Best movies like Pete Kelly's Blues
A jazz-man of the wide-open '20s - caught in the crossfire of its blazing .38s!
A unique, carefully handpicked, selection of the best movies like Pete Kelly's Blues Starring Jack Webb, Janet Leigh, Edmond O'Brien, Peggy Lee, and more. If you liked Pete Kelly's Blues then you may also like: Young Man with a Horn, What Becomes of the Children?, Whiplash, Why Leave Home?, The Wild Party and many more popular movies featured on this list. You can further filter the list even more or get a random selection from the list of similar movies, to make your selection even easier.
In 1927, a Kansas City, Missouri cornet player and his band perform nightly at a seedy speakeasy until a racketeer tries to extort them in exchange for protection.
Pete Kelly's Blues
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What Becomes of the Children?
Get ready for a roller-coaster trip of emotion with this campy collection from the golden age of Hollywood! Originally intended to warn America's youth of the perils of drugs, sex, and alcohol, these outlandish and unintentionally hilarious tales have heartache, tragedy, crime, and even insanity, lurking around every corner!
The Wild Party
Wild girls at a college pay more attention to parties than their classes. But when one party girl, Stella Ames, goes too far at a local bar and gets in trouble, her professor has to rescue her. Gossip linking the two escalates until Stella proves she is decent by shielding an innocent girl and winning the professor's respect.
Wolf Blood
Dick Bannister is the new field boss of the Ford Logging Company, a Canadian logging-crew during a time when conflicts with the powerful Consolidated Lumber Company, a bitter rival company, have turned bloody, like a private war. His boss, Miss Edith Ford, comes to inspect the lumberjack camp, bringing her doctor fiancé with her. Dick is attacked by his rivals and left for dead. His loss of blood is so great that he needs a transfusion, but no human will volunteer, so the surgeon uses a wolf as a source of the blood. Afterwards, Dick begins having dreams where he runs with a pack of phantom wolves, and the rival loggers get killed by wolves. Soon, these facts have spread through the camp. (via YouTube)
New York, New York
An egotistical saxophone player and a young singer meet on V-J Day and embark upon a strained and rocky romance, even as their careers begin a long uphill climb.
Night World
"Happy" MacDonald and his unfaithful wife own a Prohibition era night club. On this eventful night, he is threatened by bootleggers, and the club's star dancer falls in love with a young socialite who drinks to forget a personal tragedy, among other incidents.
On With the Show!
With unpaid actors and staff, the stage show Phantom Sweetheart seems doomed. To complicate matters, the box office takings have been robbed and the leading lady refuses to appear. Can the show be saved?
Orchids and Ermine
Set in New York City, flapper Pink Watson works a telephone operator at a cement factory who dreams of marrying rich. Her constant daydreaming of wealth annoys her fellow workers, and ruins the heart of one of her worshiping colleagues.
The Jazz Singer
A young Jewish man is torn between tradition and individuality when his old-fashioned family objects to his career as a jazz singer. This is the first full length feature film to use synchronized sound, and is the original film musical.
Kansas City
A pair of kidnappings expose the complex power dynamics within the corrupt and unpredictable workings of 1930s Kansas City.
After Midnight
When Joe, a hold-up man, tries to rob Mary, a nightclub hostess, she winds winds up knocking him out. She takes pity on him, however, and nurses him back to health. He decides to go straight and marry her. Mary buys a $1000 Liberty Bond as an investment, while Joe saves up and buys a taxi to start his own business. Then Maisie, Mary's wild and money-crazy sister, shows up, which leads to tragedy.
Alibi
Chick Williams, a prohibition gangster, rejoins his mob soon after being released from prison. When a policeman is murdered during a robbery, he falls under suspicion. The gangster took Joan, a policeman's daughter, to the theater, sneaked out during the intermission to commit the crime, then used her to support his alibi. The detective squad employs its most sophisticated and barbaric techniques, including planting an undercover agent in the gang, to bring him to justice.
The Cotton Club
Harlem's legendary Cotton Club becomes a hotbed of passion and violence as the lives and loves of entertainers and gangsters collide.
The Five Pennies
Dixieland cornetist Red Nichols runs into opposition to his sound, but breaks through to success. He marries a warm, patient woman and even finds time to raise a family. Then tragedy strikes when their daughter contracts polio.
Fancy Baggage
In order to get back some very important papers from her father's business rival, a young woman pretends to be the rival's new secretary. Complications ensue.
Half Marriage
A young couple marries in secret. Judy's afraid her parents won't approve of Dick and she'll lose her generous allowance. Her parents bring her home from the city where she's been studying art and encourage the attentions of Tom, a persistent suitor. Judy and her jealous husband have an argument that leads her back to the city, a drunken, amorous Tom and a tragedy.
Hot Summer Night
An out-of-work reporter (Leslie Nielsen) seeks out a bank robber, and his bride (Colleen Miller) has to rescue him.
Is Everybody Happy?
It is the story of Ted Lewis, popular band leader and clarinettist. The music for the film was written by Harry Akst and Grant Clarke, except for "St. Louis Blues" by W. C. Handy and "Tiger Rag". The film's title comes from Lewis's catchphrase "Is everybody happy?" The film's soundtrack exists on Vitaphone discs preserved at the UCLA Film and Television Archive, but the film itself is considered a lost film, according to the Vitaphone Project website. A five minute clip from the film can be found on YouTube.
Playing Around
New York girl has a dull boyfriend and seems destined for a dull marriage when she meets a rich playboy who has money to burn and places to go.
The Scar of Shame
An educated, upscale young black musician marries a woman from a lower socioeconomic class to get her out of the clutches of her stepfather.
The St. Valentine's Day Massacre
Chicago February 14th 1929. Al Capone finally establishes himself as the city's boss of organised crime. In a north-side garage his hoods, dressed as policemen, surprise and mow down with machine-guns the key members of Bugs Moran's rival gang. The film traces the history of the incident, and the lives affected and in some cases ended by it.
Born Reckless
In order to use the publicity to get re-elected, a judge sentences a notorious gangster to fight in the war.
Thelonious Monk: Straight, No Chaser
A documentary film about the life of pianist and jazz great Thelonious Monk. Features live performances by Monk and his band, and interviews with friends and family about the offbeat genius.
Blues in the Night
A struggling band find themselves attached to a fugitive and drawn into a series of old feuds and love affairs, as they try to stay together and find musical success.
The Crimson Canary
Members of a Jazz Band come under suspicion when a beautiful nightclub singer is murdered.
Rainbow Over Broadway
Ex-vaudeville performer Trixie makes a come-back, and threatens to thwart the ambitions of her song-writing step-children, Bob and Judy.
Satchmo the Great
In this 1957 biography film of the jazz-great Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong, he and his band tour the world as American good-will ambassadors bring jazz at its best to the people of the world. Within the film, the life of Louis Armstrong is portrayed through the music. One of the outstanding scenes in this "biography/docudrama" shows blind songwriter W. C. Handy, with tears streaming down his face, as Armstrong, backed by Leonard Bernstein leading the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, play Handy's immortal "St. Louis Blues."
The Last Parade
During the war two friends love the same nurse. After the war one becomes a detective, the other a racketeer.
Good Intentions
When love came the way of this gentleman crook he turned to the right---only to be caught in the swirling eddy of his criminal past! (original ad)
Fox Movietone Follies of 1929
Lila Beaumont is an understudy in a Broadway musical. Her boyfriend, George Shelby, arrives in New York hoping to take Lila back home with him to marry.
Syncopation
Benny and Flo are a husband and wife dance team, Sloane and Darrel, traveling around the country as part of a revue. The revue gets picked up and taken to New York City, to be on Broadway. However, it quickly folds, and the two are forced to look for other employment. They eventually find work in a nightclub, becoming famous.But while performing at the nightclub, Flo becomes entranced by a young, sophisticated millionaire playboy, Winston.
Safety in Numbers
Before handing over a large inheritance, a guardian hires three chorus girls to educate his charge about the "underside" of big-city life.
New York Nights
Show girl Jill Deverne is married to song writer Fred Deverne, and everyone is involved in the Broadway night life and endless parties. Jill is being pursued by a gangster, and she leaves her husband after he spends the night with a floozie. Jill ends up as the gangster's moll, but she soon gets tired of the lifestyle.
Going to Kansas City
An exchange student from Finland arrives in Kansas City. He is expecting to spend a year in the city, but ends up living on a farm in a small town. He falls in love with the sheriff’s daughter and soon finds himself in trouble.
Dearie
Finding herself in dire circumstances, the widowed Sylvia Darling determines that her son, Stephen, will complete his college education and develop his supposed literary talents; thus, she accepts a contract as singer in a Broadway nightclub, billed as "Dearie," and becomes an immediate sensation.
Birth of the Blues
Jeff grows up near Basin Street in New Orleans, playing his clarinet with the dock workers. He puts together a band, the Basin Street Hot-Shots, which includes a cornet player, Memphis. They struggle to get their jazz music accepted by the cafe society of the city. Betty Lou joins their band as a singer and gets Louie to show her how to do scat singing. Memphis and Jeff both fall in love with Betty Lou.
In 1927, a Kansas City, Missouri cornet player and his band perform nightly at a seedy speakeasy until a racketeer tries to extort them in exchange for protection.
Pete Kelly's Blues
A unique, carefully handpicked, selection of the best movies like Pete Kelly's Blues Starring Jack Webb, Janet Leigh, Edmond O'Brien, Peggy Lee, and more. If you liked Pete Kelly's Blues then you may also like: Young Man with a Horn, What Becomes of the Children?, Whiplash, Why Leave Home?, The Wild Party and many more popular movies featured on this list. You can further filter the list even more or get a random selection from the list of similar movies, to make your selection even easier.
Young Man with a Horn
Legendary trumpeter Art Hazzard teaches young Rick Martin everything he knows about playing, so Rick becomes a star musician, but a troubled marriage and the desire to play pure jazz instead of commercial swing songs cause him problems.