Product Details

• Actors: Diana Ross, Billy Dee Williams, Richard Pryor, James T. Callahan, Paul Hampton
• Directors: Sidney J. Furie
• Writers: Billie Holiday, Chris Clark, Suzanne De Passe, Terence McCloy, William Dufty
• Producers: Berry Gordy, Brad Dexter
• Format: Collector's Edition, Color, Special Edition, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono), English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Paramount
• DVD Release Date: November 8, 2005
• Run Time: 144 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (147 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000B5XOT8
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #48,059 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• Learn more about "Lady Sings the Blues" on IMDb

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Diana Ross stars as legendary blues singer Billie Holiday in this biopic that chronicles her rise and fall. It begins with her late childhood, a stint as a prostitute, those early days as a blues singer, her marriages, and her drug addiction. Overly glossy and lacking depth, this is worth seeing only for the performances. Diana Ross was nominated for an Oscar for her acting debut. A dynamo with sparkling screen presence, she realistically conveys the confusion and unhappiness that caused Holiday so much grief. Her performance is almost matched by romantic interest Billy Dee Williams. Watch for Richard Pryor, who is most powerful in a dramatic supporting role as the piano player in a brothel. --Rochelle O'Gorman

Product Description

The essence of Billie Holiday, one of America's most loved and memorable blues singers, is captured brilliantly in a tour-de-force debut performance by singer Diana Ross. Filled with the greatest songs of the incomparable "Lady Day," this stunning film biography received five Academy Award. nominations, including Diana Ross for "Best Actress." Costarring Billy Dee Williams and Richard Pryor.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

61 of 66 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars "Them that's got shall get, them that's not shall lose..." September 15, 2004

By Mary Whipple HALL OF FAMETOP 100 REVIEWER

Format:VHS Tape

The most influential, creative, and emotional blues singer from the 1930s to the early 1950s, Billie Holiday may have attracted a whole new generation of fans through this 1972 film biography. Though the film is not historically accurate about her life and her relationship with Louis McKay (played by Billie Dee Williams), it is effective in demonstrating the traumas of her early life, the color bar which prevented her from singing in many whites-only venues, her drug and alcohol addictions (which eventually led to her death at age forty-four of liver and heart disease), and the events which led to many of her most famous songs.

Diana Ross, as Billie, is passionate and driven, and her portrayal of Billie in the midst of drug withdrawal is heart-rending and effective. Playing the role "full out," Ross deals with the script she has been given, and she richly deserves her Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Female Newcomer in this screen debut. A consortium of scriptwriters, which drew on the frank, but partly fictionalized, autobiography Billie wrote with William Dufty in 1956, has omitted or changed many aspects of her life in order to make the film more unified and dramatic, creating a film that creates even more myths about Billie.

Billy Dee Williams is terrific as Louis McKay, appearing slick and smooth at the beginning, but showing subtle changes of feeling as he is drawn into Billie's orbit and provides some stability for her. The accompanist (Richard Pryor) seems genuinely to care for her, as, it seems, does Reg Hanley (James T. Callahan), though the reasons Harry Bradford (Paul Hampton) has for getting her hooked on drugs is not clear. Ross is surprisingly good when she sings Billie's songs, copying her phrasing and creating a sound that somewhat resembles hers, though Billie's gutsy heart is missing.

Nominated for Best Actress (Diana Ross), Set Decoration and Art Direction, Costumes (Bob Mackie), Best Music/Scoring, and Best Story and Screenplay, this is a dramatic and showy film about a singing legend's tragic life, but it is more entertainment than biography, especially in its emphasis on the Reg Hanley band. Though one would not know this from the film, Teddy Wilson, Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, and Count Basie also played important roles in Billie's career. Mary Whipple

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars It�s All About Diana! January 28, 2000

By Michael Puckett

Format:VHS Tape

This biography loosely based on the tragic life of legendary jazz singer Billie Holiday is a beautifully shot and art directed film. It also contains one of the best soundtrack recordings in movie history. But the facts about Holiday's life have been so condensed here that it borders on fiction. If you can get past the fictionalized storyline and just accept what you are being shown as a good story, you will ultimately be moved by the dramatic portayals in the movie.

Diana Ross tackled this role like a hungry dog might attack a piece of raw sirloin. She is astonishing both in her performance and her unique beauty. I literally gasped watching her during the heroin withdrawal scences it is so real, and her ability to mood swing from conivingly sweet, to wild eyed hellion is nothing short of brilliant!

I highly recommend this film especially if you've only seen The Wiz, and think Miss Ross can't act.

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars TOP TEN MOVIE DEBUT! August 20, 2005

By R. Rodriguez

Format:DVD

In her first feature film Diana Ross delivers a tour de force performance as Billie Holiday not only capturing the Holiday persona but delivering mightly on the Holiday sound. The soundtrack did shoot straight to #1. From a child in pig tails playing hopscotch to her satin gowned debut at carnegie hall Ross delivers a flawless performance worthy of an oscar and indeed was nominated for one.The chemistry between Ross and Billy Dee Williams ( Lando of the Star wars saga ) smolders on screen,the way they play off each other is touching. Ross`s reaction upon first seeing Billy Dee Williams is shear brilliance for they have never looked finer on film. Richard Pryor as Piano Man adds a spark of humor as only he can Other notable performances include Isabell Sanford (of the Jeffersons)as the Madam and Scatman Crothers (One Flew Over The Cuckoo`s Nest, The Shining) as Big Ben. The exchange between these two in a brothel is classic, the sense of delivery, the timing, its hard not to think of Ross as a seasoned pro. She holds her own and delivers a touching portrayal, she makes you believe she is Billie Hoilday. And then there is the singing. Ross takes on the Holiday catalog with a hunger unsurpassed, her renditions of Good Morning Heartache, God Bless The Child, Strange Fruit and others rival that of Holiday herself. To think that a singer with no acting experince, sans a few television spots from the Motown stable had it in her to tackle the heavy handed material in this movie makes this film even more of a must see.