PICK OF THE WEEK: LADY SINGS THE BLUES
I had a hard choice to make this week for The Pick. I saw a beautifully made comedy by Billy Wilder, The Fortune Cookie. Then there was the unforgettable Edward James Olmos film American Me, a brutal look at the rise of the Mexican Mafia. But in the end, I went with the film that moved me most, Lady Sings the Blues.
Walk The Line did well this year, and Ray did well last year. The music biopic has become a standard vehicle for a studio to cash in at the box office and to gain Oscar interest. In 1972, the Oscar race was fierce, and Lady Sings the Blues got the blunt end of the statue.
Diana Ross shone as Billie Holiday, coming up from humble beginnings and making her way to the top. There was a lot of focus on her heroin use, as it was her demise. I thought the formula was inappropriate for the movie Ray, wherein Ray Charles’ heroin use is given equal or greater weight to his music. While Billie Holiday was cut down in the prime of life, Ray Charles kicked his habit and had many productive years throughout the rest of his long life. Ross sang her own songs, as do her contemporary counterparts, but few could give the performance she gave.
Billy Dee Williams, unfortunately only known to most people as Lando Carlrissian and the spokesperson for Colt 45 malt liquor, played the male lead in a follow up to the previous year’s Brian’s Song, which may be the best made for TV film ever, and before his part in Bingo Long’s Travelling All-Stars and Motor Kings, a rare look at the world of barnstorming baseball teams in the days of the segregated major leagues. Williams turns in these fine performances, then takes a role in The Empire Strikes Back, but then his career takes a downturn to films like Snoop Dogg’s Hood of Horror.