La muerte silba un blues aka Death Whistles the Blues 1964) Spanish Jazz Noir

Directed by composer / musician - Jesús Franco (Venus in Furs, Succubus). 

Written by Luis de Diego and Jesús Franco. The Cinematography was by Juan Mariné and the Music by Antón García Abril.  

Jesús Franco a bit of a musical prodigy was only six years old when he started composing music. He studied at Real Conservatorio de Madrid, piano and harmony. He also studied Law, became a paperback writer, went to Paris to study directing techniques at the Sorbonne. He also immersed himself in the film archive there. Back in Spain he began composing for and directing films. 

He made films in all genres, from "B" horror films to pure hardcore sex films. He also often contributed to his films working also as composer, writer, cinematographer and editor.

"He acted in almost all of his films, playing musicians, lawyers, porters and others, all of them sinister, manic and comic characters."

* In the 1970s he, along with Luis Buñuel, was declared one of the most dangerous filmmakers for Catholics by the Catholic Church. Upon hearing this, Buñuel got interested in meeting Franco, and said so to his frequent collaborator Jean-Claude Carrière, who was at that moment developing a script with Franco. Carrière introduced them to each other. (IMDb) 

* lol, this alone would make him what Mid 1930s French Political and Religious publications called a director of Films Noir.

The only other film of Franco's that I know for sure I've seen is Paroxismus - Può una morta rivivere per amore? aka Venus in Furs (1969) a Surreal Erotic Euro Trash Jazz on the Cusp of Noir. I gave it a 6.5 more for the cinematography than anything else. 

This film is quite different. An solid international Noir the story set in Spain - New Orleans - Jamaica shot mostly in Andalusia Spain with establishing shots of Jamaica all set to a good jazz score. 

The film stars Conrado San Martín as Alfred "Joao"  Pereira / Federico de Castro, Manuel Alexandre as musician Julius Smith, Georges Rollin as Paul Vogle / Radeck, Perla Cristal as Lina, Danik Patisson as Moira Santos, Mike Brendel as Pulgarcito, Joe Brown as Joe, Jimmy Wright as Jimmy, and Adriano Domínguez as Comisario Folch.

Conrado San Martín as Alfred "Joao"  Pereira / Federico de Castro,

 Perla Cristal as Lina

Manuel Alexandre as Julius Smith

Danik Patisson as Moira Santos

Georges Rollin as Paul Vogle / Radeck

On either side of Conrado San Martín are Joe Brown as Joe, and Jimmy Wright as Jimmy

I watched a streamer of La muerte silba un blues that looks fantastic the only problem with it was the English subtitles were about two minutes ahead of the film's audio dialog. The plot is made more complicated by the use of alias' for some of the main characters. Even some of the small blurb reviews you find on line for the film screw things up in their synopsis' getting the characters alias names wrong. 

The Story

It begins with a flashback.

Spain. Three men Paul Vogle an arms dealer, Alfred "Joao" Castro a sailor, and a musician Julius Smith, plan to smuggle machine guns to rebel forces during the Spanish Civil War. 

Castro is driving, Smith is riding shotgun. They are in a fruit truck. They talk about the big score they'll make. Smith says that he's gonna be playing in a band again soon. Castro tells Julius that  Lina  will join them and all three of them can start over. 

At a bridge crossing a military roadblock stops the truck. The soldiers begin to toss out the crates of fruit. Someone ratted them out and it can only be Vogle. 

Both Castro and Smith jump from the cab and start running. The soldiers pursue and begin shooting when they don't stop. Smith doesn't even make it off the bridge, Castro is shot in the back on the river bank. 

End flashback

15 years later. New Orleans (looks like Franco stuck in a quick shot of Times Square, lol). Cut to the Oriental Occidental Jazz Club, Julius Smith is now playing trumpet. 

Manuel Alexandre lt., and Jesús Franco the director on sax rt.

Julius spots Lina

While playing Julius spots Alfred Castro's wife Lina (a former nightclub singer) in a group of people she obviously knows. He tells the band to play the "Roof Blues." It's sort of the love song that Alfred and Lina shared. 

Julius mutes the trumpet for Roof Blues

We cut to a sailboat on the Gulf of Mexico. Lina is sitting on the deck, contemplating. Another cut shows a montage of a tropical island port and its vicinity. Jamaica. 

At a seaside estate we see Paul Vogle now using the alias Paul Radeck, a gray haired wearing swim trunks. He's laying on top of a diving board above a sinuous free form pool with a drink. He looks as if he's dozed off. The sum has turned the Caribbean silvery. The trees rustle in the wind. 

Lina and the people from the sailboat arrive laughing and talking. They wake Paul up. He asks Lina how was New Orleans. She tells him it was great. She relates to him about meeting their old friend Julius Smith. 

 I met Julius Smith

Paul mentions to Lina that Julius got out of prison two years ago. Lina explains to Paul that seeing Julius brought back sad memories. Her life was happy back then but complicated. Lina tells Paul that she didn't tell Julius that they were married. Paul and Lina leave the pool and go to join their guests.

Cut back to the Oriental /Occidental Jazz Club entrance. We see Julius stumbling out of the entrance carrying his horn, obviously drunk. 

He pauses to light a cigarette. In a sedan up the street men are watching him. Julian continues out into the street, The idling sedan jumps into gear and squeals its tires as it plows into Julius knocking to the pavement and crushing his horn.

The two tone shoes are a nice touch

Julius lives long enough to make a statement. He tells Fenton a New Orleans based Detective or FBI Agent (it's never explained but inferred) about working for notorious criminal arms dealer Paul Vogle,

He tells them about getting ratted out in Spain by Vogle, and about finding out from Lina that Vogel's not dead as everybody thought. but he's living on Jamaica as Paul Radeck. He's got it all written down in a letter in his pocket. 

Fenton and Interpol decide to send some "bait" to Jamaica to act as an informer who could get close to this Radeck, a blonde lounge singer named Moira Santos. They picked her up six moths ago and she'll be willing to do anything to get cut loose again. The authorities arrange to have her land a gig at the nightclub Radeck frequents.

Lina and Paul start having marital problems after Lina notices Paul paying way too much attention to this new blonde nightclub chanteuse named Moira Santos. 

After they leave the nightclub, Lisa complains about Moira to Paul he pulls a temper tantrum and floors the gas, keeping the pedal to the metal until they run out of road at a beach..

It all goes Noirsville when  Federico de Castro comes back from the dead and shows up in Jamaica as Alfred "Joao"  Pereira and puts together a Jamaican crew and comes looking for Lina and Paul.

Noirsville

The fact that the streamer of this film had the subtitles out of sync plus the complication of two of the principals have double names caused me to take longer to watch than usual. The film is a love letter to Film Noir and Jazz. 7.5/10.