All Night Long is a 1962 film directed by Basil Dearden.
It is a loose adaptation of William Shakespeare's Othello, without the dialogue and set in the (1962) modern day, specifically in the London jazz scene. Aurelius Rex and his wife Delia are the Othello-Desdemona players, a black jazz musician and bandleader and his white wife, who retired from her own career as The Chanteuse to marry him. Delia admits to others that she'd like to work again but retired to placate her husband. Rod Hamilton (Richard Attenborough), a rich dude and a sort of patron of jazz, is throwing a big party in his club on the occasion of Aurelius and Delia's first wedding anniversary.
Enter Johnny Cousin (Patrick McGoohan in one of his first big movie parts), the Iago character. Johnny, the drummer in Aurelius's band, dreams of starting a band of his own and has gone into debt trying to make it happen. The only problem is, the producer Johnny asks for backing says that he won't support Johnny's band unless Johnny can get Delia to sing. Johnny resolves to destroy the Rex marriage, both to get Delia in his band and, it is implied, to have Delia for himself.
Tropes:
- Adaptational Alternate Ending: Othello has a deeply bleak ending in which Iago's plan works, even if Iago himself gets caught, and everybody in the main cast except for Cassio dies. This film has a happy ending in which everyone lives and the Rexes reconcile.
- Adaptational Name Change: All the characters, most of which get modernized versions of their names. However Othello and Iago, owners of the two weirdest names, get completely new ones.
- The Bard on Board: Othello, but without Shakespeare's dialogue and with a Happy Ending.
- Broken Bird: Emily, who knows that Johnny was basically forced into marrying her and doesn't love her. Although he apparently doesn't beat her he's emotionally abusive. She's become a shy, tremulous Lady Drunk as a result.
- The Cameo: Many jazz musicians of the day, including Dave Brubeck and the legendary Charles Mingus, appear as themselves, playing at the party.
- Chekhov's Gun: Both Rod's high-end tape recorder that he just got in his upstairs apartment, and a comment about how Johnny is very good at using it. Johnny uses it to record conversations with Cass and Delia, and then deceptively edits the recordings to make it sound like Cass and Delia are having an affair.
- Consummate Liar: Johnny, who excels at telling plausible lies and employing Could Say It, But... to trick people.
- Control Freak: Aurelius, who apparently refused to marry Delia unless she agreed to quit her career and just be his wife. She did so, but as she admits to others, she misses singing. It's this thin wedge that Johnny exploits when executing his plan.
- Dramatic Thunder: Used a few times in dramatic scenes, the most over-the-top instance being when there's a loud clap of thunder right after Aurelius listens to the faked audio recording of Delia and Cass discussing their affair.
- Easily Forgiven: Delia is awfully nice, forgiving Aurelius a matter of minutes after he nearly strangled her to death.
- Extremely Short Timespan: Not quite Real Time but not too far off, as the story plays out over the course of a few hours at a party.
- Flipping the Bird: One of the extraneous waitstaff at the party can be seen giving the finger to the musicians as he leaves. This is probably one of the first uses of flipping the bird since the imposition of the Hays Code.
- G-Rated Drug: Johnny, as part of his scheme, tempts Cass with a marijuana joint. This triggers a monologue from Cass about how he had to go to rehab, which Aurelius paid for, but now he's straight. He then proceeds to fall Off the Wagon with Johnny, and this super-dangerous marijuana joint causes him to get angry and violent and fling gratuitous insults at a producer, until Aurelius fires him. It's like the writers wanted to make the drug heroin or cocaine but didn't have the nerve.
- Lady Drunk: Emily, Johnny's beaten-down Broken Bird of a wife, who spends most of the party looking for another drink. She comments about how Johnny doesn't like it when she drinks.
- Manipulative Bastard: Johnny, whose quick thinking (unlike Iago who planned ahead, he seems to come up with the plan on the spot at the party) gets Cass to fall Off the Wagon and sets Aurelius against his wife.
- Off-into-the-Distance Ending: Ends with Aurelius and Delia, arm in arm, walking down the banks of the Thames.
- Off the Wagon: Johnny succeeds in getting Cass to fall off the wagon and enjoy a marijuana cigarette.
- Open-Door Opening: The first shot is a servant opening a door, which Roderick walks through as he's leaving for his jazz club and the big party.
- Recorded Spliced Conversation: With a tape recorder recording, Johnny leads Cass into a discussion of Cass's complicated affair with Benny (who is a woman), then leaves the machine running as Delia comes in and tries to cheer Cass up. He then edits these innocuous conversations into what sounds like Delia and Cass talking about a love affair of their own. (This is a second piece of fake evidence of an affair, along with the gold cigarette case that corresponds to Othello's handkerchief.)
- Rooftop Confrontation: Aurelius chases Johnny to the roof, catches him, and is about to strangle him to death when Delia shows up. This both saves Johnny's life and reveals that Aurelius didn't kill Delia.
- Spared by the Adaptation: Othello is one of Shakespeare's grimmer plays in which almost everybody but Cassius and Iago dies, and Iago surely soon will. The Adaptational Alternate Ending of this movie has everybody survive.
- Thunder Equals Downpour: Rod arrives at his club and gets out of his limo. There's a crack of thunder, and instantly it's pouring rain.
- Title Drop: Delia sings a ballad called "All Night Long" at the party.
- Unwanted Spouse: Emily tells a depressing story about how Johnny stumbled into a marriage with her when he was drunk, and had to stay married to her because she was underage and it was either stay married or go to prison. Despite knowing he doesn't even like her she loves him anyway. At the end when she says so, he tells her to get lost, that he can't love anybody, not even himself.
