Louis ArmstrongFilmography

The Best of the Johnny Cash TV Show, 1969-1971

Actors: Kris Kristofferson

Synopsis: The Best of the Johnny Cash Show captures a number of memorable performances from the variety show hosted by the country music legend. This collection includes performances by Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison, Neil Young, Ray Charles, Pete Seeger, and Creedence Clearwater Revival. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Read More

Play Your Own Thing: A Story of Jazz in Europe

Actors: Jan Garbarek, Django Bates, Antonello Salis, Gianluigi Trovesi, Paul Kuhn

Synopsis: Take a voyage through the history of European jazz in this musical meditation on the origins, growth, and exciting shifts in direction that came to define the endless search for that ever-elusive "voice of one's own." As musicians from both sides of the Atlantic began working in unison, jazz Read More

Chooch

Crew: Featured Music

Actors: Paola Walker, Carmine Famiglietti, Pete Medina, Kiwi Limone, Gino Cafarelli, Ray Mancini, Tami Powers, Stefan Lysenko

Synopsis: A guy eager to leave some bad luck behind unexpectedly walks into a series of disasters in this comedy. Dino Condito (Carmine Famiglietti) has been persona non grata in his neighborhood in Queens ever since he flubbed a crucial play that cost his softball team the league championship against Read More

The Golden Age of Jazz, Vol. 1

Synopsis: Golden Age of Jazz Volume 1 contains nearly two-dozen short films of performances by some of the most legendary figures in jazz history. Included are short films of Duke Ellington performing "Stormy Weather," Gene Krupa performing "Jungle Madness," and Cab Calloway singing "Smokey Joe." ~ Perry Read More

Encore Series: Louis Armstrong

Synopsis: Legendary trumpeter Louis Armstrong performs seven classic tunes in this release comprised of footage from television appearances, "Soundies," and early-sixties Goodyear Tyre Company jazz shorts. "Hello Dolly" and "Hello Dolly (Reprise)" are taken from a live television performance in Fort Hood Read More

Sinatra: The Classic Duets

Actors: Frank Sinatra

Synopsis: Sinatra: The Classic Duets features the beloved crooner singing with a variety of other famous performers including Louis Armstrong, Elvis Presley, and Ethel Merman, as well as his daughter Nancy Sinatra. Also featured are numbers with his old Rat Pack buddies Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. Among Read More

Louis Armstrong: 100th Anniversary

Synopsis: The biggest names in 20th Century music perform with one of the greatest improvisational players in jazz history as film star Paula Kelly hosts a collection of memorable clips compiled to celebrate the 100th birthday of trumpet virtuoso Louis Armstrong. From the streets of New Orleans to the Read More

Jazz Festival, Vol. 1

Synopsis: In this release featuring three of the Goodyear Tyre Company's five short jazz films, The Louis Armstrong All Stars, The Eddie Condon All Stars, and the Bobby Hacket Sextet are showcased performing a variety of their best-loved hits. Originally filmed on 35mm negative and recorded in professional Read More

Jazz Classics for Fingerstyle Guitar, Vol. 1

Mahalia Jackson: The Power and the Glory - The Life and Music of the World's Greatest Gospel Singer

Synopsis: Mahalia Jackson was arguably the finest and most important performer in the history of gospel music; her rich and expressive vocal style proved massively influential, and she was the first African-American gospel artist to sell over a million copies of a record (with the superb "Move on up a Read More

Benny Goodman: Adventures in the Kingdom of Swing

Actors: Benny Goodman

Synopsis: This biography of musical legend Benny Goodman contains testimonials from various contemporaries and scholars, and offers several clips of the man in performance. Nearly two-dozen songs can be heard including "California, Here I Come," "A Fine Romance," "Why Don't You Do Right," "I've Got a Heart Read More

At the Jazz Band Ball: Early Hot Jazz, Song and Dance

Synopsis: In the mid-1920's, just as jazz was firmly establishing itself as America's dominant popular music form, new advancements in motion picture technology allowed sound to be recorded along with moving pictures, and as a fortunate consequence many of the great artists of the first renaissance of jazz Read More

Lester Young & Billie Holiday

Synopsis: Two vocalists are captured performing some of their famous songs. "Jumpin' the Blues" and "Symphony in Black" are featured in Young's show. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

Music and Comedy Masters Series

Synopsis: Review the history of black show-business. Music, dance and comic routines are featured in this six volume set. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

Soundies, Vol. 1: 1940's Music Machine

Synopsis: The upbeat big band sounds and performances of the 1940s, originally called "Soundies," which were viewed on a Panoram machine. Highlights include Spade Cooley and his Western Dance Gang, Lawrence Welk and his orchestra performing "Nobody Knows How Much I Love You," and an appearance by Ozzie Read More

Masters of American Music: Satchmo - Louis Armstrong

Synopsis: This is a comprehensive documentary of one of the 20th century's most influential jazz performers, the legendary Louis Armstrong. This 87-minute documentary pieces together the life of Satchmo using never-before-seen homemade films, clips from stage shows, and excerpts from some of his movies like Hello, Dolly Read More

Milton Berle: The Second Time Around - Legends

Harlem Roots, Vol. 2: The Headliners

Synopsis: In the second of the Harlem Roots series, Harlem Roots, Vol. 2: The Headliners, Storyville Films presents another collection of "Soundies," short musical films that appeared on a jukebox machine called a Panoram. The headliners here are Louis Armstrong and His Band, Fats Waller, and Louis Jordan. Read More

Celebrating Bird: The Triumph of Charlie Parker

Synopsis: One year before the Clint Eastwood-directed Bird, Gary Giddins likewise covered the life and work of jazz great Charlie "Bird" Parker in this absorbing documentary. Rare filmclips of Parker in action on the alto and tenor sax are intertwined with the live reminiscences of his contemporaries. Among Read More

Louis Armstrong and His Orchestra: 1942-1965

Synopsis: Velma Middleton is the vocalist for this collection from Armstrong's 1942 band. Songs include "Swingin' on Nothin'," "Sleepy Time Down South," "Shine" and "You Rascal You." The program also features a later appearance from Louis and the All-Stars. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

Trumpet Kings

The Music of Man [Video Series]

Synopsis: This eight part series follows the roles music has played in the development of mankind's culture and societies. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

Bix

Actors: Hoagy Carmichael

Synopsis: "Bix" Beiderbecke (1903-1931) was one of the best (and self-taught) cornetists in U.S. jazz history, playing at a time when Louis Armstrong was acclaimed for his jazz renderings, yet in no way similar to Armstrong in sound and style. Bix had hardcore conservative parents whose stance against jazz Read More

All You Need is Love: The Story of Popular Music: Jungle Music (Jazz)

Actors: Charles Mingus, Charlie "Bird" Parker, Chick Corea, Count Basie, Dave Brubeck

Synopsis: This documentary about the history of popular music in America focuses on the evolution of jazz music that took place throughout the South, taking a look at the broader musical principles that first set the style of music apart. ~ Cammila Albertson, All Movie Guide Read More

Kid Punch Miller: 'Til the Butcher Cuts Him Down

Hello, Dolly!

Actors: Barbra Streisand, Walter Matthau, Michael Crawford, Louis Armstrong, Marianne McAndrew

Synopsis: Twenty-seven-year-old Barbra Streisand seemed an inappropriate choice for middle-aged, match-making widow Dolly Levi, but her energy carries her right through the role and dominates the lackluster movie around her. The plot, drawn from Thornton Wilder's The Matchmaker (itself based on a Read More

Louis Armstrong

Synopsis: Use the music to discover the man. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

A Man Called Adam

Actors: Sammy Davis, Jr., Louis Armstrong, Ossie Davis, Cicely Tyson, Frank Sinatra, Jr., Peter Lawford

Synopsis: A star-studded cast invigorates this film of a jazz trumpeter (Sammy Davis Jr.) who experiences both the prejudices of the music industry and terrible guilt following the traffic accident that killed his family, a tragedy he feels personally responsible for. Co-stars include several giants of jazz Read More

When the Boys Meet the Girls

Actors: Connie Francis, Harve Presnell, Herman's Hermits, Louis Armstrong, Sam the Sham & the Pharoahs, Sue Ane Langdon

Synopsis: Narrative takes a back seat to music in this loose remake of Girl Crazy, as Harve Presnell plays a footloose young millionaire who meets perky Connie Francis and hatches a scheme to save her father's failing Nevada ranch by turning it into a resort for people waiting out their quickie Las Vegas Read More

Louis Armstrong: Live in Australia 1964

Actors: Louis Armstrong, Jewell Brown, Joe Darensbourg

Synopsis: One of the world's best-loved performers, Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong, headlines this exclusive concert, performed and shot in Australia circa 1964. A five-piece band comprised of Billy Kyle, Arvell Shaw, Danny Barcelona, Trummy Young and Joe Darensbourg, backs up Armstrong, while singer Jewel Brown Read More

Louis Armstrong: The Good Years of Jazz, Vol. 1

Jazz Concert 1: Louis Armstrong & Duke Ellington

Synopsis: This musical documentary features Louis Armstrong and a host of others. "Take The A Train" is one highlight. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

Goodyear Jazz Concert with Louis Armstrong

Paris Blues

Actors: Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Sidney Poitier, Louis Armstrong, Diahann Carroll

Synopsis: The second film of director Martin Ritt with both Paul Newmanand Sidney Poitier, it's set in a city that has long been a haven for black musicians eager to escape the racism of the U.S. Newman is Ram Bowen, a trombone player who makes his living in a jazz group, which also includes tenor man Eddie Read More

The Beat Generation

Crew: Songwriter

Actors: Steve Cochran, Mamie van Doren, Ray Danton, Fay Spain, Louis Armstrong

Synopsis: Set within the popular bohemian coffee houses of the late '50s where beatniks gathered to recite poetry and perform, this sensationalistic detective drama centers upon the attempts of an insensitive police detective to catch an arrogant serial rapist, a rich young man who believes himself mentally Read More

Die Nacht Vor Der Premiere

Synopsis: This fictional story tells of a South American dancer and her daughter who wants to marry a man from Hamburg. Mom decided to intervene and gets mixed up with drug smugglers. This is in German only. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

Jazz on a Summer's Day

Actors: Gerry Mulligan, Anita O'Day

Synopsis: Jazz on a Summer's Day is a priceless record of the 1958 Jazz Festival at Newport, Rhode Island. It just doesn't get better than this. We see Louis Armstrong, Mahalia Jackson, Dinah Washington, Chuck Berry, Thelonious Monk, Gerry Mulligan, George Shearing, Jack Teagarden, Sonny Stitt, Chico Hamilton Read More

The Five Pennies

Actors: Danny Kaye, Barbara Bel Geddes, Louis Armstrong, Harry Guardino, Tuesday Weld, Bob Crosby

Synopsis: The Five Pennies is the life story of influential jazz cornetist Red Nichols, played here by a remarkably straight-faced Danny Kaye. The somewhat romanticized screenplay chronicles Nichols' rise from obscurity, annotates the many future bandleaders who would play with Nichols' "Five Pennies," and Read More

The All-Star Christmas Show

Actors: Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, George Burns, Milton Berle, Jack Benny

Synopsis: Produced for the Armed Forces overseas, this is a holiday spectacular created for Christmas. Fifty of the top stars of Hollywood in the 1950s turned out to be a part of this special. Some of these included: Bob Hope, George Burns, Bing Crosby, Danny Thomas, Dinah Shore, Shirley MacLaine, and Jane Russell Read More

Timex All-Star Jazz Show

Satchmo The Great

Synopsis: Can there be any question as to the identity of the subject in Satchmo the Great. An expansion of an earlier TV special, this 63-minute documentary was produced by Edward R. Murrow and Fred Friendly, of See It Now fame. Murrow also narrates this lively filmed record of Louis Armstrong's recent Read More

The Edsel Show

Actors: Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Rosemary Clooney, Louis Armstrong

Synopsis: A star-studded television special that introduced the Edsel to the American people. The Edsel was a new Ford model of the late '50s that later became an industry joke. Historically important as the first live entertainment TV broadcast to be recorded on video tape for later rebroadcast. ~ All Read More

Ford Star Jubilee: You're the Top

Synopsis: For its first broadcast of the 1956-57 season, the monthly CBS variety anthology Ford-Star Jubilee offered a full-color salute to composer Cole Porter. Opening with (what else?) "Another Opening, Another Show (from Porter's Kiss Me Kate), the 90-minute special featured an all-star cast performing Read More

Jazz Ball

Synopsis: This evening of musical magic includes some of the greatest jazz artists and their exciting performances. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

High Society

Actors: Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Celeste Holm, John Lund

Synopsis: High Society is a glossy Technicolor-and-VistaVision musical remake of Philip Barry's The Philadelphia Story (1940), decked out with million-watt star power and a Cole Porter score. Set amongst the rich and famous in Newport, RI, the story revolves around the wedding plans of socialite Tracy Lord (Grace Kelly Read More

Ford Star Jubilee Salute to Cole Porter

Synopsis: A music performance video, an old TV special of performances of Porter's music. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

Wide Wide World [TV Series]

Actors: Dave Garroway, Louis Armstrong, Velma Middleton, Woody Herman & His Orchestra, Bobby Hackett

The Glenn Miller Story

Actors: James Stewart, June Allyson, Charles Drake, George Tobias, Henry Morgan

Synopsis: The Glenn Miller Story traces Miller's rise from pit-orchestra trombone player to leader of the most successful big band of his era. June Allyson is on hand as Miller's wife, Helen, who learns the value of patience when Glenn spends his wedding night jamming with Gene Krupa and Louis Armstrong. Read More

Juke Box Saturday Night: All Star Golden Classics

Synopsis: This musical presentation features the stars of the '30s, '40s and '50s. Some performers are the Ink Spots, Bobby Darin, Peggy Lee, Sammy Davis Jr. and the bands of Benny Goodman, Charlie Barnet and Lionel Hampton. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

Glory Alley

Actors: Ralph Meeker, Leslie Caron, Kurt Kasznar, Gilbert Roland, John McIntire

Synopsis: Authentic New Orleans locations enhance the overall enjoyment of the prizefight melodrama Glory Alley. A mere few seconds before a championship bout, Socks Barbarrosa (Ralph Meeker) decides to throw in the towel so far as his boxing career is concerned. Socks' friends, family and handlers assume Read More

Here Comes the Groom

Actors: Bing Crosby, Jane Wyman, Alexis Smith, Franchot Tone, James Barton

Synopsis: Here Comes the Groom was the second collaboration between director Frank Capra and star Bing Crosby. Though not as "socially relevant" as previous Capra productions, the film is a thoroughly likeable yarn about a happy-go-lucky newspaperman named Pete (Bing Crosby). In order to legally adopt a Read More

Je Suis de la Revue

Actors: Fernandel, Suzy Delair, Louis Armstrong, Katherine Dunham

Synopsis: Two Italian films directed by Mario Soldati were released in Europe within two days of each other. The first was the lighthearted musical comedy Je Suis de la Revue. The vivacious Suzy Delair, more or less playing herself, stars as a popular actress making a personal appearance in Rome. The Read More

Harlem Swings

A Song Is Born

Actors: Danny Kaye, Virginia Mayo, Benny Goodman, Hugh Herbert, Steve Cochran

Synopsis: A Song is Born is a musical remake of the 1941 comedy Ball of Fire, with the same producer (Sam Goldwyn) and director (Howard Hawks) at the helm. It will be recalled that the original film, co-scripted by Billy Wilder, was an amusing spin on "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," wherein seven Read More

Cowboy Cavalier

Synopsis: In this western a singing cowboy and his side-kick rescue a pretty gal who runs a stagecoach and finds herself in trouble. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Outlaw Brand

Synopsis: Hired to catch a killer horse named Midnight, Jimmy Wakely and sidekick Cannonball (Dub Taylor) get themselves in trouble with a couple of confidence artists, Monica (Christine Larson) and Brent (Leonard Penn). The latter accidentally kills Jimmy's employer, horse breeder Tom Chadwick (Tom Chatterton Read More

New Orleans

Actors: John Alexander, Louis Armstrong, Arturo de Cordova, Dorothy Patrick

Synopsis: New Orleans is Republic Pictures' spin on such "musical origin" films as Birth of the Blues and Dixie. Covering nearly four decades, the story is a fanciful recreation of the "birth" of American jazz music. Arturo de Cordova plays Nick Duquesne, owner of a posh gambling house in Read More

Pillow to Post

Actors: Ida Lupino, Sydney Greenstreet, Stuart Erwin, Johnny Mitchell

Synopsis: Yes, even Ida Lupino occasionally starred in screwball comedies during the 1930s and 1940s. Pillow to Post casts Lupino as free-spirited travelling saleswoman Jane Howard, who has trouble finding suitable lodgings during the wartime housing shortage. In order to secure a room at a motor camp Read More

Jam Session

Actors: Ann Miller, Jess Barker, Charles D. Brown, Eddie Kane, George Eldredge

Synopsis: Within its brisk 78 minutes, Jam Session manages to accommodate the singing, dancing and acting talents of Ann Miller, a romantic main plot, a comic subplot-and no fewer than six big-name orchestras. The story is the old saw about a small-town girl named Terry Baxter (Miller), who wins a trip to Read More

Atlantic City

Actors: Stanley Brown, Constance Moore, Brad Taylor, Charles Grapewin, Jerry Colonna

Synopsis: Definitely no relation to the 1980 Louis Malle film of the same name, 1944's Atlantic City is a tuneful Republic musical, not quite an "A" picture but certainly not a "B". Brad Taylor (who formerly acted at Columbia under the name of Stanley Brown) stars as Brad, an early-20th-century entrepreneur Read More

Cabin in the Sky

Actors: Ethel Waters, Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, Lena Horne, Louis Armstrong, Rex Ingram

Synopsis: MGM knew it would take a bath on its all-black musical Cabin in the Sky (few Southern theaters of 1943 would touch the film), but the studio still provided its standard A-plus production values to the film; besides, it served as a training ground for up-and-coming director Vincente Minnelli. Based Read More

Show Business at War

Going Places

Actors: Dick Powell, Anita Louise, Allen Jenkins, Ronald Reagan, Walter Catlett

Synopsis: Louis Armstrong steals the show as the groom to Jeepers Creepers, a skittish racehorse that can only settle down and run when Armstrong croons him the horse's namesake song. The main story concerns a plucky, ingenious salesman, who needing business, poses as a steeplechase jockey and endears Read More

Doctor Rhythm

Actors: Bing Crosby, Mary Carlisle, Beatrice Lillie, Andy Devine, Rufe Davis

Synopsis: Bing Crosby plays the melodic medico of the title. To help cover for his ailing policeman pal (Andy Devine), Crosby takes the policeman's latest assignment and becomes the bodyguard for a loopy but wealthy matron (Bea Lillie). Bing falls in love with the lady's niece (Mary Carlisle), expressing Read More

Every Day's a Holiday

Actors: Mae West, Edmund Lowe, Charles Butterworth, Charles Winninger, Walter Catlett, Lloyd Nolan

Synopsis: Paramount spent a record one million dollars on its 1937 Mae West vehicle Every Day's a Holiday. La West portrays a turn-of-century confidence trickster who poses as a famous French chanteuse to avoid arrest. In this guise, she manages to expose crooked police chief Lloyd Nolan and smooths the Read More

Artists and Models

Actors: Jack Benny, Ida Lupino, Richard Arlen, Gail Patrick, Ben Blue

Synopsis: Jack Benny had one of his first starring film roles in this breezy comedy with plenty of music. Benny plays Mac Brewster, an advertising man trying to hold on to his biggest client, a silver company run by Alan Townshend (Richard Arlen). Elsewhere in the office, Paula Sewell (Ida Lupino) longs to Read More

Pennies from Heaven

Actors: Nydia Westman, Bing Crosby, Madge Evans, Edith Fellows, Donald Meek, John Gallaudet, Louis Armstrong, Tom Dugan

Synopsis: In his only visit to Columbia Pictures, Paramount's resident crooner Bing Crosby stars in a sentimental musical drama. In jail on a trumped-up charge, Crosby meets a condemned prisoner, and promises the doomed man to look after his little girl (Edith Fellows) when he gets out. The girl's Read More

Great Jazz Bands of the 30's

A Rhapsody in Black and Blue

Actors: Louis Armstrong

Synopsis: Jazz trumpeter and singer Louis Armstrong is the star of A Rhapsody in Black and Blue, one of numerous musical shorts directed by Aubrey Scotto in the 1930s. The film opens with an unidentified man in his home, listening to Armstrong on the gramophone while playing drums on a homemade set of pots Read More

The Frank Sinatra Collection: Frank Sinatra with Louis Armstrong

Synopsis: Francis Albert Sinatra (1915-1998) went a long way for a kid from Hoboken, NJ. He became one of the world's most admired singers, a recording star, a radio star, and an Academy Award-winning actor. Part of a ten-tape collection, this program features clips from Sinatra's October 1957 television Read More

Music Classics, Vol. 6

Synopsis: The 1940s was a monumental decade for the United States. Amid World War II, economic recovery, and the start of the Cold War, American music provided a soundtrack to a generation. The Music Classics line from MPI Home Video attempts to offer the chance to relieve the era with a ten-volume series Read More

Jazz Concert 3

Synopsis: This collection of five musical shorts feature Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Eubie Blake and Don Redman. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

Louis Armstrong and Friends

Actors: Louis Armstrong

Synopsis: The release Louis Armstrong and Friends compiles rare kinescope footage of the legendary titular bluesman performing, culled from various early television broadcasts. The included performance footage finds Armstrong playing alongside such contemporaries as Dizzy Gillespie (in what was reportedly Read More