The Sweet Smell of Success and DOA

It was, at first, difficult to distance myself from the story lines in each of the films we watched this week. It was so easy to just sit back and enjoy the story, to forget that I was suppossed to be watching it as an active participant rather than just a spectator of dramatic action. The technological advancements in film make it so easy to just enjoy the show. But, fear not, the wee academic in me won out in the end--I hope.

My first--almost instinctual--reaction was that the movies were merely more examples of how film portrays jazz as being in the midst of events of questionable morale. In that restpect, the films brought to mind the "Sin in Syncopation" article we read earlier on in the semester. Although, as we've mentioned in class, the article takes an extremist view against jazz music, the films we've watched so far certainly don't help to remedy the situation--DOA and Sweet Smell of Success included. In DOA the jazz club facilitates a murder. In the Sweet Smell of Success, it seems that individuals of questionable character are a jazz club's regulars.

However, upon closer analysis, it must be noted that the actual jazz musician in Sweet Smell of Success is the embodiment of honor and goodness in the film, complicating my previous, too-neat-and-easy assumption. Thejazz guitarist is the good guy, the guy with the wholesome morals, willing to stick by his convictions and take the consequences, unwilling to be part of anything remotely crooked. It can be assumed that the girl in the film leaves the easy life, a life of glamour and comfort, for a life as part of the jazz scene, in this particular case, a life where all that is goodness, honor, and ideals govern.

DOA, on the other hand... Well, you've got that one scene that takes place in the jazz club, right? It's the pivotal scene in the story and what's going on?... A married woman has too much to drink and is now hitting on another man right in front of her husband. There's the crazy man that we're told is intoxicated not by drink but by the music itself. And, of course, a man is murdered and he doen't even know it. What is this saying about jazz music? Is it a kind of drug? Can it only lead to your own destruction? It certainly doesn't seem to say that it's good for the soul. It should also be noted that the film seems to portray the jazz consumer as being a little off his rocker. Jazzies--those swingin' weirdos.