Too Late Blues

With this second feature, John Cassavetes married the brio of his blistering debut, Shadows, with the sleek style of the studio system. The results are successful, although the director himself later branded himself a sellout. He’s sure to have sympathised with his film’s hero, Ghost (played by Bobby Darin, all baby fat and pathos), a fun-loving jazz pianist who trades musical integrity and the loyalty of his bandmates for the riches of the LA club circuit.

The film hangs on three knockout performances. As well as Darin, there’s Stella Stevens as ‘Princess’, brittle and sexy as a fragile wannabe singer who Ghost falls for, and Everett Chambers, delightfully Mephistophelian as a music agent who wants to control both artists. Using searing closeups and expressionistic flourishes, Cassavetes and his cast bring fizz and feeling to the melodrama. He would spend the rest of his directing career making freewheeling indies, but this Faustian-pack with Hollywood is far from hellish. [Jamie Dunn]