august 21 - september 8.1998

photo: PAL JOEY

This program, curated by Kent Jones, celebrates the enduring spirit of Arnold Zohn, lifelong Sinatra fan and fellow Ol' Blue Eyes, whose devotion and commitment to the Film Society is warmly remembered.

Frank Sinatra earned a Best Actor Oscar nomination for THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM, an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in FROM HERE TO ETERNITY, a special Academy Award for THE HOUSE I LIVE IN (1945) and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award (1971).

"Sinatra is a noir sound, like saxophones, foghorns, gunfire, and the quiet weeping of women in the background." -- David Thomson.

"Hollywood stinks!" That was The Voice's onetime opinion of the Dream Factory where he starred in some 57 films in four decades, from 1941 through the mid-80s. Frank Sinatra took a casual approach to acting--or at least, he liked to give the appearance of consummate ease and grace, insisting on one take and one take only. Whether playing brash song-and-dance man, sailor or soldier, Scotch-loving and chain-smoking 60s swinger or burnt-out idealist, Sinatra made it all look natural, delivering his lines like everyday talk--as spontaneous and real as his inimitable delivery of song lyrics. Simultaneously a hard case and a soft touch, his slim body poised in perpetual swankster grace, trench coat slung over his shoulder, snap-brim cocked as provocatively as Veronica Lake's peek-a-boo "do," Sinatra worked the politics of cool with peculiarly American charm--and an ever-present edge of dangerousness. He could project the bright-eyed, untried sweetness of American Boy as scamp, and the bruised cynicism and noir melancholia of American Hero gone bad. It was Bogart who founded the Rat Pack, and Sinatra owes much to Bogie's hip, nervy style--a tough guy beaten up by experience, primed by a permanent hangover and a short fuse, bitterly wearing his pain on his sleeve. His best performances--THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM, SOME CAME RUNNING, THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE, etc.--are so authentically Sinatra, they're proof against any taint of datedness.

"I just live my life as I see fit, and I have a ball," he once bragged. He might have said the same of the way he inhabited his movie roles. An Italian-Amer-ican from Hoboken in Hollywood's court, Ol' Blue Eyes was always our homeboy, as much an American Dreamer on the silver screen as he was in song.
-- Kathleen Murphy

program notes and times

HIGH SOCIETY
Charles Walters, 1956; 107 minutes
The light-hearted Technicolor, VistaVision and Cole Porter musical that grew out of The Philadelphia Story (1940), with ice-queen Grace Kelly as Tracy Lord (her last role before becoming a real-life princess), courted on the eve of her wedding (to lumpish John Lund) by cool cats Bing Crosby, as ex-husband C.K. Dexter-Haven, and gossip reporter Sinatra, yearned after by sharp-witted sidekick Celeste Holm. Louis Armstrong is happily abroad, serving up "High Society" calypso-style and--with Crosby--the ebullient "Now You Has Jazz." Crosby and Sinatra are "simply swellegant" co-crooning "Well, Did You Evah?"and how could Kelly not succumb to Sinatra's "You're Sensational"? "True Love," Grace's romantic duet with Der Bingle topped the 1956 hit parade.
Fri, Aug 21: 2 and 6:30 pm;
Sat and Sun, Aug 22 and 23: 6:30 pm

SOME CAME RUNNING
Vincente Minnelli, 1958; 127 minutes
Quintessential American small-town hypocrisy and angst, as penned--hugely--by novelist James Jones and subsequently envisioned by Vincente Minnelli. Playing Jones' alter ego, Sinatra is a disillusioned veteran whose dream of being a writer has done a nose-dive. Returning to his Illinois home-town, with good-hearted floozie Shirley MacLaine in tow, emotionally bruised Sinatra kills time with gambler Dean Martin and repressed schoolteacher Martha Hyer--giving the less-than-upright pillars of the community apoplexy at every turn. RUNNING is the kind of stylized melodrama through which directors like Douglas Sirk and Minnelli could so deftly mirror the darker realities of American Main Streets. Great acting abounds: Everyone except Sinatra and Martin--MacLaine, Hyer, Arthur Kennedy--garnered Oscar noms.
Fri, Sat, Sun, Aug 21, 22, 23: 4 and 8:35 pm

FROM HERE TO ETERNITY
Fred Zinnemann, 1953; 118 minutes
Adapted from James Jones' best-selling novel, ETERNITY is a powerful exposé of life and love on and off an army base in Hawaii, just before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The first-rate cast includes Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr (iconographic as soldier and adulterous wife embracing skin-to-skin in Pacific surf), Montgomery Clift, Sinatra, Ernest Borgnine, Donna Reed, Jack Warden et al. Sinatra was down and out as TV host, recording artist, and consort to screen goddess Ava Gardner when he fought for the defining role of doomed Maggio--for which he took home a paycheck of $8,000! (See The Godfather for the apocryphal backstory on how he won the part.) Shot in rich Academy Award-winning black-and-white cinematography (by Burnett Guffey), ETERNITY also received Oscars for Best Picture, Director, Best Supporting Actors (Sinatra and Reed), Screenplay, Editing, and Sound Recording.
Mon, Aug 24: 2 and 6:40 pm; Tues, Aug 25: 2 and 9 pm

THE JOKER IS WILD
Charles Vidor, 1957; 126 minutes
A dark biopic about the hard times of comedian Joe E. Lewis: up-and-coming crooner Sinatra leaves the joint where he works to take on a new gig, but is set upon by thugs hired by the speakeasy's owner. His vocal cords cut, the singer goes downhill fast, drinking and gambling to ease his fall. Old pal Eddie Albert digs him up again, though he can't rejuvenate his pal's lost singing skills. Beautiful Jeanne Crain becomes his love and lifeline in a new career as a nightclub comedian who does potent riffs on his own bad habits while acting them out in real life. Another superb broken-soul performance by Sinatra, with Mitzi Gaynor as Crain's sexy rival, and featuring the Oscar-winning song "All the Way" (the title of the re-issued film). Mon, Aug 24: 4:15 and 9 pm; Tues, Aug 25: 4:15 pm

HIGHER AND HIGHER
Tim Whelan, 1944; 90 minutes
An adaptation of a Broadway musical hit starring Jack Haley, HIGHER was wildly successful at the box office, thanks partly to its promotion as "The Sinatra Show." Butler to a millionaire, Haley enlists the other servants' help in setting up a scam to save their employer from bankruptcy. The idea is to marry off the scullery maid (Michele Morgan) to a rich bachelor--but this simple plan is majorly bollixed up, thanks to an impoverished aristocrat (Victor Borge), a real heiress (Barbara Hale) and two inept members of the working class (Mel Tormé and Marcy McGuire). The skinny object of bobby-soxer mania was written in very late in the game as the millionaire's next-door neighbor, so that the first-time star could croon "I Couldn't Sleep a Wink Last Night"and "This Is a Lovely Way to Spend an Evening."
Wed, Aug 26: 2, 5:30 and 9:15 pm

TAKE ME OUT TO THE BALL GAME
Busby Berkeley, 1949; 93 minutes
Jules Munshin, Gene Kelly and Sinatra play baseball for the Wolves, a 1906 champion team just taken over by new owner Esther Williams (beating out Kathryn Grayson and Judy Garland). Munshin has eyes only for baseball, but Kelly and Sinatra, who work off-season as song-and-dance men, both fall hard for the Swim Queen. Ball Game (and the love triangle) gets complicated by the machinations of bad-guy Edward Arnold, who's bet big against the Wolves, but it's the music--the title song and "The Hat My Father Wore on St. Patrick's Day"--that really hits home runs in this wildly successful Busby Berkeley movie.
(Choreography contributed by Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly.)
Wed, Aug 26: 3:45 and 7:30 pm
Thurs, Aug 27: 4 and 7:50 pm

IT HAPPENED IN BROOKLYN
Richard Whorf, 1947; 104 minutes
Just out of the army, Danny Webson Miller (Sinatra) goes home to Brooklyn to move in with old buddy Nick Lombardi, a highschool janitor (Jimmy Durante). While making time with a music teacher (Kathryn Grayson), Sinatra tries to turn Peter Lawford's stuffy Manhattanite into an authentic "son of Flatbush." His tutelage works--all too well: Lawford soon wins the teacher's affections away from his Flatbush friend. No matter, anyone can see that old flame Gloria Grahame is a better match for Sinatra than goody-two-shoes Grayson. Memorable moments in this easy-going musical include Durante and Sinatra imitating each other--wonderfully--in "The Song's Gotta Have Heart" and Sinatra's rendition of "Time After Time."
Thurs, Aug 27: 2 and 5:50 pm

PAL JOEY
George Sidney, 1957; 111 minutes
The 1940 Broadway musical (John O'Hara, Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart) treated shocked audiences to a bracingly low-life hero who beds an older woman to get hold of a coveted nightclub and blows off the girl who loves him when she becomes a stumbling block to his career. In the repressive 50s, the Hollywood movie cleaned up Rodgers and Hart song lyrics, rife with double-entendres ("Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered," "The Lady Is a Tramp," "My Funny Valentine"); opted for implied goings-on in the boudoir; and delivered a Joey capable of changing his caddish ways. Sinatra plays his ambitious heel as though the character was in his blood, and dancing gorgeous attendance are Rita Hayworth as the "older" patron (she was actually younger than Sinatra) and Kim Novak as virginal ecdysiast. (Sinatra took home a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Musical/Comedy.)
Fri, Aug 28: 2 and 6:45 pm
Sat, Aug 29: 4 and 9 pm; Sun, Aug 30: 4 and 9 pm

ANCHORS AWEIGH
George Sidney, 1945; 143 minutes
On leave, ladies' man Gene Kelly takes fellow sailor Sinatra to Hollywood, where he promises to introduce the shy guy to a passel of sexy starlets. Turns out that bit player Kathryn Grayson is his only contact (and she's soon head-over-heels with Kelly), but that's OK by Sinatra: He's happy as a clam with a pretty Brooklynite. (Oh yes, the plot is thickened by a runaway orphan, played by a very young Dean Stockwell.) But it's Kelly's effervescent dancing that makes this show such a hit--when he isn't hoofing it up with his fellow star, he famously partners MGM's animated mouse, Jerry sans Tom!
Fri, Aug 28: 4:10 and 9 pm
Sat, Aug 29: 6:15 pm; Sun, Aug 30: 6:15 pm

ON THE TOWN
Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen, USA, 1949; 98 minutes
The first directorial collaboration of musical star Kelly and choreographer Donen (they later teamed on Singin' in the Rain), ON THE TOWN was a historical--and magical-- milestone as the first Hollywood musical to feature extensive location shooting--in luscious 1949 Technicolor yet! "The Bronx is up and the Battery's down," but Kelly-Donen managed to include both--and a dozen other New York landmarks breathlessly in between--in this rollicking comedy-romance about three lookin'-for-a-good time sailors (Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Jules Munshin) on 24 hours' leave in a Big Apple that has rarely looked so gorgeous and exciting. The effervescent music is by Leonard Bernstein and Roger Edens; high-octane costars include Betty Garrett, Ann Miller, and Vera-Ellen.
Mon, Aug 31: 2 and 6:15 pm

THE TENDER TRAP
Charles Walters, 1955; 111 minutes
As a womanizing Manhattan showbiz agent, Sinatra saunters insouciantly through various surprising complications and reversals to find true love with a young and innocent actress (Debbie Reynolds) so bent on achieving marital bliss she's set her wedding date--before she's even got a groom! About to drop her, Sinatra does an emotional U-turn when she announces she'll never marry him until he sheds his harem. Adapted from a Broadway hit, THE TENDER TRAP also stars Celeste Holm, playing one of Sinatra's cast-off lovers, and David Wayne, as the rake's best friend. ("The Tender Trap," written by Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen, was one of Sinatra's most durable hits.)
Mon, Aug 31: 4 and 8:10 pm

THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE
John Frankenheimer, 1962; 126 minutes
When THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE was released, Pauline Kael wrote that Frankenheimer's movie might just be "the most sophisticated political satire ever made in Hollywood." Even in the season of Wagging the Dog and Bulworth, this darkly hilarious, paranoid thriller more than holds its own. A group of Korean combat soldiers (all named after cast and crew of The Phil Silvers Show), notably including Laurence Harvey and Frank Sinatra, is brainwashed by a Chinese Communist scientist, then sent home as potentially ticking bombs. Harvey's mother (Angela Lansbury as a truly wicked witch) is bent on maneuvering her ineffectual hubby into the American presidency, and uses her war-hero son to grease the way. Sinatra delivers a superb peformance as his conditioning begins to fray, and he sniffs out a horrendous plan for the Chinese to take over America. Along the way, he and Janet Leigh participate in one of the weirdest pick-up scenes--and repartee--in the movies. When JFK was assassinated a year after THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE's release, Sinatra rarely spoke of the film again.
Wednesday, September 2: 2 and 6:35 pm
Thursday, September 3: 2 and 6:35 pm

VON RYAN'S EXPRESS
Mark Robson, 1965; 112 minutes
A CinemaScope actioner that really moves, made in the days before over-blown F/X replaced script, character, and suspense. Sinatra's a cocksure American flyboy who heads up--with the help of a rather more buttoned-down British officer (Trevor Howard)--a "great escape" from a German POW camp in Italy. When the 300 prisoners--masquerading as Germans--engineer a wild ride on a train headed for Switzerland, fun and suspense abound.
Wednesday, September 2: 4:20 and 9 pm
Thursday, September 3: 4:20 and 9 pm

YOUNG AT HEART
Gordon Douglas, 1954; 117 minutes
1938's classic Four Daughters (in which John Garfield debuted) remade as a musical, with the four reduced to three--Doris Day, Dorothy Malone, and Elizabeth Fraser--and Garfield's tough-guy role taken by Sinatra. Grand dame Ethel Barrymore presides over the festivities, while Robert Keith tries to parent a houseful of girl musical prodigies. Boarder Gig Young, a musical-comedy composer, has to lean on Sinatra, currently down on his luck, when he hits a creative block. (The title song became a Sinatra standard.)
with
THE HOUSE I LIVE IN
RKO, 1945; 10 minutes
A musical plea for political and religious tolerance written by Albert Maltz, featuring Sinatra.
Friday, September 4: 2 and 6:45 pm
Saturday, September 5: 6:45 pm
Sunday, September 6: 6:45 pm

THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM
Otto Preminger, 1955; 119 minutes
Defying Production Code censorship, director Otto Preminger gave Sinatra a chance to go much further and deeper than his Oscar-winning performance in FROM HERE TO ETERNITY. As a heroin-addicted cardsharp out of a tough Nelson Algren novel, Sinatra goes for broke, mixing dreams and nightmares to nail down a character trying to climb out of the gutter (an Oscar nom was forthcoming). Frankie Machine's money-hungry wife (Eleanor Parker) tries to keep him down, while B-girl Kim Novak gives him the hand he needs to go "cold turkey" in a (still) laceratingly real plunge into withdrawal.
Friday, September 4: 4:30 and 9:10 pm
Saturday, September 5: 4:30 and 9:10 pm
Sunday, September 6: 4:30 and 9:10 pm

THE DETECTIVE
Gordon Douglas, 1968; 114 minutes
In this realistically gritty cop drama, featuring gay-mutilation murders and bigwig badguys, Sinatra is a New York homicide detective who nails the luckless nobody everything points to as the killer (Tony Musante). As wife Lee Remick makes more and more like a nymphomaniac, Sinatra digs up a cityful of corruption, as well as information that puts him very much in the wrong, morally speaking. With Ralph Meeker, Jack Klugman, Lloyd Bochner, William Windom, Jacqueline Bisset and Robert Duvall in a small but unforgettable role as a gay-basher.
Monday, September 7: 3:50 and 7:50 pm

LADY IN CEMENT
Gordon Douglas, 1968; 93 minutes
Sinatra's second gig as Tony Rome, a sharp-talking hawkshaw who hangs his hat in Miami. While diving for buried treasure, our P.I. dredges up a beautiful blonde, dressed to die in cement shoes. As Rome follows the tangled trail to the lady's killer, he finds himself--and alcoholic heiress Raquel Welch--framed for her murder. Mucho wise cracking, many colorful characters, including Richard Conte, Lainie Kazan, Dan Blocker, and Joe E. Lewis as himself.
Monday, September 7: 2 and 6 pm

COME BLOW YOUR HORN
Bud Yorkin, 1963; 115 minutes
Sinatra stars in the film version of Neil Simon's first big Broadway hit, playing a New York playboy who wears his Jewish family's patience a wee bit thin with his playboy-about-town antics. Dad (Lee J. Cobb) is especially put out, but Sinatra's little brother wants to graduate into his sibling's dancing shoes. With Molly Picon, Barbara Rush, and Jill St. John.
Tuesday, September 8: 2 and 6:30 pm

OCEANS 11
Lewis Milestone, 1960; 148 minutes
A way-cool caper film, with Danny Ocean (Sinatra) and his Rat Pack (Dean Martin, Richard Conte, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford, Joey Bishop, Henry Silva) primed to make a big score by simultaneously robbing five Vegas casinos. The gang's a well-oiled machine with many moving parts--but accidents do happen, and the best-laid plans can go South, Treasure of the Sierra Madre-style. Angie Dickinson is just a beautiful wife in the way; Hoot Gibson, Shirley MacLaine, Red Skelton, and George Raft deliver tasty cameos; and there's a bonus of two nifty songs ("Ain't That a Kick in the Head?" by Martin and "Ee-O-leven" by Davis.)
Tuesday, September 8: 4:10 and 8:40 pm