User reviews

The recent death of Richard Pryor prompted me to look at the 2005 DVD package of 1972's "Lady Sings the Blues", which proves the then-young comedian to be a fine actor in the meaty supporting role of Piano Man. Even though he was a master stand-up comic, it's still too bad he never pursued roles of a similar dramatic caliber since he obviously had the talent. Similarly, Diana Ross never fulfilled the promise of her big screen debut in the title role as legendary jazz singer Billie Holiday (1915-59).

Bearing no physical and little vocal resemblance to Holiday, Ross somehow gets under her true-life character's skin much like Joaquin Phoenix does in "Walk the Line" or Jamie Foxx in "Ray". Thirty-three years have elapsed since I first saw this movie, and it is with a certain amount of regret that I report that Ross as an actress has not been anywhere near this good since then. Granted she only has three features under her belt, 1975's "Mahogany" reflected an ego run amok, and she was disturbingly miscast in 1978's "The Wiz". From the opening scene where she is suffering through heroin withdrawal in raw, harrowing detail to her sultrier nightclub performances, she manages to be incendiary by her sheer will. She is even convincing in the early scenes where she is barely a teenager. Her vocal performances really don't evoke Holiday's earthier style, though to Ross's credit, her vivid renditions of standards such as "Mean to Me", "Fine and Mellow" and "Gimme a Pigfoot (and a Bottle of Beer)" don't sound like Supremes redux either.

This achievement is all the more impressive since director Sidney J. Furie, a journeyman filmmaker at best, has surrounded Ross with an unwieldy rags-to-riches biopic that should have been edited down from its 144-minute running time. The screenplay - credited to Chris Clark, Suzanne De Passe and Terence McCloy (none of whom wrote a movie script before or since) based in part on Holiday's autobiography - plays fast and loose with the facts and piles on the clichés in true Oscar-baiting fashion. The drug-related scenes are powerful, though they eventually start to feel like condescending plot devices to make the viewer sympathize with Holiday for the persecution she experienced at the hands of abusive men and a bigoted society. Moreover, as Furie discloses on the accompanying audio commentary, the dialogue for several scenes is improvised by the actors, for example, the unnecessarily lengthy Club Manhattan sequence, where the lack of discipline becomes wearing.

Contrary to the fact that Holiday's true life story has been well documented and interest in her legacy increased, the filmmakers altered events and people in order to maintain interest from what they thought were mainstream audiences at the time. Consequently, the character of Louis McKay, Holiday's love interest and eventual husband, played with toothsome charm by Billy Dee Williams, synthesizes a lot of men who came into her life and helped shape her career. The dramatized results leave out key figures of the jazz world like saxophonist Lester Young, trombonist Jimmy Monroe to whom Holiday was married, and record producer John Hammond, as well as Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Artie Shaw and Teddy Wilson--all important colleagues and mentors during the period covered in the film. Instead, we are given Holiday's story as filtered through Ross's own story, an observation confirmed by Ross herself on the accompanying 2005 making-of featurette.

When the music is true to the period, it's quite wonderful, but composer Michel Legrand composed some gauzy, anachronistic interludes that sound like symphonic outtakes from his work on "Brian's Song". The costumes also have a Vegas revue feel, no surprise since designer Bob Mackie's flamboyant, early 1970's style is on full display here. For such an overlong movie, the ending feels quite truncated as newspaper clips are used to telegraph her eventual fate as Ross triumphantly sings her signature song, "God Bless the Child", in Carnegie Hall. Credit Motown mogul and Ross's Svengali, Berry Gordy, for having the fortitude, foresight and tenacity to oversee the project, and the DVD hammers that point in not only the overemphatic, only partially insightful commentary by Furie, Gordy and artists' manager Shelly Berger but also the making-of featurette which features Ross looking strangely youthful and Williams at least looking his age. There are several deleted scenes included in the DVD with no additional commentary from Furie, none refurbished and all understandably excised from the final cut.

The first question that would run across the mind of anyone who'd watch this movie is: "Can Diana Ross act?" The answer, I'm glad to say, is an unequivocal "Yes." And I think that's what the director wanted to clear up right from the very first scene, with a flash forward to Billie Holiday's drug bust while the credits were still on. Ms. Ross, devoid of make-up and with "crazy hair," put on an extremely convincing performance of heroin (or coke) withdrawal, replete with howling.

Her performance is the highlight of the movie, which unfortunately felt like it ran way too long, and I found myself constantly checking the run time. It wasn't bad as a musical. As I had read previously, Ms. Ross didn't seek to imitate Billie Holiday's style, and instead created a distinct and appropriate - yet similar - jazz style of her own just for the movie (check out "Good Morning Heartache"), and I, being a fan, didn't mind the song interludes.

What dragged the movie was the constant focus on Holiday's drug addiction (to showcase more of Ms. Ross's acting?). It felt like there was scene after scene of her being drug-addled, whining, and screaming, which began to abrade after a while. It's too bad, since with better direction and screenplay, coupled with Ms. Ross's capable acting and singing, this could've been one of the truly great musical biopics.

There is no question that no matter how extreme in the past or future Miss. Ross has been or will be (tantrums, bad albums, phoniness, bad publicity, touch me, don't touch me), she will always have this performance to look back on as a moment where everything worked perfectly.

The film is imperfect. Flawed. It could have been more realistic, more harrowing, and less hollywood-fied. Had it been, and had Motown not been so intent on proving itself as a major film force, she would have won the Oscar without question. The rumor had always been that in terms of voting it was "this close" as they say.

Even though she did not win, we are still left with a performance of depth, passion and layers that could only be described as magnificent in an experienced actress. In a neophyte, as Miss. Ross was at the time, it is stunning.

As a singer, She never before or since has sounded as good. The voice, while not really like Billie Holiday, just glows. Her musicality, intonation and idiomatic phrasing indicated a whole type of music she could have sung had she chosen too.

Watch it for her. It will make you think more kindly towards her the next time she, well, acts like Miss. Ross!

Now that I am fortysomething (which amazes even me), I can look back and remember the Supremes final appearance on the Ed Sullivan show...and I can also remember Ed announcing that "Miss Ross is leaving the Supremes to pursue an acting career". An acting career....who does she think she is? I pondered this question for the longest time, and remained disappointed in Diana Ross until the very first moments of "Lady Sings the Blues", which play like a jazz tune that seems, at first, to make no sense until you as the listener finally tune into the music which actually made sense all along. Diana Ross dosen't so much act the part of Billie Holiday -- she crafts an unforgettable performance that both embodies the spirit of Holiday while also demonstrating the simplest but most complicated acting demands....she simply poses the question, "What if this were my life?". She produces an acting performance that, coupled with the personalized Holiday vocal interpretations, pull the audience into a deeper and deeper sense of completely going on the character's complete life journey -- you completely believe Ross is Holiday because she is so sure of herself -- SHE believes it -- completely. The story follows a typical formula, but the true reason to watch this film is the acting lesson that Ross teaches. Watch this one -- and learn a little something about craft -- from a master instructor, way ahead of her time.

I know very little about Billie Holiday; she was well before my time. After now watching her story it is such a tragic and familiar tale. Change her name to Whitney Houston and make her contemporary and little is different between the two. Little is different between her story and that of countless other entertainers.

Billie was immensely talented, but she had her demons. This is a recurring theme in the entertainment industry. Diana did an exceptional job playing Billie Holiday. Pryor and Billie Dee were good as well, but Diana shined. It's too bad she had to play such a tragic role.

Diana Ross is quite superb as jazz singer Billie Holiday, but even so this clichéd bio-drama of the drug-addicted torch diva from the 1930s is hardly convincing. After an enjoyably overwrought prologue (with Holiday brutally incarcerated like a gangster out of a Jimmy Cagney flick), the movie sputters along familiar territory, and the burnished, brackish look of the picture--probably meant for prestige--is a visual downer. The tone wavers at times (a comedic sequence with Scatman Crothers is either a distraction or a relief), and the film's flashback structure is a cheap gimmick (you know you're in for it when the filmmakers start super-imposing headlines across the screen--it's movie shorthand for "we're running out of time"). Ross is a spectacular drawing card, but this vehicle for her debuting acting talents leaves much to be desired. **1/2 from ****

I would be the first to agree that it was standard fare as far as a musical bio...and Cabaret was a superior film. But Diana Ross' performance was a stunning film debut. This is the kind of overlooked performance that makes it so clear that pure ability is not what the Academy Awards are all about. I tend to think really great acting always sneaks above the voting members scope of being able to truly reccognize great acting.

But anyone who hasn't seen Diana Ross' performance in Lady is in for a treat. To think that she went through so many transitions within the film: from youngster, to a drug addict, to a grand singer...it's a truly great performance.

Bio-pic of Billy Holiday that is just as interested in her life on the toilet as on her life on stage!

The most interesting thing about this so-so Motown production is not the film itself, but the politics that surrounds it. I am not a "Lady Day" fan and although I think she had a good voice and is marked down in music history as "a legend", there is nothing really essential about her.

(A tough thing to say - but the legacy is nightclubs not concert halls. Cult records, not chart toppers. Let us keep perspective here.)

I personally think Diana Ross has had a more interesting life and is the better singer because I prefer pop to jazz.

The problem with any bio-pic is that it needs some driving narrative beyond "aren't/weren't they great on stage." Holiday was raped/abused at an early age and this is put forward as the reason for her behaviour and yet this is a guess and a clichéd guess at that.

Addiction happens equally to people that are and aren't raped or abused, that come from good homes, that are from all ethnic backgrounds. How does Hollywood explain those addictions away?

A more fair reading of her life would state that she liked "bad boys" and found them exciting. She went willingly to the party and was the last to leave.

Ross doesn't do a bad job of going through the range of human emotions, although she doesn't really look much like real thing. I suppose being black and being able to sing (with only a nod towards Holiday) was good enough for the casting people?

As one astute other reviewer noticed she was a figure among many in the jazz scene, but other famous people are nowhere to be seen. Are the makers frightened of litigation with these living people - or paying them off so they won't sue? The trick many bio-pic makers employ.

This is a scattergun scenes-from-a-life film. Some of them work, some of them don't. Some are amusing, most are not. Sometimes I was entertained, mostly I was not. However I was always entertained when Ms. Ross sang.

I have watched this movie a few times, the first time when it was first released in 1972 and I was barely 4 years old and it has left an indelible mark on me ever since. During this time, most of the films with a predominately Black cast were of the blaxploitation genre. You may think it strange or inappropriate for my parents to take a 4 year old to an "R" rated film but majority of the films with mostly Black casts of this era were rated "R", usually because of vulgarity and violence. My parents eagerly awaited this film and since they could not find a babysitter took me along. They did not expect me to fully understand the film and they probably assumed that I would probably sleep through it (they had me dressed in my pajamas). Even at this young age, I was impressed to see a film on this grand scale that elevated a historical Black icon like Billie Holliday; this was unprecedented and this was not lost on me then or now.

This is an excellent movie and by the rating it has received here (7/10) and the five Academy Awards & three Golden Globe nominations it garnered (Diana Ross won the Golden Globe for Most Promising New Actress); my opinion is not in the minority. While this film may gloss over a lot of Billie's life, the script was based on her autobiography (this may be how Billie chose to remember her past) and the screenplay was also nominated for an Oscar.

Diana Ross did not capture the look and sound of Billie Holliday nor did she attempt to. Diana Ross did not channel Billie Holliday the way that Angela Bassett did with Tina Turner or the way Val Kilmer did with Jim Morrison or how Jamie Foxx did with Ray Charles but she internalized Billie's triumphs, pain, struggles, and personal demons and depicted this exceptionally well and she interpreted Billie's voice by not trying to duplicate the inimitatable but maximized the range of her own voice using Billie's distinctive phrasing and capturing the essence of her spirit while coaxing out a myriad of emotions. The double album soundtrack topped the Billboard charts for two weeks, Diana Ross' only number one Pop album as a solo singer.

This film made me a Billie Holliday fan at age 4. After this film, in addition to Billie, I listened to Sarah Vaughn, Ella Fitzgerald, Mel Torme, Nat King Cole, Ethel Waters, and Dinah Washington while my peers were just starting to rock to disco. This film and its music still stands the test of time as implied by the recent success of Diana Ross' CD, "Blue" (which was previously unreleased material originally recorded for Motown as a follow-up to this soundtrack) on the jazz and adult contemporary Billboard charts. Billie Holliday is without a doubt an icon but so is Diana Ross. Most people would have to admit that for a debut performance, Diana Ross did an outstanding job, no matter what you may think of her personally. In addition, for it to be the only screenplay that she has ever written, Suzanne DePasse (who was a Motown A&R executive at the time and was the first and remains the only Black woman to be nominated for an Oscar for writing) created a great story even if it presents a slightly less gritty portrayal of the troubled singer's life.

If you've seen one you may have seen them all, but luckily each film in the 'musician-has-aspirations-does-drugs-overcomes-becomes-star' saga has something else to offer, either with the quality of the music itself or, of course, the performances. Ray and Walk the Line (parodied deservedly but with warmth in Walk Hard) are our centuries answer to this, but back in the 70's there was Lady Sings the Blues, which took the life story of Billie Holiday, arguably the greatest of all the jazz singers, and made it into a two and a half hour vehicle for Diana Ross. And why not? Ross is terrific in the role, as she goes from young girl working as a scrubber and/or being raped by drunks to becoming a nightclub singer in New York city for tips (kinda like a showgirl minus the nudity), and then little by little her talent sees her off to singing across the country, and singing then at bigger venues. Oh, and the drugs, too.

The movie starts with the kind of 'bang' that is almost a shameless hook with Holiday being booked on narcotics charges, looking a mess, and then being put in a straight-jacket for acting crazy in withdrawal. The movie sometimes has these shameless melodramatic moments with Ross, and yet it's not her I would blame but the script. She gives it her all (contrary to some criticism - look it up - that she wasn't right for the role), and it's really the script that falls into cliché, or falls back on the all-too-convenient romance between her and Billy Dee Williams. All the actors actually are believable, from Williams to the "Piano Man" Richard Pryor to the guys who make up Holiday's band on the road.

How much or how little Holiday really was on drugs is almost besides the point. What works in the film is how much Ross sells it and makes us feel for this young woman who is struggles even as she can have it all (the last act with Carnegie Hall highlights this conflict in her character well). What would have made the film great is if they made other relationships tougher or done a little more to make things less clichéd. Whenever the music comes up the story can take a backseat, or, on occasion, be enriched by what Billie is going through; this shows best when she's still in the grip of her heroin addiction and goes up to sing, you can see the pain coming off of her face as she sings every note, and it's one of the best scenes in the film.

Perhaps just having the basics of Holiday's life is enough, at least for here. It's got some good attitude to spare, mostly through the performances, and just when the movie feels like its pulling away and doing something wrong or unsatisfying it comes back and does something to with over the audience. And there are some tough, dramatic scenes that have more to do with what's around Holiday, the racism she faces practically every day she went on the road (the KKK being basically a hazard to try and avoid, or hangings by the roadside) or up on stage (i.e. the radio-show scene where she's basically booted and humiliated in front of her family). It's things like this that make the film compelling, not so much the romantic soap opera elements or the parts of the drug addiction that become repetitive.

Or, again, like the movie Ray or Walk the Line. If you liked those, you'll like this.

Diana Ross stars in this pseudo-biographical film about the great singer Billie Holiday, who died in 1959. Although the film is clichéd and melodramatic in many ways, Ross overcomes these shortcomings with a performance that captures the tragedy of Holiday's life and conveys the enormity of her singing talent. There are many classics crammed into the film but none so well done as "Good Morning Heartache" and "God Bless the Child." ---from Musicals on the Silver Screen, American Library Association. 2013

I wonder what Diana Ross thought when her lover and mentor Berry Gordy told her that as part of his plan to launch her post-Supremes solo career in entertainment, her debut film role would be playing the life story of the troubled blues singer Billie Holiday. Remembering the cushy fashion drama in which he placed her to follow up this role (in a reportedly vapid film called "Mahogany") you could be forgiven for thinking that Berry had got his master plan back to front. But no, here was the erstwhile lead singer of the most popular girl group of the day, late of the Copacabana and other swish night clubs stepping into the shoes of the drug-addicted, died-too-soon Holiday. You have to at least admire their moxy.

More than that, whilst the film I doubt follows Billie's life too slavishly and Ross certainly doesn't much look or sound like her, t'was often the way with Hollywood biopics. Sure there's some airbrushing here but the film does show her troubled upbringing (and certainly one thing Ross could convey was waif-like as these early scenes demand) born to a single mother and forced to live apart from her, being raped at age 14 and then being put to work as a prostitute, indeed the film starts jarringly with the traumatic depiction of Ross being forcibly straitjacketed in a solitary confinement sanatorium padded cell, which must have come as a shock to her Motown fans used to seeing her in posh frocks and diamanté earrings.

Of course the realism doesn't stop there as she later encounters racism out on the road in the South, having to sit outside a 'whites-only" diner while her band mates eat within, has a run-in with the Ku Klux Klan and witnesses a hanged fellow -black, the "Strange Fruit" which charged the famous song Holiday so chillingly evoked. Most of all though, the eye-opening scenes are the vein-opening scenes as Billie finds that the only way to keep going out on the road is with narcotic stimuli.

People might argue that the ending is too upbeat as she knocks them dead at her entertainment Holy Grail, the Carnegie Hall, but even then the screen insets tell us in reality Holiday ended up back on the drugs and was dead at only 44.

While it's easy to see where the narrative is sanitised and takes short cuts, I consider the film well directed by the veteran Sidney J Furie. Whilst in truth a better player of the Billie role on the Motown roster would surely have been Gladys Knight, still I'm happy to give kudos to Ross for obviously giving her all in the part of a lifetime for her. She was never a truly great singer in the first place and blues could hardly be considered her natural musical idiom but while she neither looks or sounds like the real Holiday, you can see her feeling the songs and I think she does well in the traumatic scenes when she's at the mercy of the demon drugs. In support Billy Dee Williams is fine as her initially aloof but later supportive husband and Richard Pryor puts in a scene-stealing shift as the singer's faithful piano accompanist.

It's a bit of a cliche to say that I hope at least some viewers looked past Ross's interpretations of Holiday classics like "My Man", "Good Morning Heartache", "God Bless The Child" and her self-penned "Don't Explain" to the original versions. On the whole though I'd say this was a brave and partially successful portrayal of a difficult lady living her difficult life the hard way.

Before watching this I knew that it wouldn't be factually correct. I knew that Diana Ross would sing in her own style without trying to imitate the real Billie Holiday. And I knew that this film was hated & protested by Billie's real life associates and family. I watched it anyway expecting to enjoy it the same way I enjoyed Amadeus even though it stepped all over the real Mozart. I mean, c'mon people, if we want history we should go to a library, not a movie theatre.

But with all that said I was still horribly put off by the lack of continuity with the spirit of Billie's life. For one thing, Diana's portrayal made Billie look like a blabbering halfwit. Even in the scenes where she's supposed to be stone cold sober she acts like a flake. If you've ever seen footage of the real Billie, you know that the real Lady was a tough, sharp, smart human being. You don't survive on the streets of New York by being an idiot the way she's shown to be in the film.

Next, the performances were shown totally out of context. For example, the song "My Man" is a chilling song about spousal abuse, but in the movie they gloss it up to be a feel-good homage to her guardian angel of a husband Louis McKay. In real life, Louis was as abusive as all of her husbands (hence the song "My Man"). This is just one example of the many incorrect interpretations this movie presents of Billie's music and her life.

OK, but like I said in my 1st paragraph, I can allow the director some poetic license if the movie is worthwhile. Unfortunately this movie didn't deliver. Instead of focusing on the true hardships and trials that plagued Ms. Holiday, we get a whole bunch of clichés about drug use, trying to make it in the business, and how you're supposed to be good to your friends. I'm not sure if this was supposed to be about Billie Holiday or if it was just an ABC afterschool special with clever packaging.

The acting was good (if you choose to accept the idea of Billie Holiday being a weak minded flake), and there were several dramatic moments that were well staged. But here's my biggest gripe: the musical score KILLED this movie! It's supposed to be a 1940s jazz biopic, so why are we getting 70s "star search" orchestrations? You know, like the cheezy swelling violins and pseudo-disco drums when Ed McMahon reads the winner of the competition. Talk about an anachronism, to say nothing of the way it cheapens some otherwise powerful moments.

Lastly, I have to say that fans of Billie's music will be pretty annoyed at Diana Ross's versions. They are two totally different singers. Billie sang in a lower register (except when hitting those high notes which she always did clean & clear WITHOUT vibrato) whereas Diana prefers theatrics in the upper register and doesn't go very low at all. This is really a movie for Diana Ross fans or for casual jazz listeners who have never heard of Billie Holiday. Like another reviewer suggested, if you're truly interested in Billie, you should buy some of her records or try to find some old films of her performances. Her music is the best biography you'll ever get.

Diana Ross put in a very fine performance playing a very difficult role. Sadly, that role was not Billie Holiday and this is my big problem with this film. Any film with a musician as its subject should have loads of that musician's art. Diana Ross does sing some songs, but the MUSIC is not the focus of the film. The unhistoric life of Lady Day is: her experiences as a prostitute, her first gig, getting discovered, touring with a white band, Strange Fruit, etc. They are all thrown together into a hapless hodge-podge lacking continuity or even a semblance of a timeline. An even greater sin is that Lady Day did not develop in a vacuum as this film would have you believe. She was a vital part of the larger jazz scene of the 30s and 40s, a scene she shared on an equal footing with such giants as Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Teddy Wilson, Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Lester Young, Johnny Hodges, Ben Webster, and most importantly John Hammond, the famous producer and talent scout who discovered Lady Day in a small Harlem club. None of these people appear in the film in any way, shape, or fashion. That's not just ridiculous, it's criminal. I don't know if there was a permissions problem in portraying them on film (some of them were still alive when the film was made), but their absence is sorely felt.

Amadeus is also criticized as unhistoric, which it is, but it made the best of Mozart's life by putting his music at center stage. (It also helps that the events it portrayed were in chronological order.) The same could have maybe rescued LADY SINGS THE BLUES, but the opportunity was missed. Other than Diana Ross's harrowing portrayal of a heroin addicted singer (who could have been anyone but Billie Holiday), there is nothing to recommend this movie. Go watch Ken Burns' JAZZ series instead.

First off this is NOT a factual biography of Billie Holiday...a lot of her dark side is ignored. That aside, this is a pretty good movie. It follows Holiday from a little girl all the way up to her debut at Carnegie Hall. Along the way she deals with drug addiction, rape, prostitution etc etc. That's the big problem with the movie--it's too depressing. Holiday is a victim again and again and again. It wears one down seeing this woman just torn apart over and over. Also, the movie is too long--2 1/2 hours. Still, it's worth seeing for Diana Ross performance (Oscar-nominated). She sings like Holiday and (sometimes) looks like her. She never strikes a wrong note is her acting--she's letter perfect in every scene. So watch it for her and the music. Otherwise, it's pretty depressing. Also, there's a good supporting performance by Richard Pryor.

The big surprise in this conventional biopic is Diana Ross' great empathetic portrayal of Billie Holiday (although one may argue whether her singing style can match up with the jazz legend); otherwise this is a straightforward, but highly simplified and cliche-ridden depiction of the artist's life.

I FINALLY received the DVD of a movie I have loved through the years. While we can all regale each other with stories of Miss Ross' idiosyncrasies, one thing is patently clear: She WORKED this movie and this is the best singing I have EVER heard from her (or since, for that matter and I was a Die-hard Supermes fan!) It is also especially wonderful to see some wonderful African-American treasures like Richard Pryor, Billy Dee, Isabel Sanford, Scatman Scrothers, among others. (I wish I knew Lorraine's name as the quintessential madam who was positively flawless!!!!) The production values are superior and the sound recreated for the DVD was a MUST because the movie is based on music. Listening to Diana sing "The Man I Love" and hear Billy Dee say "You want my arm to fall off?!" is worth the price of admission.

I haven't even had a chance to look at the special features or deleted scenes which I am sure will round out what I consider to be a classic African-American feature.

I HIGHLY recommend!!!

This film, which was a vehicle for Diana Ross's film career, harbors what could be described as some of the best performances put on screen. Diana's portrayal of Billie Holiday, Billie Dee Williams's acting, and Richard Pryor's performance were all Oscar calibur. This film is a gem and should have been given more attention by the Academy and by the film industry.

Diana Ross made a creditable acting debut here in the role of real-life legendary jazz singer Billie Holiday. Billie managed to overcome humbling beginnings - working as both a maid and prostitute - before making her mark with her great voice and natural entertaining ability. She also finds the love of her life with the slick Louis McKay (Billy Dee Williams). Unfortunately, Billies' life and promising career are derailed after she becomes a drug addict. With the love and support of Louis and her loyal friend "Piano Man" (Richard Pryor), she works to beat the addiction and give her career a second shot.

Despite not really looking or sounding like Lady Day, Ross delivers a show-stopping performance; while it may be a matter of personal taste, this viewer at least commends how obviously deeply committed Ross was to the part. The affable Williams is an endearing love interest, and Pryor here got a rare chance to show off his dramatic abilities by delivering an excellent supporting performance. A steady supply of familiar faces in other supporting roles (James T. Callahan, Paul Hampton, Sid Melton, Virginia Capers, Isabel Sanford, Ned Glass, Milton Selzer, Jester Hairston, Scatman Crothers, etc.) further aids in the entertainment value.

Granted, this viewer does understand that this is often pure Hollywood treatment of a true story, with quite a bit of dramatic license taken. Which is why films such as this should really just be taken for what they are: entertainment, although the material on hand may motivate interested viewers in digging into the real Billie Holiday tale. It's basically adequately directed, by Sidney J. Furie, a veteran journeyman filmmaker with some gems on his resume and some not-so-hot efforts. At 144 minutes, "Lady Sings the Blues" feels a little unwieldy, and could have been edited down a little, but at least the audience does get some sense of the impact that Holiday had in her chosen genre. One debit is the incidental score by Michel Legrand, which in no way compares to the standards performed by Ross and the bands here.

Ross and Williams were reunited for the film "Mahogany" three years later.

Seven out of 10.

In continuing my reviews of African-Americans in film in chronological order for Black History Month, we're now at 1972 with the biographical depiction of Billie Holliday as portrayed by Diana Ross called Lady Sings the Blues. While the movie itself isn't very accurate in recounting Lady Day's life and career and Ms. Ross herself hardly resembles the legendary singer, it does move along nicely as a drama especially with two of her costars-Billy Dee Williams and Richard Pryor-providing many scene stealing moments. As Holiday's lover Louis McKay, Williams oozes great romantic chemistry with Ross as we see him trying to get her out of whatever addictions she keeps coming back to. Then there's Pryor as Piano Man as we see many of his humorous moments, with or without Diana, bring some needed levity whenever things get heavy though there's some good drama concerning him at the end. Other black performers I'd like to mention include: Isabel Sandford as the first madame that Holiday encounters as we see her tell Billie she can keep the record she keeps playing. She was already familiar to TV viewers as Louise Jefferson on "All in the Family" which would later spin her off into "The Jeffersons". Then there's Lynn Hamilton as the second madame Ross encounters. Ms. Hamilton would later that year or next become familiar as Fred Sandford's girlfriend Donna Harris on "Sandford and Son". Harry Caesar plays a really creepy man who forces himself on teenage Billie in perhaps the movie's most chilling scene. There's also Jester Hairston-later familiar to me as Rolly on "Amen"-as a butler and, in perhaps the most humorous scene, Scatman Crothers as Big Ben, a client that prostitute Billie quits on to go audition at a night club. Ms. Ross was the second (or third since Cicely Tyson was also nominated that year for Sounder) African-American to be nominated an Oscar for Best Actress after Dorothy Dandridge's previous nod some 18 years before. It was much deserved especially with the drug-induced depictions handled realistically by her. The songs Holiday made famous are handled by Diana in a way that brings you back to the period depicted here. When the score plays during the Ross-Williams dialogue, however, it brings me temporarily out of the period and into the obviously-made-in-'70s mode. Other than that I highly enjoyed Lady Sings the Blues and recommend it to anyone who loves a good drama with good music.

Sidney J. Furie directed this biographical film about Billie Holiday, starring Diana Ross (who also sings). Billy Dee Williams costars as her love interest and Richard Pryor has a supporting role as a friendly piano player. They're both good. Oh, and the grandpa from Charles in Charge is good, too. Corny at times but nowhere near as ridiculous as the other '70s Ross/Williams collaboration, Mahogany. The junkie scenes are the worst, due to Ross' limited abilities as an actress. Her singing is nice, though. It's based off of Holiday's autobiography which wasn't entirely truthful, so a lot of this is pure fiction. Despite its faults, it's an entertaining movie. If you're familiar with Diana Ross' other movies, you know she isn't the greatest actress. This is easily her best performance, flawed as it is.