Pal Joey

Pal Joey

Columbia

October 25, 1957

Musical?

DVD
D+

Sinatra is obnoxious when he's not singing, being not only predictably sexist but even gratuitously racist (to a woman of course), yet the glimpse of '50s San Francisco is mildly interesting.  George Sidney directed.

On the Town

On the Town

MGM

December 30, 1949

Musical, Comedy, Romance

DVD
B-

Released at the very end of the '40s, this is chockful of still gettable topical references, like about Dr. Kinsey and Dinah Shore.  (Well, if you're over 50 and/or know the twentieth century.)  At its best, it is joyous and infectious, with an eager, charismatic cast, including a cast-against-type Sinatra.  Unfortunately, there are parts that don't click, like one of those "modern ballet" sequences that would also mar co-directors Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly's Singin' in the Rain a couple years later.  I've seen this movie once before, maybe a decade ago, and I was looking forward to watching it again.  I think if I had fast-forwarded, I'd rank the movie higher.  Still, I know I'll watch it again someday.

None But the Brave AKA Yūsha Nomi

None But the Brave AKA Yūsha Nomi

Toho/ Warner Bros.

15 January 1965

War Drama

DVD
D+

A Japanese-American collaboration, alternating between the Japanese soldiers who've been shipwrecked, and the American soldiers who've crash-landed on the same island.  Sinatra not only acts but directed.

Never So Few

Never So Few

MGM

December 7, 1959

War Drama

DVD
D+

The most interesting thing here is of course the cast, and I didn't even make it to Gina Lollobrigida.  This is based on the Tom T. Chamales novel and directed by John Sturges, thirteen years before Joe Kidd.

The Man with the Golden Arm

The Man with the Golden Arm

United Artists

December 15, 1955

Drama

DVD
C-

I like the jazzy score and it's always nice to see Arnold Stang, but I didn't care about Frank as "Frankie" or his clingy wheelchair-bound wife.  This is based on the Nelson Algren novel and directed by Otto Preminger.

The First Deadly Sin

The First Deadly Sin

Filmways Pictures

October 3, 1980

Crime Drama

DVD
D

Although I didn't enjoy, for instance, the cross-cutting between a murder and surgery, I kind of liked the banter between cop Sinatra and Dunaway as his hospitalized wife.  This is based on the Lawrence Sanders novel and directed by Brian G. Hutton.