The film you have just seen is an improvisation

I'm always up for something I haven't seen before. So some time back when TCM had a double feature of films directed by John Cassavetes, I recorded both of them. It took me a while to get around to watching either, in part because I also had A Woman Under the Influence on my DVR, but recently I watched the first of the movies, which was in fact Cassavetes' directorial debut: Shadows.

Hugh (Hugh Hurd) is a black jazz singer living in New York, although he's not exactly successfull because his style is no longer in style. He's got two younger siblings living with him, both of whom are lighter-skinned than him: Ben (Ben Carruthers) and Lelia (Lelia Goldoni), although thanks in part to the low quality of the film stock you wonder whether both of them could have passed as white, which is important to the plot such as it is.

One night at a party, Lelia meets Tony (Anthony Ray), who seems like a nice enough guy, and also seems sincerely interested in Lelia. But of course, Tony is white, which is going to be a problem for some people since interracial relationships are still an issue for some people today. One of those people, in fact, is Hugh.

Meanwhile, Ben is flailing in his career as a would-be trumpeter, and seems to spend more time with his white friends Tom and Dennis going to bars and trying to pick up women than he does trying to get jobs. Ben is also obviously trying to find his place in the world, and as we'll see he's not always successful in this, although it's also not necessarily because of race since his white friends are just as aimless.

Hugh hosts a party where he tries to set Lelia up with a nice black man, and when Tony shows up later looking for Lelia who is out with the guy Hugh set Lelia up with, Hugh is none too happy. Will anybody be able to find love? Will everybody overcome racism to live in harmony?

The end of the movie contains a title card claiming that Shadows is an improvisation, which is only partly true, and also a big part of the problem the movie has. Cassavetes' original intention was for the entire movie to be an improvisation, but that proved to be a disaster when he showed the original cut to audiences. So he reworked the movie with some scripted stuff, and the result is the movie we have today.

I think Cassavetes should have spent more time coming up with a good script rather than trying to be daring and experimental. There's some good ideas here, but the actors don't come across as talented enough to be doing improv, so a lot of it feels rather amateurish. Ultimately Shadows is an interesting attempt, but one that doesn't quite succeed.