The Benny Goodman Story (1956)

• Certainly watchable, but not deep. It's a showcase for the music more then anything even approaching a character study. 
• Steve Allen plays big band legend Benny Goodman (who dubs his own clarinet playing). Allen was host of 'The Tonight Show' at the time this was made, I imagine he had to take months off to make this. 
• Donna Reed plays the love interest, and it occurs to me that I'm not sure I have ever seen her in color. She photographs very well in it, she's in her mid 30's here. 
• Bio pics of musicians generally follow a rather rout course, the long struggle to eventually success. Later films in this genera would almost inevitably explore substance abuse and infidelity, though I don't think that was ever a problem for Goodman. However the film does take the most interesting aspects of his life, such as the fact that his wife was married before to a British politician and had three daughters by him, and completely ignores it. 
• The conflict of Benny's being Jewish and his wife from a WASPy family somehow completely steps around the Jewish part and focuses on class distinctions for conflict. I don't think the word 'Jew' is ever even mentioned in the film, though Goodman's mother is doing the classic to stereotypical Jewish mother act to the hilt. 
• Don't even get me started on the scene where an older black musician laments his never making it, but he's glade Benny did because he had something the old man lacked. Very clearly what he lacked was being white, but this is not something this major studio felt like saying out loud to 50's audiences. I on the other hand was shouting it at the screen. 
• *1/2