty realism. The Ku Klux Klan sequences are also masterfully done and Diana yet again proves what a dynamite actress she is.
The whole film is made highly effective by the thirties ambience such as the nightclubs and drug culture which are superbly and convincingly evoked.
Diana Ross certainly deserved her oscar nomination for Best Actress and it's a shame she didn't win as it was such a remarkable debut but receiving the nomination in the first place was an acheivement alone and she certainly deserves to be proud of her performance in the film.
Ian Phillips
September 2006
Summary of Lady Sings the Blues
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