- Awards
- 2 wins
Louis Prima
- Self
- (archive footage)
Woody Herman
- Self
- (archive footage)
Boyd Raeburn
- Self
- (archive footage)
Tony Randall
- Self
- (archive footage)
Pee Wee Russell
- Self
- (archive footage)
Storyline
Did you know
- ConnectionsEdited from The Wildest (1958)
Featured review
Just a Gigalo
(1999, dir., Don McGlynn, 85 min.) Thoroughly enjoyable biopic of the entertainer (1910-1978), entirely unobjective and overly adulatory, but redeemed by generous helpings of Luigi's onstage jumpin, jivin, an wailin to da max. Of interest to those unfamiliar with, or even averse to, his music because it captures the gist of the kitsch of the various eras through which Prima's career passed, with engrossing footage of turn-of-the-century New Orleans, Luis' hometown, including Mardi Gras; 1930's New York, including the jazz club scene; 1940's L.A., then amazingly mostly parkland; and Las Vegas from its fledgling days in the '50's to its rococo neon explosion of the '60's. Arguably, just the sight of Keely Smith's torpedo tits, anatomic correlate on the female body to the big fins on the cars of those days, is alone worth the price of admission.
Talking heads include many near and dear to Luigi: wife-singers Keely Smith & Gia Maione; his manager and life-long buddy, a scar-faced smokey-voiced cat who looks like he just stepped out of the Italian-American Club in Bensonhurst to ice someone; mainstay tenor man Sam Butera; Prima's son and daughter; and even Woody Herman; none of whose words say anything really new or unexpected, but whose faces and voices say more than enough.
The bio is very much an "official" version, that is, respectful--chuckling in admiration of Prima's endless marital infidelities--and a bit sketchy, jumping here and there, hitting mostly highlights, but skimpy on intimate details, the nuts and bolts of finances, or juicy gossip. One odd note: against images of Hitler shaking Mussolini's hand, the narrator explains that while Italian-Americans were "dumbfounded" by the alliance, Prima publicly stuck to his Italian roots without apology. This raises more questions than it answers, awkward questions that wouldn't have even come up of their own had this not been mentioned, namely, what exactly were Prima's affiliations with fascist Italy during W.W.II?
(For those whose entire lives are referenced by movies and TV only, Prima's unseen presence, Prima as cultural phenomenon, propels most of the movie Big Night; and dancers clad in Gap trousers hopped to one of his tunes in a recent TV ad.)
Clinical lowdown: The musical fecundity of New Orleans gifted Prima with a solid competency in jazz and experience in stage entertainment that served him his entire life. He was propelled from the orchestra pit onto the stage not as some jazz prodigy or innovator, by no means a Louis Armstrong or Sidney Bechet, but as a vivacious, audacious musical performer eager to find whatever it took to please his audience. He never deviated from his rock-solid business sense of what the public wanted, even if it meant sinking to what some regarded as vulgar antics. Sometime during the 30's he fused popular Italian songs to his already flamboyant rocking, swinging jazz act and caught fire. Of all places, he launched New York's famous 52nd Street jazz scene, at least according to this film (I remain skeptical). He then did the same first in LA in the 1940's, making friendships and business contacts with biggies like Disney, and finally in Vegas in the 50's, after a long stretch of down-and-out one nighters, single-handedly rocketing Sin City to its glories as an international musical venue (again I remain skeptical).
On the sobering side, as likable as he is, as much fun as he is to watch, as warm and giving as his act was, he still remains one more example of how whites profited out of proportion to their talent from exploiting black music: compared to the Basie or Ellington organizations, his coevals, Prima is a pimple. While Basie was struggling in the 1930's under the weight of a blatantly exploitive contract with Decca, slogging through grimy low-paying one-nighters, Prima was the toast of the town. Life has its ironies, especially when it touches
Sadly, for the last three years of Luigi's life he lay in a semi-comatose state following unsuccessful surgery for a brain tumor, a cruel end to such a lively and extroverted life. His tombstone in New Orleans bears the ironically accurate self-description: "When the end comes, I know, they'll say 'Just a gigolo.' Life goes on without me."
Talking heads include many near and dear to Luigi: wife-singers Keely Smith & Gia Maione; his manager and life-long buddy, a scar-faced smokey-voiced cat who looks like he just stepped out of the Italian-American Club in Bensonhurst to ice someone; mainstay tenor man Sam Butera; Prima's son and daughter; and even Woody Herman; none of whose words say anything really new or unexpected, but whose faces and voices say more than enough.
The bio is very much an "official" version, that is, respectful--chuckling in admiration of Prima's endless marital infidelities--and a bit sketchy, jumping here and there, hitting mostly highlights, but skimpy on intimate details, the nuts and bolts of finances, or juicy gossip. One odd note: against images of Hitler shaking Mussolini's hand, the narrator explains that while Italian-Americans were "dumbfounded" by the alliance, Prima publicly stuck to his Italian roots without apology. This raises more questions than it answers, awkward questions that wouldn't have even come up of their own had this not been mentioned, namely, what exactly were Prima's affiliations with fascist Italy during W.W.II?
(For those whose entire lives are referenced by movies and TV only, Prima's unseen presence, Prima as cultural phenomenon, propels most of the movie Big Night; and dancers clad in Gap trousers hopped to one of his tunes in a recent TV ad.)
Clinical lowdown: The musical fecundity of New Orleans gifted Prima with a solid competency in jazz and experience in stage entertainment that served him his entire life. He was propelled from the orchestra pit onto the stage not as some jazz prodigy or innovator, by no means a Louis Armstrong or Sidney Bechet, but as a vivacious, audacious musical performer eager to find whatever it took to please his audience. He never deviated from his rock-solid business sense of what the public wanted, even if it meant sinking to what some regarded as vulgar antics. Sometime during the 30's he fused popular Italian songs to his already flamboyant rocking, swinging jazz act and caught fire. Of all places, he launched New York's famous 52nd Street jazz scene, at least according to this film (I remain skeptical). He then did the same first in LA in the 1940's, making friendships and business contacts with biggies like Disney, and finally in Vegas in the 50's, after a long stretch of down-and-out one nighters, single-handedly rocketing Sin City to its glories as an international musical venue (again I remain skeptical).
On the sobering side, as likable as he is, as much fun as he is to watch, as warm and giving as his act was, he still remains one more example of how whites profited out of proportion to their talent from exploiting black music: compared to the Basie or Ellington organizations, his coevals, Prima is a pimple. While Basie was struggling in the 1930's under the weight of a blatantly exploitive contract with Decca, slogging through grimy low-paying one-nighters, Prima was the toast of the town. Life has its ironies, especially when it touches
Sadly, for the last three years of Luigi's life he lay in a semi-comatose state following unsuccessful surgery for a brain tumor, a cruel end to such a lively and extroverted life. His tombstone in New Orleans bears the ironically accurate self-description: "When the end comes, I know, they'll say 'Just a gigolo.' Life goes on without me."
helpful•21
- simuland
- Aug 24, 2000
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Λούι Πρίμα: Ο έξαλλος!
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime1 hour 30 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1
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