In my piece last week about visiting the Chess Records Museum in Chicago, I mentioned Darnell Martin’s 2008 movie, “Cadillac Records,” which tells some of the story of the legends who recorded there. My wife and I watched the movie recently and got a big kick out of it thanks to the history lesson we learned from our tour of the museum. So today I’m adding it to my Movies You Might Not Know list.
The arc of the story starts with Chess recognizing something special in Muddy Waters, who had been a field worker in Mississippi before getting a chance to record and perform the blues. It continues as other artists are signed to the label and make their contributions to creating a new sound that quickly grew in popularity in the 1950s, a genuine American art form and a forerunner to rock and roll. Along the way, there are run-ins with the police, problems with booze and drugs, and men who couldn’t help cheating on their women. In other words, the very basis of The Blues.
“Cadillac Records” stars Adrien Brody as Leonard Chess, Emmanuelle Chriqui as his wife Revetta, Jeffrey Wright as Muddy Waters, Gabrielle Union as his wife Geneva, Cedric The Entertainer as Willie Dixon, Beyoncé as Etta James, Eamonn Walker as Howlin’ Wolf, Eric Bogosian as Alan Freed, Isaiah Whitlock Jr. as another radio DJ, Columbus Short as the hot-headed harmonica player Little Walter, and Mos Def as Chuck Berry.
It’s not only the acting that makes the movie work. The soundtrack sounds utterly authentic, too. Especially Beyoncé singing a version of James’ “At Last” that rivals the original — which put the song back on the charts and won a Grammy. The soundtrack was produced by composer/arranger Steve Jordan (original drummer on David Letterman’s “Late Night” on NBC). One of the band members was Hubert Sumlin, who lived part of the Chess Records story as guitarist with the real-life Howlin’ Wolf (who was not happy when Muddy Waters tried to steal him away).
My only complaint about the way writer/director Martin tells the story is that he left out Leonard’s brother, Phil Chess, who co-founded the label and recording studio. He also didn’t include some other seminal artists, including Buddy Guy and Bo Diddley. But if he had, he wouldn’t have been able to keep the runtime down to a tight one hour and forty-nine minutes.
“Cadillac Records” (the title refers to the cars Chess gave his most successful artists) is a satisfying musical biopic about several important figures in music history. Since it has never gotten the attention it deserves, I’ve added it to my Movies You Might Not Know list.
Currently streaming on Hulu.