Bye Bye Blues

When WWII breaks out, the idyllic colonial existence of Daisy Cooper (Jenkins) and her husband Teddy (Ontkean) is destroyed: a doctor, he is transferred from India to Singapore, while she returns to Canada and the demands of prying neighbours and parochial constraints. But seizing an opportunity to make extra cash singing and playing piano for a dance band, she falls under the spell of Max (Reilly), a rakish trombone player. Will she wait dutifully for Teddy, or dump the kids with relatives and hit the road? Unimaginative direction makes too much use of hackneyed conventions: rain-spattered windows, lonely silhouettes in the night, Max playing a pensive tune beneath a flickering hotel sign. Such techniques are a little like the plot: you've seen it all before.