What Do Reviewers Consider the Best Sinatra Dvd
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Frank Sinatra: |
 | Frank Sinatra: The Golden Years The Tender Trap, The Man with the Golden Arm, Some Came Running, None just the Brave, Marriage on the Rocks Warner DVD 1955-66 / B&W & Color / Street Date May 13, 2008 / 39.98 Starring Frank Sinatra Directed by Charles Walters, Otto Preminger, Vincente Minnelli, Frank Sinatra, Jack Donohue |
Want to run across what Frank Sinatra'south major star attraction was all almost? The nigh prestigious of the four boxed sets being given a simultaneous release by Warners is Frank Sinatra: The Gold Years . The mix boasts two of Sinatra's better dramas and i of his best comedies, too as ane dated misfire and an odd war motion picture that he directed himself. We can meet 'Ol' Blue Eyes' at the top of his grade, and and then on cruise control a decade later, when he was an overbooked champion of recordings, movies and live performances. All of the films are new to DVD, if one counts this fully-authorized release of The Man with the Gilded Arm.
The sleeky romantic one-act The Tender Trap is a perfect fit for MGM of 1955, a quantum improvement on his (mostly) disposable musicals of a few years before. Adapted only slightly from Max Shulman and Robert Paul Smith's very funny play, the majority of the action takes place in one New York available flat. Sinatra proves himself a natural for the office of a Manhattan playboy brought to heel by a girl with marriage on her listen. The accent on the female imperative differentiates this farce from Sinatra's after Rat Pack pix: Sinatra'southward swinger is really a sentimentalist ripe for the picking.
Julius J. Epstein's screenplay gives theatrical agent Charlie Reader (Sinatra) more beautiful dames than he knows what to practise with. They volunteer to make clean his business firm and walk his dog, pretty much catering to his every whim. Charlie has a somewhat steady daughter in Sylvia Crewes (Celeste Holm) but she's beginning to remember that no ability on earth will win her a proposal. Visiting from Cleveland is Charlie's college buddy Joe McCall (David Wayne), who marvels at his host'south luck with women while thinking of straying from his wife and iii children dorsum home. Just the real catalyst is Julie Gillis (Debbie Reynolds), a young dramatic hopeful with an ironclad agenda for a husband and three kids, all on a pre-planned timetable. Reynolds played a main role in Max Shulman's original film version of The Diplomacy of Dobie Gillis (note the name connection). The most forceful character in the afterward Dobie Gillis Tv set show was Zelda Gilroy, a husband-hungry co-ed who is essentially Julie Gillis pushed to a further extreme.
The Tender Trap states the 1950s mindset on matrimony right upwardly forepart. While Charlie and Sylvia listen in amazement, the determined Julie declares that a woman isn't a adult female until she's married and has children. Julie refuses to sign a full-term theatrical contract because she has a hard retirement engagement in heed just four months away ... even though there'south no sign of a fiancée on her horizon. Charlie is fascinated, when he should be running for the exit. The female barracuda assumes they're engaged as soon as Charlie tries to go cozy: (Julie: "That's not necking, that'due south nibbling!"). Sinatra revolts for i night but knows he's hooked, despite the fact that he'south asked Sylvia to marry him in the acting. The script keeps four pleasant characters (well, three and one 'sweet' barracuda) supplied with warm and witty dialogue. One time one accepts Julie's notion that the wedding chantry is the rightful destination of all noble homo attempt, The Tender Trap is very amusing. Debbie Reynolds has precipitous teeth, David Wayne is pleasantly confused and Celeste Holm is both insightful and lovable, negating the handicap of the 'thankless function'.
As the playboy with iv too many girlfriends, Sinatra is certainly upwards to snuff. It was a decorated film yr for him, because that 1955 saw the release of this moving-picture show, Guys and Dolls and the next flick in this drove, The Man with the Golden Arm. The New York agent noise looks like proficient piece of work, as Charlie spends most of his days getting up at noon and lounging on the sofa with a selection of hot numbers. Jarma Lewis, Lola Albright and a captivating Carolyn Jones are Charlie's to-die-for girlfriends. Sylvia meets Tom Helmore (Vertigo) in an lift and a immature James Drury has a bit as Charlie's assistant.
Turner's enhanced transfer of The Tender Trap has brilliant colors and the sharpness necessary to register facial expressions in the many broad master shots. The opening and closing renditions of Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen's hit championship song appear to be filmed in front of the painted sky backdrop of MGM's h2o tank, used for sea-going scenes and miniature shoots. Sinatra walks upwards and over the concrete weir that serves equally an invisible ocean horizon when the tank is filled with water. The shine featurette Frank in the Fifties covers Sinatra'south transition from 40s musical sensation, to a self-assured superstar reasserting his ain personality.
The Man with the Golden Arm is a smart career move for Sinatra, a show with a much more challenging function than his Oscar-winner From Hither to Eternity. The outset Hollywood movie to examine drug addiction at close quarters, the motion picture was one of the get-go to successfully challenge the Production Code. Producer-manager Otto Preminger turned the resulting controversy into a brilliant publicity tool, boosting his box office receipts.
Sinatra is Frankie Machine, a recovered aficionado who returns to Skid Row with a program to escape poverty. He's learned to play the drums in the prison house hospital and has an agent willing to send him on auditions. Unfortunately, Frankie can't escape the mire of his previous associations. A kleptomaniacal gambling promoter (Robert Strauss) and a pusher (Darren McGavin) want Frankie compromised by dope as a way of forcing him to deal cards for their illegal poker games. Frankie's bedridden wife Zosch (Eleanor Parker) wants him to forget drumming then that he'll spend all his time with her. When the pressure builds Frankie gets hooked once more. Merely Molly, the loving daughter downstairs (Kim Novak) seems to be on Frankie's side.
The Man with the Golden Arm is emotionally accurate despite its overall artificial quality. A somewhat simulated city street gear up, the bland B&W lighting and the too-glamorous Novak prevent the movie from expressing the squalor and misery of life at the bottom. Preminger wanted to break the Production Lawmaking simply had no intention of rendering Nelson Algren's novel at total force. But Sinatra'south convincing performance is plenty to overpower the film's compromised ending, providing at to the lowest degree a hope for Frankie Automobile's future.
The Homo with the Gilt Arm is remembered more for its effect on Hollywood censorship than for its own considerable claim. Warner Dwelling house Video'south disc appears to exist the film'southward first really satisfactory DVD presentation. Several flat versions have been released; this edition appears to reference original materials and restores the moving picture to its right matted widescreen screen shape. The tighter framing enhances the performances and Saul Bass' famous principal title sequence.
A making-of featurette Shoot Upward / Shoot Out covers the The Man with the Golden Arm controversy with a nervous, graphic-heavy style. Biographer Foster Hirsch participates in the interviews, calculation a number of of import observations. An original trailer is included as well.
Some Came Running is a difficult-hit drama based on James Jones' follow-upward novel to From Here to Eternity. Ex- GI Dave Hirsh (Sinatra) returns to his hometown after seventeen years, much to the distress of his blood brother Frank (Arthur Kennedy), now a prominent local denizen. Equally Dave was once a promising writer, Frank introduces him to Gwen French (Martha Hyer), a local college teacher. Gwen is fascinated by Dave'southward talent and repulsed by his sordid associations. Dave partners with gambler Bama Dillard (Dean Martin) and hangs out with Ginnie Moorehead (Shirley MacLaine), a pitiful bargirl who has followed him from Chicago. Marked as a black sheep, Dave helps his niece Dawn when she runs away from abode. Unwilling to accommodate to his brother's notions of civility, Dave alienates his relations, confuses the women in his life, and enrages Ginnie'due south jealous young man.
Some Came Running is an uneven but highly entertaining show. The lurid details occasionally verge on the risible, every bit when the heart-aged Frank Hirsh chooses the local lover's lane to conduct his illicit affair with his secretary Edith (Nancy Gates). The �intellectual� Gwen French character is typed equally frigid and intolerant for rejecting Dave without a proper hearing. Sinatra's thoughtful performance holds the film together even when Minnelli employs lame devices, like establishing Dave Hirsh's literary credentials with a close-upwardly of the 'quality' books he carries in his soldier's handbag. The slightly contemptuous Dave forms interesting relationships with Dean Martin's superstitious, misogynistic gambler and Shirley MacLaine's bad-mannered but adorable tramp. Dave's casual mistreatment of Ginnie ends when he undergoes a sudden change of heart, moving the film to a sentimental finish.
Manager Minnelli earned plenty of attention with his staging of the moving-picture show's violent determination, a bravura sequence prepare in a carnival at nighttime. Extreme color stylization and a nervous moving camera jar the movie from its relative calm, and are reinforced past Elmer Bernstein'southward growling, dynamic music. Minnelli'south designs work best on a large screen, where the get-go boom of wall-to-wall crimson serves notice that something terrible is about to happen. By this time Sinatra had learned to use his star clout and insisted that Dave and Ginnie swap places for the final scenes. What star wants to let a supporting actor walk away with the picture'due south final, teary-eyed shut-ups?
Some Came Running looks very good on in a precipitous enhanced transfer with make clean colors. The CinemaScope frame doesn't seem quite as wide as it should; the image may have been enlarged slightly to magnify the many scenes that concur on unbroken wide shots of unabridged rooms.
The extras brainstorm with an original trailer that emphasizes the James Jones / From Hither to Eternity connection. A making-of featurette is something of a debacle, with the good input of authors and academics buried under glitzy, irritating graphic eye candy. It feels similar an audition reel for a graphics artist.
The two newest features on the Sinatra Gold Years box come from 1965, and are far from his best work. The actor also directs None just the Dauntless , a Japanese co-production that begins from a fairly progressive idea but is embarrassing in almost every respect. A planeload of U.S. Marines is marooned without a radio, on an island where a small garrison of Japanese soldiers has been similarly abandoned past their own retreating army. Since neither grouping is in a position to overwhelm the other they institute a temporary truce, merely to see it interrupted by skirmishes, medical emergencies, etc. While waiting for rescue, the leader of the Japanese (Tatsuya Mihashi) exchanges philosophies with a cynical American medic (Sinatra). This 'show both sides' idea is at present a war-picture show requirement, every bit seen in Clint Eastwood's contempo Letters from Iwo Jima. Sinatra'southward movie preceded equal emphasis war sagas like Beach Red and Hell in the Pacific.
Unfortunately, None only the Brave isn't as good as whatsoever of those pictures. Sinatra directs as if he'due south too lazy to move the photographic camera, and he can't be bothered to put together a coherent action scene. Most dramatic setups simply spread the actors across the screen, producing the effect of a cold rehearsal. The lumpy ensemble never gels. Ranking officer Clint Walker comes off reasonably well just Tommy Sands' gung-ho lieutenant is grossly overplayed and nearly sinks the picture on its own. Actors Rafer Johnson, immature Tony Pecker and frequent Sinatra associate Brad Dexter have little to do.
The Japanese troops are as stereotyped. Mihashi's 'sensitive' commanding officer tries to dial down the brutality of his head sergeant, while a lovable ex-priest foot-soldier comes off as sentimentalized. Sinatra'southward effort to stress the two units' common humanity crumbles under its own skilful intentions. The motion-picture show also makes trivial visual impact. The real Pacific beaches come off equally picture postcards and the interior phase sets look like Gilligan's Island. We're left with a lot of revisionist speechifying and dead dramatics.
Existent navy ships announced at the decision but earlier long shots of the island and an aeroplane battle are the work of Japanese specialist Eiji Tsuburaya. Some of the effects are convincing merely others show toy-like airplanes against sky backdrops obviously painted on a wall.
Filmed in Panavision, None but the Brave looks fine in a colorful enhanced transfer. A trailer is included.
Marriage on the Rocks is a weak sex farce that lacks the spark of artistic commitment. Sinatra and Dean Martin human activity as if the filming schedule was sandwiched into their jet-gear up schedule; only Deborah Kerr seems to exist paying full attention. Mayhap there's some tired Rat Pack appeal here, simply the show is too grim to be funny and likewise lame to be camp.
Busy advert man Dan Edwards (Sinatra) ignores his wife Val (Deborah Kerr) while playboy executive Ernie (Dean Martin) 'auditions' a succession of sexy secretaries at his beach house. Lawyer John McGiver talks Val out of a divorce, and she and Dan wing to United mexican states to rekindle their marriage. Tourist trap justice of the peace Cesar Romero mistakenly divorces the couple, and in another witless mix-up Val ends up married to Ernie. This turnabout gives Sinatra a take a chance to be the playboy while Martin crumbles under the responsibilities of business organization and family, etc. It's basically the cardinal situation of The Tender Trap, rewritten by a chimpanzee.
Considering the talent employed, Marriage on the Rocks is a existent waste matter. Virtually nothing is funny, starting with the insulting image of Mexico equally a quaint fleapit waiting to fleece lovesick Yankees. The bikini babes parading in and out of Dino'south beach pad are as sexy equally plastic accident-up dolls: Joi Lansing, Darlene Lucht, Sigrid Valdis. Hermione Baddeley is a 'kooky' mother-in-law. Nancy Sinatra and Tony Nib are meant to be comic exaggerations of immature adults only come off as grotesque. The 'friends of Frank' casting enlists Trini Lopez to sing at a (yawn) wild Sunset Blvd. disco. It's more than but a case of cloth condign dated; this is the offensively vapid kind of flick that made the Hollywood youth revolution inevitable.
Deborah Kerr began to have difficulty finding worthy roles effectually this fourth dimension, and she acquits herself well under the sub-sitcom circumstances. Afterwards the fans of Marriage on the Rocks finish burning this reviewer at the stake, they'll exist pleased by Warner Domicile Video's almost perfect DVD presentation. A trailer is included. Nobody was brave enough to attempt laudatory featurettes for this film or None But the Brave.
On a scale of Splendid, Skilful, Fair, and Poor, Frank Sinatra: The Gilt Years rates:
Movies: Trap, Arm, Some: Excellent; Brave, Matrimony: Fair
Video: All Splendid
Audio: All Excellent
Supplements: Featurettes and trailers (not on all titles)
Packaging: Proceed instance
Reviewed: May viii, 2008
Reviews on the Savant primary site have boosted credits data and are more likely to exist updated and annotated with reader input and graphics.
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