Has it really been a decade since the Ol' Blue Eyes stopped sparkling? Frank Sinatra (pictured), subject of a deserved retrospective on Turner Classic Movies (TCM) this month, appeared in 58 movies, about a dozen worth TIVO-ing. (In this twelve I do not include the 1960 Ocean's Eleven, an excuse for Sinatra and his Rat Pack to get paid for partying at their Vegas clubhouse, the Sands Hotel.)
As a recording artist, he was peerless. As a film actor, in the 1950s he was as important as Marlon Brando in personifying moody masculinity. (And you gotta admit, in Guys and Dolls, Sinatra's insouciant Nathan Detroit blew Brando's Sky Masterson off the screen.) In Sinatra's best performances, he suggests two warring impulses. Often he is a casualty of the romantic and the social wars, flintily defending what Stephen Holden called his bruised romanticism. In comedy (see The Tender Trap) Sinatra carries a lightness of spirit with a darkness of experience. In drama (see The Manchurian Candidate) he defends his masculinity while baring his vulnerability. And we haven't even talked about the velvet rumble of his voice, which David Thomson likened to "a noir sound, like saxophones, foghorns, gunfire and the quiet weeping of women in the background." Sinatra's was also a boudoir sound, like violins, a belt unbuckling, sighing and the quiet rustle of sheets.
If you're a TCM subscriber, TIVO Guys and Dolls (May 11, midnight), The Tender Trap (May 14, 8 pm), High Society (May 14, 12:15 am), Pal Joey (May 18, 9 pm), Young at Heart (May 18, midnight), Some Came Running (May 21, 4:45 am), On the Town (May 25, 9 pm), The Man With the Golden Arm (May 28, 8 pm), The Manchurian Candidate (May 28, 10:15 pm) and Suddenly (May 28, 2:30 am). If you're going the DVD route, to this list add From Here to Eternity and Von Ryan's Express.
Did I forget one of your favorites? What do you think of Sinatra as an actor? Pet performance? Pet song? (For me, best performance is a tie between Tender Trap and Manchurian Candidate ; best song a tie between his recording of "Blue Skies" with the Tommy Dorsey orchestra and "Angel Eyes.")
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Frankly Speaking (Sinatra, That Is)
Has it really been a decade since the Ol' Blue Eyes stopped sparkling? Frank Sinatra (pictured), subject of a deserved retrospective on Turner Classic Movies (TCM) this month, appeared in 58 movies, about a dozen worth TIVO-ing. (In this twelve I do not include the 1960 Ocean's Eleven, an excuse for Sinatra and his Rat Pack to get paid for partying at their Vegas clubhouse, the Sands Hotel.)
As a recording artist, he was peerless. As a film actor, in the 1950s he was as important as Marlon Brando in personifying moody masculinity. (And you gotta admit, in Guys and Dolls, Sinatra's insouciant Nathan Detroit blew Brando's Sky Masterson off the screen.) In Sinatra's best performances, he suggests two warring impulses. Often he is a casualty of the romantic and the social wars, flintily defending what Stephen Holden called his bruised romanticism. In comedy (see The Tender Trap) Sinatra carries a lightness of spirit with a darkness of experience. In drama (see The Manchurian Candidate) he defends his masculinity while baring his vulnerability. And we haven't even talked about the velvet rumble of his voice, which David Thomson likened to "a noir sound, like saxophones, foghorns, gunfire and the quiet weeping of women in the background." Sinatra's was also a boudoir sound, like violins, a belt unbuckling, sighing and the quiet rustle of sheets.
If you're a TCM subscriber, TIVO Guys and Dolls (May 11, midnight), The Tender Trap (May 14, 8 pm), High Society (May 14, 12:15 am), Pal Joey (May 18, 9 pm), Young at Heart (May 18, midnight), Some Came Running (May 21, 4:45 am), On the Town (May 25, 9 pm), The Man With the Golden Arm (May 28, 8 pm), The Manchurian Candidate (May 28, 10:15 pm) and Suddenly (May 28, 2:30 am). If you're going the DVD route, to this list add From Here to Eternity and Von Ryan's Express.
Did I forget one of your favorites? What do you think of Sinatra as an actor? Pet performance? Pet song? (For me, best performance is a tie between Tender Trap and Manchurian Candidate ; best song a tie between his recording of "Blue Skies" with the Tommy Dorsey orchestra and "Angel Eyes.")
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