NYJFF ’18: Sammy Davis Jr—I’ve Gotta Be Me

Jazz fans and hardcore cabaret connoisseurs can still enjoy their favorite musicians in clubs, but Sammy Davis Jr might be the last headliner who could lure average folks into a nightclub. You can bet he always made it worth their while. He is one of the few entertainers who found success in film, television, the recording industry, Broadway, and Las Vegas casinos. Yet, in this day and age, he strikes many as an awkward anachronism, despite his documented popularity and gutsy activism. Davis gets his due for the trailblazing social significance of his life and career in Sam Pollard’s Sammy Davis Jr: I’ve Gotta Be Me (trailer here), which screens during this year’s New York Jewish Film Festival.

At the age of seven, Davis justified all of W.C. Fields’ warnings by up-staging the great Ethel Waters in Rufus Jones for President. Ever since then, he was in show business, aside from an unpleasant stint in the military. That all probably fits with the narrative you expected, but Pollard opens with Davis’s literal embrace of Pres. Nixon and his 1972 re-election campaign. Davis took a lot of flak for it, but he stood his ground and largely won over his critics. However, during the course of the film, we come to understand how he reached that point.

In fact, Pollard does a nice job of balancing considerations of Davis as a performer, activist, patriot, and hipster icon. He forthrightly addresses JFK’s instruction to drop Davis’s performance from the inaugural ball. Conversely, Nixon also gets due credit for inviting the first African American to stay overnight in the Lincoln bedroom. That was Davis.

However, the assorted commentators do not really get the full context of their friendship. Nixon was a lifelong friend of Lionel Hampton, going back to his first congressional campaign and formed a fast friendship with Duke Ellington, after his 70^th birthday appearance at the White House. Maybe Nixon really wasn’t racist—he just preferred people who were older, more conservative, and overcame mean circumstance early in life, just like himself.

It is also disappointing Pollard could not shoe-horn in consideration of Davis’s film A Man Called Adam, because it really is fascinating. Portraying a trumpet player transparently modeled on Miles Davis, SDJ mentors a young musician played by Frank Sinatra Jr and humiliates his sleazy booking agent played by fellow Rat-packer, Peter Lawford. Mel Torme plays himself—and he’s great, while Louis Armstrong depicts an analogue of himself in a heartbreakingly poignant turn.

Frankly, it is depressing how many of Davis’s contemporaries are also gone, but Pollard features talking head segments with several former associates and friends like Quincy Jones and Diahann Carroll. Without question, the most powerful memories are those of former lover Kim Novak and friend-and-mentor Jerry Lewis.

Gotta Be Me will inspire nostalgia for those who remember Davis for his Newly-Bricusse hits and campy appearances in films like the original Cannonball Run. It will also lead to greater appreciation of Davis as an activist and advocate (pro-Civil Rights, anti-war, pro-Nixon). He was complicated, as well as multi-talented. Highly recommended, Sammy Davis Jr: I’ve Gotta Be Me screens this Sunday (1/14) at the Walter Reade, as part of the 2018 NYJFF.

Sundance Shorts: Rat Pack Rat & Pleasure

They are extreme professions, but you will not see reality shows about them on the History Channel. The E! Channel, maybe. Neither protagonist of will have a typical day at the office. One celebrity impersonator will also get stuck with his worst request ever in Todd Rohal’s Rat Pack Rat (the more highly recommended of the two), which screened at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival.

Dennis looks worn down and frail, but the Sammy Davis, Jr. impersonator can still turn on the Candyman for his Craigslist clients. This will be a tough one though. His command performance will be the birthday present for an adolescent Rat Pack fanatic wasting away from a terminal condition.

Helmed by The Catechism Cataclysm’s Rohal, Rat probably generated a lot of nervous laughter during its screenings from those expecting similar lunacy, but it is a distinctly sad and sober film. Eddie Rouse is fantastic as “Sammy,” conveying all his weariness and regret, while also evoking some of the pathos of the original Davis. It would be a fascinating film to see in dialogue with Armando Bo’s The Last Elvis, a previous Sundance selection that also explores how impersonators relate to their famous inspirations.

The protagonist of Ninja Thyberg’s Pleasure also works in show business, in a far more professional capacity. Right, she does blue movies (always a mainstay of festival programming). Initially, it is a typical workday for Marie, but there is buzz one of her colleague will shoot a maneuver that sounds like it would defy the laws of physics, but evidently happens from time to time.

Pleasure is sexually charged, but not sensual.  It analyzes the day-to-day details of her business with clinical detachment. Probably the most intriguing element of the film is her relationship with Samson, a co-worker who clearly has eyes for her, notwithstanding what they do all day, often together.  Yet, for Marie, he represents more of a Survivor style alliance. It is probably the only subtle aspect of the film, nicely turned by Jenny Hutton and Christian Brandin.

While neither film is what you might call fun, both create a distinctive vibe and Rat Pack Rat is strangely affecting.  Both should expect considerable play on the festival circuit, given Pleasure’s subject matter and Rohal’s cult reputation, following their screenings (as part of separate shorts programs) at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

Jazz Score: A Man Called Adam

As cool as Saul Bass’s titles are for Anatomy of a Murder, this film has them beat, thanks to an opening sequence from the Hubley Studios, renown for their jazz animation. While Benny Carter’s soundtrack for A Man Called Adam might not best Ellington’s classic score, it is at least competitive. Screening Wednesday as part of the Jazz Score series at the MoMA, Adam is an overlooked classic of jazz cinema.

Sammy Davis, Jr. plays Adam Johnson, a superstar jazz trumpeter, who despite the occasional crooning, is clearly inspired by Miles Davis. Arrogant and uncompromising, Johnson bows to no man, but is not overtly political. He is more interested in assuaging his guilt over the accident that killed his wife and child with drink, drugs, and cheap sex. Fronting a band fast losing its patience with his self-destructive behavior, he has few meaningful relationships, besides a long suffering friend played by Ossie Davis and an earnest young white student played by Frank Sinatra, Jr. Yes, Junior, and he is darn good in the role too.

Adam is a film with a plethora of interesting relationships, including the Rat-Packers, Davis, Sinatra Jr., and Peter Lawford as Johnson’s stone cold evil booking agent Manny. There is no ring-a-ding-ding in the scenes between Davis and Lawford, just the characters’ pure contempt. Cicely Tyson plays (the fictional Miles Davis) Johnson’s love interest who tries to straighten his life out, with mixed results. Fifteen years later she would marry the real Miles Davis, and is generally credited with stabilizing his then chaotic life.

Davis, Sinatra, and Lawford are all great in the film, but the best performance comes from Louis Armstrong playing Willie “Sweet Daddy” Ferguson, essentially a fictionalized version of himself. He has two dynamite musical features with Tyree Gleen and his All-Stars of the time, but he is truly touching in his dramatic scenes, playing a man who might be respected, even beloved, but who realizes time has passed him by. At a Downbeat party, after “All That Jazz,” a killing swinger from Mel Tormé (yes, the Velvet Fog), Johnson finds the shy Ferguson sitting off in a corner. The kids at the party are nice enough he tells Johnson, but it “seems like the people don’t know what to say to me.” “Maybe it’s just that they don’t know what to say to a genius,” he responds, in a scene of cinematic perfection.

There is indeed fantastic music in Adam, composed and conducted by Benny Carter. In addition to Armstrong and Tormé, the Johnson combo performs some great music as well, with Nat Adderley getting screen credit for dubbing Johnson’s cornet. Kai Winding also appears as himself, as a member of Johnson’s band, with Junior Mance fulfilling the piano duties behind the scenes.

There are scenes in Adam addressing issues of race and music that cut like a knife. Yet, the swinging music makes it all go down sweet as candy. At times swinging, at times sad, Adam is neglected cinematic jewel, containing the best film work from everyone involved. It screens tomorrow and Saturday at MoMA.