Color Him Ambitious :)

 Hello Everyone, 

In the 1961 feature film A Fever In the Blood, Jack Kelly plays an ambitious district attorney named "Dan Callahan":

Detail from original vintage B&W A Fever In the Blood promo portrait
of Jack Kelly from the La Bartista Kellection. Hand-tinted by La Bartista 

using photo editing software.

Although JK's character isn't mentioned by name in the contemporaneous newspaper review below, the author does provide a cynical but accurate analysis of A Fever In the Blood. In fact, the title of the review sums up the plot pretty well: "All's Fair in Politics and Murder". 

The review begins, "If the men in a movie called A Fever in the Blood had as much blood in them as they have fever, this might be a useful study of professional politicians who have little aptitude for their work."

It continues, "The title of this movie...implies that politics is a disease. But like many films that deal with disease, this one suffers from the symptoms which it seeks to diagnose. Its real conviction is that politics is a fascinating fight for power, that the details of this fight are dramatic and important, that honesty is a doubtful asset which sometimes wins on a fluke, and that 90 minutes in a theater are well-spent if they reveal which one of a group of tricksters finally becomes governor of an unfortunate anonymous state.

"Almost everyone in the movie wants to become governor...In one courtroom scene, during a murder trial, the presiding judge [Efrem Zimbalist, Jr.] is a candidate for governor; the district attorney [JK] is a rival candidate; one of the witnesses [Herbert Marshall] is an ex-governor who is a force in the election; and in the judge's chambers next door is another candidate [Don Ameche] who is waiting for a recess so that he can offer the judge a bribe...Justice fights with politics for the camera's attention and it is hard to say which is more unattractive as presented here. This is a movie divided against itself, as they say in politics. The question becomes whodunnit instead of whowunnit."

The reviewer has several objections to how the trial is depicted, describing it as "bizarre" and noting that "the judge fails to disqualify himself from sitting on the case even though the prosecuting attorney is a close personal duck-hunting friend, and even though their lives are all snarled up in political maneuverings."

He also pinpoints one of the major faults of A Fever In the Blood: "Its style of storytelling seems to be adapted from television. The action always has an indoors and confined feeling, and the shots are tight, close-in, and hurried, as though they must move out of the way of the next commercial...The movie needs more elbow room, and it needs to take a deep breath."

Well, A Fever In the Blood is still worth watching, even if only to see JK.

The original vintage B&W A Fever In the Blood promo portrait 

of Jack Kelly from the La Bartista Kellection from which the color detail above was created.

 Please stay tuned for more about JK in the next TDS. :)

JK Sunday Funny :)

"You had just one job to do...just one thing you were supposed to take care of...so tell me: How on earth did you forget to buy our tickets to Hamilton?!"



Punxsutawney Phil Predicts Six More Weeks of Winter...

"Where is that !#@% groundhog?" 

Friday Night "Fever"! :)

Hola!

There's a lot going on in this magnifico Mexican lobby card that just joined the Kellection. But, look closely at the black-and-white inset and you'll see Jack Kelly as "Dan Callahan" in A Fever in the Blood.

District Attorney Callahan's overweening political ambition has led to tragedy: while speeding to a TV station, he accidentally runs down a young boy in the street. The boy will survive, but Callahan's dream of becoming his state's next governor doesn't.

Please stay tuned for more JK movie moments in TDS! :)  

Saturday Night "Fever"! :)

Well, it's actually Saturday morning, but I'm sure you won't mind seeing these stills of Jack Kelly in A Fever In The Blood any time of day!

In this 1961 feature film JK plays ambitious district attorney "Dan Callahan", who throws an innocent murder suspect under the bus during a ruthless bid to become a gubernatorial candidate.

Callahan listens intently to Senator Alex Simon (Don Ameche), who also intends to seek the governor's office. (That's actor Parley Baer behind JK.)

Accompanied by the press, Callahan himself arrests the murder suspect, Thornwall (Rhodes Reason):

The same scene seen in color (detail from an Italian fotobusta):

Callahan grills the real killer (Robert Colbert) on the stand as Judge Leland Hoffman (Efrem Zimbalist, Jr.) looks on.



BONUS: A lurid 1961 newspaper ad for Fever which mentions Bart Maverick and Stu Bailey (Zimbalist's character in 77 Sunset Strip):

 

TRIVIA: A Fever In the Blood was referenced in the recent miniseries Feud: Bette and Joan. Director Robert Aldrich tries to convince Warner Bros. chief Jack Warner to let him hire Bette Davis and Joan Crawford for Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? by bluntly pointing out that WB films such as A Fever in the Blood flopped because they had no "stars". 

But, JK will always be a star to us. To read (and see) much more about him in A Fever in the Blood, please click here and here.

Ready for the Weekend! :)

Jack Kelly and his plaid-clad pals are dressed to enjoy the three-day weekend. Either that, or they're posing for a Cabela's ad:

Actually, this is a still from A Fever in the Blood (1961), co-starring JK and Efrem Zimbalist, Jr.

However you enjoy the weekend, I hope you stay safe.

And speaking of safe: I hope JK discards his cigar properly. You know what Smokey says...

Remembering Efrem Zimbalist Jr....

We recently lost a fine actor and gentleman with the passing of Efrem Zimbalist Jr.

I first saw Mr. Zimbalist's work on The F.B.I. television series, which my family watched every Sunday evening when I was little (and which my dad always called The F.B.I. Story, actually the title of a James Stewart film).

When I finally discovered Jack Kelly and Maverick many years later, I was delighted to watch Mr. Zimbalist guest star several times on the series as the suave con-artist Dandy Jim Buckley.

JK and EZJ also worked together in the 1961 Warner Bros. feature film A Fever in the Blood, as shown in this still: 

 

Great news: A Fever in the Blood will air this Wednesday, May 14, on Turner Classic Movies in the US at 4:00 pm ET (check your local cable/satellite guide for correct time/channel).

 

More info about this rarely seen classic can be found in this 2009 TDS post. (I guess TCM heard me! ;->)

 

I'm thankful that Efrem Zimbalist Jr. left a long legacy of performances for us to enjoy. Rest in peace, sir.

 

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UPDATE (5/23/14): A Fever in the Blood has just been released on DVD! It's available from WB Shop.com for $18.95 and $2.50 standard shipping (in the US only at this time).

Jack Kelly on Screen: Any Objections?

Hey!

The distinguished-looking man above is, of course, Jack Kelly. He's not our friend Bart Maverick here, though. JK's playing a character miles away from the carefree gambler: overly ambitious District Attorney "Dan Callahan" in the 1961 feature film A Fever in the Blood. I've not seen this film yet (yo, Turner Classic Movies?). But, the info on the back of this still describes JK's role:

"Warner Brothers' A Fever in the Blood gives Jack Kelly a complete change of character. As Bart in the studio's Maverick TV series, he is an easy-going, non-chalant ladykiller--and always a gentleman. But in A Fever in the Blood he plays a hard-bitten, ambitious District Attorney who would willingly sacrifice friendship in exchange for a state governorship. Even his appearance has changed. There are lines on his face, drawn by discontent, and there is gray in his hair."

Actually, some of that discontent may have come from having gray in his hair. JK was only 34 at the time, so his hair was artifically grayed. In Filmfax magazine three decades later--in what sadly turned out to be his final interview--he discussed doing the 1965 film Love and Kisses, where he played singer Rick Nelson's father. He refused to put gray in his hair for the part: "I had done a picture at Warner Brothers called A Fever in the Blood with that phony gray in my hair, and I looked like an ass."

(Oh, I don't know about that, JK--you look pretty good in that pic to me! ;->)

Anyway, here's how Screen Stories magazine describes Fever: "A woman was murdered and the District Attorney meant to hang her husband, whether he was guilty or not. A conviction would lead the D.A. right to the Governorship!"

Screen Stories adds that JK was so eager to make a feature film after co-starring in Maverick since 1957 that he gave up a vacation to make Fever. While working on the film, he received the escrow papers for a new home in Westwood Village. He was so excited he exclaimed to a reporter, "My wife--May Wynn--and I had to talk our business manager into allowing us to spend $12,000 on alterations. So help me, that's more than we spent on our first little home!"

JK is joined in Fever by a virtual Maverick reunion: Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. (Dandy Jim Buckley) plays a judge; Robert Colbert (Cherokee Evans in "Hadley's Hunters" and later brother Brent) plays an important witness; and Ray Danton (who guested with JK in "State of Siege") plays the opposing District Attorney. And, it was produced and co-written by Maverick creator Roy Huggins.

Plus, Angie Dickinson (who would play opposite JK again in Young Billy Young) plays a senator's wife. Finally, Don Ameche plays the senator, and, of course, wee Jack Kelly had appeared in Ameche's film The Story of Alexander Graham Bell way back in 1939.

I'd love to see A Fever in the Blood, although, uh, I prefer seeing Jack Kelly as a good guy rather than a bad guy. It's not that he's bad as a bad guy--no, no, he's usually darn good. It's just that after enjoying him as the benevolent Bart Maverick, it's almost hard for me to watch him as someone like "John Behan" in Young Billy Young. Behan is like Bart's evil twin!

But, I guess that's the hallmark of a skilled actor: the ability to convincingly portray vastly different, even unsympathetic, characters. Jack Kelly didn't just play variations on Bart for the rest of his career. He had the courage to play villains as well as heroes.

And, by golly, I'll watch him as either one! :)