Lady Sings the Blues (1972)

Directed by Sidney J. Furie. Starring Diana Ross, Billy Dee Williams, Richard Pryor, Paul Hampton, Sid Melton, James Callahan, Virginia Capers, Yvonne Fair, Isabel Sanford. [R]

Formula biopic of classic jazz singer Billie Holiday (Ross) is a movie of moments and emotions, but can’t escape the clichés and workmanlike filmmaking. Traces her life from the days where she worked as a housekeeper and a prostitute all the way to the first time she played Carnegie Hall. In her film debut, Ross isn’t a singer playing a singer who occasionally tries to hit an acting note; she gives a full-blown dramatic performance, and though she overreaches at times, it’s mostly a sweeping success. Sometimes feels like the film is simply vacillating between showing Billie singing and showing Billie strung out and back again, but she lived a troubled life, so it’s hard to present its “revised history” much differently. The script saves most of the lip gloss for the romance angle, with Williams playing Ross’ abusive husband Louis McKay as someone less like Ike Turner than like, well, Lando Calrissian; Pryor scores a solid turn as a musician friend of Holiday’s known as “Piano Man.” Ross delivers some powerful singing moments, even though she sings at a much higher register than Holiday did. Scatman Crothers makes a cameo as one of Billie’s would-be johns.

63/100