Frank Sinatra Archives - Casa Bouquet

Film Festival: The City by the Bay

THE DRAMATIC DIFFERENCE in elevation between San Francisco‘s Barbary Coast and Nob Hill has long been symbolic of the distances between the social classes in that city. In 1957’s Pal Joey, we join Frank Sinatra in his attempt to make the climb from the Coast up the Hill.The Barbary Coast had clubs and cabarets appealing to people from all walks of life, providing opportunities for entertainers new in town. Nob Hill (some say the name is derived from “Nabob”) had the mansions, fancy hotels and restaurants for those who acquired wealth and social standing.

Pal Joey takes us backstage into the life of a small-time crooner who makes a career drifting through the martini lounges of California. We first meet Joey Evans (Frank Sinatra) as the police drop him off at a train bound for San Francisco. He’s been caught buying a drink for an underage girl in his hotel room. Once he arrives in the City, Joey wanders up and down the streets of the Barbary Coast looking for a singing job. It doesn’t look very promising; most of the clubs feature girlie shows. Finally, he spots a marquee for Ned Galvin and his Galvinizers, a name he recognizes.

Inside the club, the floor show is in progress. The girls come on stage singing “I’m a Red Hot Mama.” Being a ladies man, Joey likes the look of all the girls, but he particularly notices a cool blond, Linda English (Kim Novak.) The emcee is missing from the club, so Joey jumps on stage to fill in, taking this opportunity to sing “I Didn’t Know What Time it Was.” After the song, he promises the owner that his many fans will help fill the club. Joey gets hired on the spot as the new emcee.

After hours, as the show staff eats dinner in the club kitchen, a customer calls asking to hire the entertainers for a Nob Hill soiree. The event is a dinner dance and auction to benefit the Children’s Hospital, held at the home of Mrs. Prentice Simpson (Rita Hayworth.) At the event, Joey entertains the dancing guests by singing “There’s a Small Hotel.” During the song, Joey and the hostess become very aware of each other. Once the song ends, Mrs. Prentice Simpson takes the mic and starts the auction, ultimately raising $17,500. Joey takes the mic from her to up the ante. He reveals to the society crowd that their hostess is none other than the former Vera Vanessa, a high-class stripper. Joey offers up Vera herself for auction, to do her act for the crowd. Sold for $5000! All in the name of charity, Vera does her old act, “Zip,” which electrifies her guests.

The Barbary Coast Club gang rides home on a cable car at dawn. Ned gives Joey $20 to find a place to stay. He finagles a boarding-house room next door to Linda’s. Later at work, the owner asks Joey when the big fan following he talked about at his audition will be arriving. Joey sings “How to Make Two Lovers of Friends” and grabs Linda out of the chorus line to make a romantic act out of the song. However, his scheme with Linda in real life is to act indifferent and dismissive towards her to get past her suspicions of him.

Suddenly, Vera arrives at the club trailing a large party. Joey promises the owner that the club will soon be strictly “carriage trade.” Joey sits at Vera’s table and floats an idea for his own intimate club. She suggests the name “Chez Joey.” Quickly bored, Vera and her friends leave as suddenly as they came. The owner fires Joey, but agrees to hire him back on the condition that Vera and her high-rent friends come back to the club by Saturday.

Joey says his goodbyes to all the gang at the club, boasting that he’s off to the big time at the El Morocco in New York. Vera, alone, knocks on the club’s door. They reopen just for her, and the band goes back on stage to accompany Joey as he sings “The Lady is a Tramp,” a not-so-subtle dig at Vera.

“Won’t have a dice game with any barons and earls
Won’t go up to Harlem dressed in ermine and pearls
Won’t dish the dirt with all the other girls
That is why the lady is a tramp!”

Vera is offended at first, then amused. She takes Joey to her yacht, berthed at the Marina. He talks up the Chez Joey idea with her. He makes a deal that he will give himself to her in exchange for her patronage. The next morning she wakes up very happy and in love. She sings “Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered” dressed in a knockout gold lace, satin, and mink negligee, designed by Jean Louis. Fashion-lovers will not want to miss this creation!

Joey finds himself torn by the triangle he has created. On one side, Vera holds the financial key to changing his life. She is the means to his own club on Nob Hill, to the finest clothes and jewelry, and to hobnob with the nabobs. On the other side, Linda holds the key to his long-buried generous nature and the possibility of true romance. With the help of more Rodgers and Hart tunes (“My Funny Valentine” and “What Do I Care for a Dame?”), Joey works out his destiny.

Fans of Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart will notice that this film features songs from several of the duo’s musicals. Pal Joey was produced on Broadway in 1940 and was considered too racy to film in its original form. The play was based on fictional letters from a dancer written by John O’Hara for the New Yorker. Gene Kelly became a star as the original Joey. With the lead transformed to a singer for the film, Frank Sinatra does a very good acting job, making this unsavory character sympathetic and even likeable. His rendition of “The Lady is a Tramp” is a tour-de-force. Also worth seeing is the dream sequence, with Rita and Kim dancing around Frank in black sequined catsuits.

Pal Joey has great music with an atypical musical comedy plot. It’s a real treat to see these three great stars acting together. Pal Joey offers a dramatic look at the San Francisco of the 1950s — and the very human desire to move up from Barbary Coast to Nob Hill.

Related links

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050815/
- Pal Joey at IMDb
http://www.sinatra.com
- Frank Sinatra official website
http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/person/83611%7C131048/Rita-Hayworth/
- Rita Hayworth page at Turner Classic Movies
http://www.kimnovakartist.com/about-kim-novak/#.VqKxZDbZpoE
- Kim Novak bio from her official website
http://www.rnh.com/bio/168/Rodgers-%26-Hart
- Rodgers and Hart from Rodgers and Hammerstein site
http://www.sfgate.com/neighborhoods/sf/nobhill/
- Nob Hill from SF Gate
http://www.barbarycoasttrail.org
- Barbary Coast Trail walking tour

This is an update of a review that appeared originally in RETRO magazine, Nancy Eaton, editor.

Affiliate links: if you make a purchase using these links, I’ll receive a small compensation towards maintaining this blog, at no extra cost to you.

Film Festival: Caper Films

DANNY OCEAN (Frank Sinatra) and ten of his war buddies each find themselves bored with the pedestrian civilian life after World War II in Ocean’s 11. Pulling off a caper might just provide the thrill they need.

“Ocean’s 11” (1960) is the ultimate movie for fans of the Rat Pack — that well-known group of swank entertainers who hung out and worked together in Hollywood and the Las Vegas strip in the early 1960s. This movie, their first as a definitive group, provides a period view of Las Vegas — a landscape that, sadly, has been blown up or knocked down since this original version of “Ocean’s 11” was filmed.

As the film gets underway, fifteen years have gone by since the end of World War II. Danny Ocean (Frank Sinatra), hungry for action, determines that the expertise of his buddies from the 82nd Airborne Division should be used to get rich quick by performing criminal acts. During the Christmas season, Danny starts reuniting the men with the help of Spyros Acebos (Akim Tamiroff), the man behind the plan. Spyros meets Mushy O’Connors (Joey Bishop) in Beverly Hills. He is a nervous wreck, worrying that all the division members won’t be found and assembled.

“See, the whole point of having money is so that other people know that you got it. I’m gonna get me a big 50-foot Chris Craft and not even put it in the water. Just gonna leave it in the driveway. Maybe give it to the mailman or something like that.” — Peter Breimer (Norman Fell)

Danny Ocean and Jimmy Foster (Peter Lawford) are lounging around together, seemingly unconcerned about Spyros and his worries. Danny is separated from his wife and Jimmy is trying to keep away from his mother, a rich woman with a relentless parade of husbands. Her latest husband-to-be (the sixth) is Duke Santos (Cesar Romero), a real financial wheeler-dealer.

Danny and Jimmy take a road trip to look up their old buddy Vince (Buddy Lester). Vince works introducing strippers at the Burlesque Theater in Phoenix. His wife is “Honey Face,” the headliner. Danny and Jimmy can’t convince Vince to join the old gang in the scheme, since Vince can’t bear to spend any time away from his wife. But after a brawl with some very enthusiastic theater patrons, Vince suddenly finds himself free to join the meeting in Beverly Hills.

“What’s the word, Vince? We gotta catch a plane. –Danny, I never figured you’d go this route. –Vince, the plan is foolproof, take my word for it. You know I only lie to girls. –But, Jim, if it’s so foolproof, why hasn’t somebody done it yet? –Same reason nobody’s gone to the moon yet, no equipment. –And we’re equipped. It’s gonna be a military operation, executed by trained men. –Why waste all those cute little tricks that the army taught us, just because it’s sort of peaceful now?” Danny, Jimmy, and Vince

Another ex-GI, Roger Corneil (Henry Silva) pokes around an appliance shop in San Francisco looking for Tony Bergdof (Richard Conte), an electronics wizard. Roger finds out that Tony has been in San Quentin, doing one-to-five years, but he’s just been sprung due to some mysterious amnesty. Tony’s wife, Gracie, left him after he went to jail and placed their little boy Timmy in military school. Tony visits Timmy right after he leaves prison. Roger intercepts him there and signs him up for the reunion in Beverly Hills.

Vince finds Josh Howard (Sammy Davis, Jr.) working as garbage collector for the Las Vegas Sanitation Department. Josh’s dream was once to be a major league outfielder. But after the war, the only baseball job he could find was in Mobile, Alabama and that place just wasn’t very simpatico to black men. Once Josh hooks up with Vince, he happily joins the caper and his garbage truck becomes the linchpin for the entire scheme.

Danny’s closest friend is Sam Harmon (Dean Martin), a lounge singer who lives in Hawaii. While he’s on the mainland to participate in the big plan, Sam hopes to help patch up Danny’s marriage. The problem is that Danny’s wife, Bea (Angie Dickinson) would like to live an average married life, but Danny needs constant excitement and challenge.

“I want a life that doesn’t depend on the color of a card or the length of a horse’s nose.”–Bea Ocean

Once Danny and his ten Army buddies assemble at Spyros’ house in Beverly Hills, the plan becomes clear. Their objective is to liberate millions of dollars from five Las Vegas casinos on New Year’s Eve. Five of the guys work in the casinos that are the targets: the Sands, the Riviera, the Flamingo, the Desert Inn, and the Sahara.

As the gang schemes, rehearses, and commits their crime, we see Red Skelton, George Raft and a hilarious Shirley MacLaine in cameo appearances. Sammy Davis, Jr. sings the film’s catchy theme song, “Ee-o-eleven,” and Nelson Riddle provides the music.

Will Bea and Danny get back together? Why did the authorities let Tony out of prison? Why is he so anxious for his share of the profits? How many times will Sam sing his lounge song, “Ain’t that a kick in the head?” How can the gang control all the electric power for the Las Vegas Strip at once? Will Jimmy be able to hide from his mother? Is Duke Santos smarter than Ocean’s Eleven and all the casino owners put together?

Swing-a-ding-ding into “Ocean’s 11” and find out — and enjoy the lounge scene of yesterday’s Las Vegas at the same time.

Let’s talk story

When I visited Las Vegas I was disappointed because it was hard to find history there. It’s a place where demolition happens all the time and new is hot. I’m glad the Neon Museum and the Nevada State Museum and others are archiving the stories of the pioneers, Hoover Dam workers, mobsters, atomic engineers, and the colorful history of this area. My mother-in-law lived and worked there and was one of the special characters of that unique place. There was nothing like sitting next to her in a lounge show watching the showgirls and listening to her stories.

Affiliate links: if you make a purchase using these links, I’ll receive a small compensation towards maintaining this blog, at no extra cost to you.

This is an update of a review that appeared originally in RETRO magazine, Nancy Eaton, editor.