The Strip (1951)

Ex-serviceman, posing as an insurance salesman but actually working for a racketeer, allows a pretty but romantically-aloof waitress to talk him into taking the drummer's gig at the jazz club where she works; naturally, he thinks this means she loves him, but she's got eyes for his dapper former boss. "The Strip"--as in Hollywood's famous Sunset Strip--is, if nothing else, a flashback to Los Angeles in 1951, when wealthy mobsters ruled the underworld and nightclubs were packed with patrons just waiting for a hot drum solo. If it weren't for Joe Pasternak's production and Robert Surtees' cinematography, this MGM effort would easily pass for a b-movie. The script and characters are too thin to support the framing story about a shooting, while Mickey Rooney's hyper lead performance verges on camp. Rooney, playing a musician so clean-cut he actually leaves the lucrative 'dark side' for a life of hoped-for domesticity, is unconvincingly unfettered by drugs or booze--his vice is romance! The movie has no connection with reality, though the soloists (including Louis Armstrong and Vic Damone) are enjoyable. ** from ****

Hollywood's finest are called to investigate two gunshot victims, which leads the police to haul jazz drummer Mickey Rooney (as Stanley "Stan" Maxton) in for questioning… In flashback, Mr. Rooney explains how he became acquainted with wounded Sally Forrest (as Jane Tafford) and dead James Craig (as Delwyn "Sonny" Johnson). After Korean War service, Rooney goes to work for the latter, a successful salesman. When one of Mr. Craig's joints is raided, Rooney escapes in an auto driven by Ms. Forrest. His pretty blonde driver tells Rooney she works as a dancer at the Dixieland nightclub "fluff's" on "The Strip" (Sunset Strip).Rooney goes to see Forrest dance. Wearing those stockings with the eye-catching lines going up the back, Forrest dances up a storm. Then, Rooney shows off his prowess with the sticks (he impersonates a drummer very well), which prompts a job offer from club owner William Demarest (as Fluff). To get close to Forrest, Rooney takes the job. Unfortunately, Rooney winds up being third wheel to the future shooting victims...Louis Armstrong and the musicians are terrific. Mr. Armstrong's rendition of "A Kiss to Build a Dream On" was a big R&B and Pop hit during the film's release. Rooney is fun to watch behind the drum set, or breakfast table and piano with Mr. Demarest. And, he and Tommy Rettig (as Artie) have some funny scenes. "The Strip" doesn't know whether to be a musical or a crime drama, but one makes up for what the other lacks.****** The Strip (8/31/51) Leslie Kardos ~ Mickey Rooney, Sally Forrest, William Demarest, James Craig

These types off film were being hammered out weekly in the 1950's. Superficially, there is little to distinguish this from the rest. However as it progresses, there is much to admire and enjoy. I love the format of an a hour and a quarter running time. Long enough to tell a simple tale, but without any time for padding, every frame counts.Mickey Rooney is a fine character actor. One of the minor amusements here is watching a diminutive Rooney playing the lead, being dwarfed by everyone apart from his leading lady, Sally Forrest, who is probably the only actor on screen smaller than him! The premise of the loser/little guy who stands up for himself works well with several acutely observed scenes. The tragic denouement is a genuine surprise and is well told with clever editing keeping the tale skimming along at a brisk pace.The musical,and song and dance interludes provide pleasing pauses in the action resulting in a film that ultimately delivers because it works so conspicuously within it's boundaries, rather than trying to push them.

The murder/suspense plot is little more than a convenient set of bookends to showcase the post-adolescent Mickey Rooney, Sally Forest and a gathering of jazz greats (Louis Armstrong, Jack Teagarden, Earl Hines, Vic Damone) in the setting of a Sunset Strip nightspot. James Craig isn't bad as the mustachioed "heavy" doting on his office foliage (after Dewey's defeat in '48, mustaches became quite unAmerican). This movie is neither fish nor fowl nor good red herring, and only marginally "noir" by virtue of date, setting and plotline, but it's watchable -- the music and dance numbers are pretty good. Like a couple of other films ("The Man I Love;" "Love Me or Leave Me") it gives evidence that a new genre might have been in formation: the musical noir.