The biopic is the moldy fig of Hollywood genres. Within the jazz subset, we've got The Benny Goodman Story, Lady Sings the Blues, The Five Pennies, and on down to the bridge. But The Gene Krupa Story, also released as Drum Crazy, was produced while the great drummer himself was still scalding the skins, so he was able to dub his own riffs. Sal Mineo, all of nineteen years old, was enlisted for the lead, and he never misses a beat. In perfect biographical bowdlerizing, this film begins with Krupa's rebellion-Dad wants him to study for the priesthood, Gene prefers the devil's music. Then his meteoric rise as the first drum soloist, sticking for Red Nichols (cameoed by the man himself) and Tommy Dorsey (SoCal pianist Bobby Troupe), is noted with syncopated cool-the dank clubs, the glomming girls, the reefer madness. For local color, we get his 1943 tour with Anita O'Day in tow. Stopping in San Francisco, Krupa was busted for possession and spent the next ninety days in jail. He should have gone to a cannabis club.