Lady Sings the Blues

source: Lady Sings the Blues

Lady Sings the Blues

First off this is NOT a factual biography of Billie Holiday...a lot of her dark side is ignored. That aside, this is a pretty good movie. It follows Holiday from a little girl all the way up to her debut at Carnegie Hall. Along the way she deals with drug addiction, rape, prostitution etc etc. That's the big problem with the movie--it's too depressing. Holiday is a victim again and again and again. It wears one down seeing this woman just torn apart over and over. Also, the movie is too long--2 1/2 hours. Still, it's worth seeing for Diana Ross performance (Oscar-nominated). She sings like Holiday and (sometimes) looks like her. She never strikes a wrong note is her acting--she's letter perfect in every scene. So watch it for her and the music. Otherwise, it's pretty depressing. Also, there's a good supporting performance by Richard Pryor.

This was a wonderful star-making vehicle for Diana Ross but the worst thing that could have happened to the legend of Billie Holiday. Billie was big, bold, gutsy and full of life. Diana Ross plays her as a sweet aenimic victim. The look is great and the music, not bad, considering. But it has zero to do with Billie Holiday and it takes a lot of nerve to try and improve on the original.

To say that "Lady Sings The Blues" (from 1972) could've been a whole lot better than it was would truly be an understatement. Starring former lead singer of the Supremes, Diana Ross (in her screen debut) - "Lady Sings The Blues" (with its overlong 143-minute running time) was (IMO) a badly realized movie-production that certainly left a whole lot to be desired. And, finally - Speaking frankly about Diana Ross as the leading character - I, personally, thought that she was grossly miscast in her part. And, with that said - Ross certainly proved that her overall emotional range was extremely limited. Yep. She sure lacked the acting chops required to convincingly play her role.

Diana Ross stars in this pseudo-biographical film about the great singer Billie Holiday, who died in 1959. Although the film is clichéd and melodramatic in many ways, Ross overcomes these shortcomings with a performance that captures the tragedy of Holiday's life and conveys the enormity of her singing talent. There are many classics crammed into the film but none so well done as "Good Morning Heartache" and "God Bless the Child." ---from Musicals on the Silver Screen, American Library Association. 2013

I would be the first to agree that it was standard fare as far as a musical bio...and Cabaret was a superior film. But Diana Ross' performance was a stunning film debut. This is the kind of overlooked performance that makes it so clear that pure ability is not what the Academy Awards are all about. I tend to think really great acting always sneaks above the voting members scope of being able to truly reccognize great acting. But anyone who hasn't seen Diana Ross' performance in Lady is in for a treat. To think that she went through so many transitions within the film: from youngster, to a drug addict, to a grand singer...it's a truly great performance.

Diana Ross is quite superb as jazz singer Billie Holiday, but even so this clichéd bio-drama of the drug-addicted torch diva from the 1930s is hardly convincing. After an enjoyably overwrought prologue (with Holiday brutally incarcerated like a gangster out of a Jimmy Cagney flick), the movie sputters along familiar territory, and the burnished, brackish look of the picture--probably meant for prestige--is a visual downer. The tone wavers at times (a comedic sequence with Scatman Crothers is either a distraction or a relief), and the film's flashback structure is a cheap gimmick (you know you're in for it when the filmmakers start super-imposing headlines across the screen--it's movie shorthand for "we're running out of time"). Ross is a spectacular drawing card, but this vehicle for her debuting acting talents leaves much to be desired. **1/2 from ****