Jazz hipster and entrepreneur Rodney Hamilton (Richard Attenborough) is throwing a surprise anniversary bash at his spacious East End loft for black pianist/band leader Aurelius Rex (Paul Harris) and his Caucasian wife Delia (Marti Stevens), who gave up a promising career as an acclaimed jazz vocalist. The couple are celebrating one year of marriage and still deeply in love but trouble is brewing. Johnnie Cousin (Patrick McGoohan), the drummer in Rex's band, sees the party as an opportunity to lay the groundwork for his master plan - to break away from Rex, form a band of his own, acquire Rodney as his financier/promoter, and lure Delia back into the limelight as his featured vocalist. As the evening progresses and the party starts to swing, Johnnie begins dividing and conquering Rex's close knit entourage with false intimations of Delia's infidelity with Cass (Keith Michell), Rex's close friend and band manager. The lies and misunderstandings pile up, poisoning the atmosphere and driving Rex into a jealous rage until he....

If all of this sounds a bit familiar, it should be. Except for the contemporary setting, All Night Long is a variation on William Shakespeare's Othello with the Moor of Venice now the hottest thing going in the London jazz scene. The dialogue, however, is not from the Bard's pen but more in keeping with the beatnik and Behop slang of the period ("Oh baby, you're huffin' and you're puffin' over nothin'"). Released in England in 1961, the film was unfairly maligned by many British critics who were Shakespeare purists and dismissed All Night Long as a travesty of the original with a "happy" ending - sacrilege! - and the added gimmick of featuring such well known jazz artists as Charles Mingus, Dave Brubeck and John Dankworth. Gimmick or not, the movie is worth a look if only for the exhilarating musical numbers and a rare look at Mingus and Brubeck in their only appearance in a dramatic film. Even more compelling is Patrick McGoohan's frenzied, hyperactive performance as the scheming sociopath Johnnie Cousin.

Director Basil Dearden, who had just completed the controversial, gay-themed melodrama Victim (1961) starring Dirk Bogarde, treats All Night Long as a film noir and builds the tension slowly and tautly until it explodes in the inevitable violent climax. Edward Scaife's cinematography perfectly exploits the multi-leveled spaciousness of Attenborough's Docklands warehouse loft as a playground for the characters' emotions to run wild. The film also anticipates by two or three decades the redevelopment of this section of London's East End into fashionable lofts and shops.

All Night Long is also notable for a screenplay by Paul Jarrico (using the pseudonym Peter Achilles here) and for featuring Betsy Blair in a supporting role, both of whom had been recently blacklisted by the American film industry as communist sympathizers.

This certainly wasn't the first time a Shakespeare play was reimagined and updated for modern tastes; MacBeth had been retooled as the gangster melodrama Joe MacBeth in 1955 and The Taming of the Shrew provided the basis for the musical romance Kiss Me Kate in 1953 to name a few. All Night Long is certainly one of the more entertaining attempts to place a fifteenth century play in a modern context and no mere novelty. Patrick McGoohan obviously felt a strong connection to the play since he agreed to make his directorial film debut a decade later with Catch My Soul (1974), a rock 'n' roll musical version of Othello starring Richie Havens, Tony Joe White, Delaney & Bonnie, and Billy Joe Royal.

Producers: Michael Relph, Bob Roberts
Director: Basil Dearden
Screenplay: Nel King, Paul Jarrico (originally as Peter Achilles); William Shakespeare (play "Othello" uncredited)
Cinematography: Edward Scaife
Art Direction: Ray Simm
Music: Philip Green
Film Editing: John D. Guthridge
Cast: Patrick McGoohan (Johnnie Cousin), Keith Michell (Cass Michaels), Betsy Blair (Emily), Paul Harris (Aurelius Rex), Marti Stevens (Delia Lane), Richard Attenborough (Rod Hamilton), Bernard Braden (Lou Berger), Harry Towb (Phales), Maria Velasco (Benny), Dave Brubeck (piano), John Dankworth (alto sax), Charles Mingus (bass), Bert Courtley (trumpet), Keith Christie (trombone), Ray Dempsey (guitar), Allan Ganley (drums), Tubby Hayes (tenor sax and vibes), Barry Morgan (bongos), Kenny Napper (bass), Colin Purbrook (piano), John Scott (alto sax and flute).
BW-113m.

by Jeff Stafford