This collection includes an interesting selection of films, including World War II dramas, detective films, a comedy and even a musical. The collection includes one of my personal favorites, The Manchurian Candidate. Here is a bit about each of the films included in this collection, as well as the discs' special features.
The Pride And The Passion (1957)
The Pride And The Passion, the first film in this collection, stars Cary Grant, Frank Sinatra and Sophia Loren as a resistance group fighting the French in Spain in 1810. They are trying to move a giant cannon, the symbol of resistance, to Avila. Cary Grant plays Anthony, an English captain who is there to take command of the cannon. Frank Sinatra plays the leader of the Spanish resistance group. And, yes, Ol' Blue Eyes as a Spanish guerrilla is a bit ridiculous. (He does affect a Spanish accent, but it's never quite unbelievable.) Sophia Loren plays Juana, the woman that both men love. So the film basically tells the tale of this group moving a giant cannon over the countryside. There are a few amazing scenes, like when the resistance group rolls burning hay down a hill toward the tents of the French army.
The only special feature on this disc is the trailer. It's an odd trailer, done with illustrations rather than scenes from the film. The Pride And The Passion was directed by Stanley Kramer.
Kings Go Forth (1958)
Kings Go Forth takes place in France toward the end of World War II. Frank Sinatra plays Sam, who is sent some new recruits including Harris, played by Tony Curtis. He's not sure what to make of Harris, a rich and handsome man who seems to take risks. The men are sent to the French Riviera as a break from the war. It is there that Sam meets Monique (played by the incredibly beautiful Natalie Wood). They have a date, but she tells him she won't see him again, and offers him no reason. And then they're back at the war.
The film has narration by Frank Sinatra, who says, "It's funny. Some days we drank champagne, courtesy of the French, and some days we ate dirt, courtesy of the Germans." They gain a bunker, and hold it. He's able to return to the French Riviera a week later, hoping to meet Monique. She doesn't show up, but her mother does, and takes Sam home to Monique. And so after that, he visits her whenever he can get a pass. He tells her he loves her, but she does not return his love. And it's then that Monique reveals something surprising about herself, something that probably wouldn't matter today, but did in the forties.
Things become more complicated when Harris also meets Monique, and the two fall for each other. Frank Sinatra is particularly good in those moments when he realizes that the girl he loves is falling for another man.
Kings Go Forth was directed by Delmer Daves. The DVD includes the theatrical trailer.
A Hole In The Head (1959)
This sweet comedy stars Frank Sinatra as Tony, a guy who runs a hotel in Florida while trying to raise a boy, and who also happens to be broke. The excellent supporting cast features Edward G. Robinson, Eleanor Parker, Carolyn Jones, Thelma Ritter, Keenan Wynn and Eddie Hodges. Carolyn Jones is delightful as Shirl, Tony's girlfriend. And Edward G. Robinson is excellent as Tony's brother, who is used to helping Tony out of financial jams.
A Hole In The Head also features two songs, "All My Tomorrows" and "High Hopes," written by Sammy Cahn and James Van Heusen. Though the film is not a musical, "High Hopes" is presented in the fashion of a musical; that is, Frank Sinatra and Eddie Hodges sing it on a park bench, and there is musical accompaniment which isn't seen. It's the one departure from a generally realistic feel. A Hole In The Head was directed by Frank Capra.
The only special feature on the disc is the trailer.
Can-Can (1960)
A musical with Frank Sinatra? Of course, it makes perfect sense. This film takes place in Montmartre in 1896. Frank Sinatra plays a lawyer named Francois who loves Simone Pistache (Shirley MacLaine), a woman who runs a dance house. Shirley MacLaine gets a delightful introduction in this film - with her leg upon the table. We see just her leg first, while Francois puts a piece of jewelry on it.
The Can-Can is illegal at this time, as it's considered lewd. The dancers at this establishment perform it anyway, and within a minute the police raid the place. Francois, being a lawyer, is friendly with the judges, and so the girls aren't worried. But a new judge, a young and serious man named Judge Forrestier, has arrived. This could spell trouble for Simone and the rest.
While I'm admittedly not a big fan of musicals, I really enjoyed this film. The dance where Simone is roughed up and romanced is fantastic. And the line that really won me over is this: "Sometimes I think all conversations ought to be sung. It's so hard to quarrel with a melody." Yes, a musical that acknowledges the conceit of musicals, the bursting into song. That's wonderful.
There are some other delicious and wonderful lines, most of them spoken by Frank Sinatra. Like, "Let me see. I left you at 3:30 and we were in love. It's now 5:30... I can't figure out what could have happened between then and now...I don't have my pants on backward." And it's great seeing Frank Sinatra and Shirley MacLaine sing "Let's Do It, Let's Fall In Love." The songs in this film are by Cole Porter.
Can-Can was directed by Walter Lang. This disc contains no special features.
The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
This film contains some of the best performances in the history of film. It is arguably Frank Sinatra's best performance. He is phenomenal in this. And it is absolutely Angela Lansbury's greatest work. She is incredible and delicious in this movie. This movie also some pretty amazing shots, particularly the 360 degree shot in which two groups of people are combined into one strange scene. I really don't want to give anything away to those who might not have seen this magnificent film.
I will, however, mention a couple of little details that I love. One is regarding the number of communists in the state department. When trying to come to an exact number, they're eating, and after glancing at the Heinz ketchup bottle, they decide there are 57 communists. And the second, well, I just love this line: "Twelve days of Christmas. One day of Christmas is loathsome enough."
This disc has a lot of special features, including a commentary track by director John Frankenheimer. There is also a short interview with Frank Sinatra, George Axelrod and John Frankenheimer. There is a featurette titled "Queen Of Diamonds," which is Angela Lansbury talking about the film. (She actually talks about the ketchup bit.) There is another featurette titled "A Little Solitaire," in which William Friedkin talks about the film. And of course there is a photo gallery and the trailer. The trailer, by the way, is from when the film returned to the cinema later.
Von Ryan's Express (1965)
Von Ryan's Express is a really good World War II film, in which Frank Sinatra plays Colonel Joseph Ryan, a pilot whose plane crashes in Italy. It is August, 1943, and a title card tells us that Germans have seized control of Italy. So, many of the Italians have turned against the Germans. Colonel Ryan is taken to a camp where the prisoners have just buried their commanding officer, Colonel Bryan Lockart. They charge Major Battaglia, commander of the prison camp, with his murder. Because of Lockart's death, Ryan is the ranking officer among the prisoners in the camp. The prisoners are being punished with half-rations and no showers because of escape attempts. Ryan puts a stop to the escape attempts, and in doing so secures clean clothes and first aid supplies for the men from Battaglia. When Italy is finished, the guards flee the camp, and the prisoners wish to try and convict Battaglia. Ryan stops them from killing him, and the entire camp makes its escape from the Germans.
However, they are soon captured and put on a train. The Germans immediately kill all of the wounded. The men of course blame Colonel Ryan, because Battaglia led the Germans to them. And this is when the movie really begins. Somehow Ryan needs to regain the confidence of the men and save them from a certain death if the train reaches its location.
Von Ryan's Express is a seriously intense film with a lot of great scenes. Some of the best scenes are the quieter ones, like the scene in the Italian woman's compartment on the train with Colonel Ryan.
The film also stars Trevor Howard as Major Eric Fincham, Brad Dexter as Sgt. Bostick, Sergio Fantoni as Capt. Oriani and John Leyton as Orda. It was directed by Mark Robson.
The special features in the trailer, plus trailers for several other war films.
Cast A Giant Shadow (1966)
This pretty amazing film stars Kirk Douglas as Mickey Marcus, a man who is hired to be the military advisor to the struggling Israeli army in 1948. A title card at the beginng of the film tells us, "The major events depicted in this film actually happened. Some of them are still happening."
Angie Dickinson plays Emma, his wife. When Marcus breaks the news to her that he is going to Palestine, she says, "You've been out of uniform six months. And if they hadn't come looking for you, you'd have started your own war." What a great way to establish his character.
There are a couple of excellent flashbacks to World War II, which show this film isn't going to hold back. In the first Marcus makes a reference to "making soap out of my relatives." And the second takes place at a concentration camp. This movie also mentions clearly that the Arabs have the oil, and so questions how the United States can recognize Israel if and when it becomes independent. (And we do get the scene where Israel declares itself a state.)
There are some other great moments too, like when an Arab puts on a record in his tent, and it's "Sheik Of Araby." And the scene on the beach when the British threaten to open fire is excellent.
This film's inclusion in this collection is a bit strange because Frank Sinatra is not one of the lead actors. In the opening credit sequence he is listed under "Special Appearances." He's only in a few scenes, and it's nearly an hour and a half in before he shoes up. But while perhaps an odd choice, I'm glad it's included, because it's one of the best films in the collection. Cast A Giant Shadow also stars Senta Berger, James Donald, Yul Brynner and John Wayne. It was directed by Melville Shavelson.
The only special feature is the trailer.
Tony Rome (1967)
Tony Rome is a completely enjoyable, well-crafted detective story starring Frank Sinatra as Tony Rome, a private detective whose simple job to take a young woman home from a hotel turns into an intricate case involving stolen jewels, a shady doctor and several corpses. Tony meets a lot of interesting characters such as Ann Archer (Jill St. John), who has some of the film's best lines. When Tony first meets her, she is called a slut by another character, and she says to Tony, "Slut - that's just a nickname. Only my dearest friends use it." A few minutes later she tells him, "Every man you meet thinks you want to play slap and tickle." (Hey, that sounds like a fun game. I want to play.)
The supporting cast is pretty impressive, including Richard Conte as Lt. Santini, Simon Oakland as Rudolph Kosterman and Gena Rowlands as Rita Costerman.
There are some great little touches, like when Tony gets off an elevator he says to the operator, "Nice ride." There are also a few stupid touches, like the whole Mrs. Skyler scene, in which a woman wants to hire Tony to find out who is trying to poison her cat. It's a very silly scene that's entirely about using the word "pussy." Maybe it was a big deal in 1967, but it feels lame in 2012. Fortunately, it's a short scene. But really, other than that (and maybe one or two other similar moments), this is a really good film.
The special features on the DVD include the trailer as well as the trailer for its sequel, Lady In Cement (also included in this collection). There are a few other trailers too.
Tony Rome was directed by Gordon Douglas.
The Detective (1968)
The Detective is an unusual police film. It stars Frank Sinatra as Joe Leland, a detective that another character describes early on as "the best detective in town." When he says that, Sinatra's pause and then the little laugh he gives in response are perfect. The film is unusual in part because it starts with one case, and then halfway through the film, that case is apparently solved, and it moves to an entirely new storyline, with new characters. This film boasts a really good cast, including the beautiful Lee Remick as Karen (Joe's ex-wife) and the beyond-beautiful Jacqueline Bisset as Norma, the woman who brings to Joe the second case. Also we get good performances from Jack Klugman and Robert Duvall as fellow detectives.
This film suffers a bit from extended flashbacks. The first shows Joe meeting Karen, proposing, dealing with his job, and so on. The second shows the disintegration of the marriage.
One thing I have to note is that this movie has the craziest line ever in a film. A cop is questioning a suspect, who is naked. Joe asks the cop why the suspect is naked, and this is what the cop says: "Makes them easier to handle. Stripping them makes them feel more vulnerable. I got the idea from the newsreeels of German concentration camps." Oh yes, it's always a good idea to take tips from the Nazis. It's pretty amazing, but the movie right then enters the realm of the riduculous. It's hard to recover from a line like that. (Oh yeah, I got the idea from the Holocaust. I figured we could implement it here at the station. I've also ordered a bigger oven for the break room.)
The Detective was directed by Gordon Douglas (who also directed Tony Rome). As for special features, this disc has the trailer, as well as trailers to several other films, but that's about it.
Lady In Cement (1968)
In this sequel to Tony Rome, Frank Sinatra again plays the private detective. This time he dives off his boat to find treasure (really - he has a treasure map), but instead finds a dead nude blonde whose feet are in a block of cement. There is some seriously impressive shark footage in this scene. The nude woman, Tony (or his stunt double) and the sharks are all in frame at the same time. I have no idea how they did this. I watched the scene several times, and was really blown away. Mostly because the dead woman was an actor, not a dummy. There is not enough money in the world to get me to do what she did. Anyway, it's worth watching this film just for that shark footage.
After that, a big guy named Waldo Gronsky (played by Dan Blocker) hires Tony to find Sandra Lomax, but won't say why. He was worried that perhaps the lady in cement was Sandra, and now just needs to find her. As in the first film, several more people will turn up dead before the end. Richard Conte reprises his role as Lt. Santini. And joining the cast this time are Raquel Welch as Kit Forrest, Martin Gabel as Al Mungar, and Steve Peck as Paul Mungar.
The film is pretty good until suddenly Tony Rome is framed for one of the murders. Then there is an incredibly long, pointless chase sequence that gets the movie completely off track. And it never really recovers after that.
Lady In Cement was directed by Gordon Douglas. The DVD's special features include the trailer and the Spanish trailer. (The Spanish trailer is basically the same, except with more nudity. By the way, often the Spanish subtitles in the trailer aren't even close to being accurate.) There are also two television spots, as well as trailers for several other films.
The Frank Sinatra Film Collection was released April 3, 2012.
For those who are interested, I've written reviews of a few of Frank Sinatra's albums: Ring-A-Ding Ding!, The Concert Sinatra, Frank Sinatra and Count Basie: The Complete Reprise Studio Recordings, and Sinatra/Jobim: The Complete Reprise Recordings.
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