Hello, this is 251, two pianists, five minutes, one subject. And today our subject is the Basil Dearden film All Night Long. My name's Simon Whiteside. And my name's Nick Tomlin, and this is 251.

All Night Long was a, I guess you could call it a British neo-noir drama released in 1962, directed by Basil Dearden, who later I think went on to direct for Ealing Studios, who was one of the Ealing people.

And it starred Patrick McGowan, obviously of the Prisoner fame later, Richard Attenborough. And the interesting thing, as far as we're concerned, is it features cameos by many jazz musicians,

including Johnny Dankworth's in it, Tubby Hayes is in it, and also some Americans, Charles Mingus and Dave Brubeck, all men. They all make kind of cameo appearances.

The story is by Nell Kempf and Paul Jericho, and it's kind of an updated version of Othello, but set in 1960s London. And it sort of takes place over one evening.

It's like a party, they're throwing a party. So it really just takes place in an apartment, the whole thing. So it's kind of almost like a filmed play in a way. Yeah, and the plot obviously is kind of based on Othello.

So it involves this drummer. It's a man played by McGowan, who is, I guess, kind of the Iago figure, trying to make Rex, who's the Othello figure, who's a bandleader.

He tries to make him believe his wife is having an affair with her friend, so that he'll leave her and she'll be free to join his new band. That's quite an extreme way of going about it, but that's what happens.

Could have just asked. Exactly. Yeah, I mean, it kind of received mixed reviews, although it's kind of,

his reputation has, I guess, improved. I think it's kind of like a cult. I think you could probably call it a cult film now, really. Yeah, it's quite, it's a bit Shakespearean in moments.

It's a bit overactive sometimes. Yeah, it's a bit creaky, the whole thing, really. I mean, it's kind of entertaining, but yeah. I mean, some of the performances are okay,

but it's not brilliant drama, really, I guess. But it's more, I guess, it's more the idea, which is interesting, of setting Othello in this 1960s, his apartment's having all these jazz musicians involved.

And isn't it, didn't Dankworth write the score and his band's on stage? Yeah, I think, yes, his band plays. Like the main band.

Yeah, the main band, yeah. But then, yeah, it's quite weird where sort of the protagonist turns up in his house and then, for some reason, Charles Mingus is practising the bass there.

Yeah, yeah, it is kind of quite unusual. Dave Brubeck pops up as well. I wonder how, I just wonder whether they were just, do you think they were just in London at the time?

They were probably just playing at Ronnie's or something. Yeah, playing at Ronnie's and they kind of, all right, we need some jazz musicians, let's get these guys. I mean, they could have booked them, but it would seem logical,

because a film like that would take several months to shoot. So they'd probably just say to Ronnie Scott, who's coming, and can we talk to them? It's very unlikely they would have actually booked

Charles Mingus to come over just to shoot. Yeah, especially for the little that he does in it. It feels very bolted on to me, that one. Yeah, yeah.

The stuff with the Dankworth band doesn't, it feels quite integral to the whole thing. Yeah, yeah. Obviously, because the two characters are in the,

the characters are in the... They sort of play themselves in the actual film. Yeah, but the drummer obviously is not the real drummer. No, and I think, I had to kind of look into it,

I think he kind of learnt the drums a bit in Magoon, or he could play the drums a bit. So there are some bits where he's actually playing, and it kind of looks like he's playing,

so I think he could play a bit, maybe, and then, I don't know, maybe somebody else, they probably, you know, dubbed somebody else playing as well. I'm not exactly sure how they did it.

Well, the way you normally do it is, because actors like to talk, you play, you mime to a playback, so the room's quiet and the actors can be recorded

if there's dialogue over it. But when there's not dialogue over it, you normally record it in the room. I see, okay.

You play along with it in the room. I see, I see. And that sound's never used. I see, I see.

You lay over. If it's pre-recorded, you'd lay back the pre-record. Yeah. If it's not yet recorded,

in those days it wouldn't, it would have had to have been recorded, because there's no electronic versions available. Yeah, yeah.

I've watched it a couple of times, and I do quite like it. I do find it a little bit melodramatic, should we say. Yeah, I think melodramatic's a good word.

But it's an interesting one, you know, if you fancy a movie. So, my name's Nick Tomalin. Goodbye.

And my name's Simon Whiteside. Goodbye. Just a little reminder that you can find us on social media.

On Instagram, we're 2-5-1. You can search for that, and we'll come up. We're also on Facebook under the same name, and we have a group there where you can leave messages.

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There's no cost, and you just put in your name and address, and then you're signed up. But also, we've been listed, haven't we, Nick?

Yes, on the Feedspot website, we've been listed as one of the top ten jazz piano podcasts. I think we're number three at the moment. Woo-hoo!

So, yeah, that's feedspot.com, basically. Check them out, and we'll put it in the show notes. Thanks for listening. Thank you. Goodbye.