Listonixio Fresh and Exciting

Beanbioca As Good As It Gets

Curapedi I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Jonah Abbott There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

JohnHowardReid NOTES: Frank Sinatra won both the Golden Globe and the Laurel Awards for the Best Male Performance in a musical. Nominated for four prestigious Hollywood Awards — Best Sets, Best Sound, Best Film Editing and Best Costumes — but lost out to Sayonara for Sets and Sound, The Bridge on the River Kwai for Editing, and Les Girls for Costumes.With a rentals gross of $4.7 million, equal 7th at U.S./Canadian ticket windows for 1957. One of the top sixteen films at the U.K. box- office for 1958. Oddly, the film was much less successful in Australia. Sinatra had recently received a fair amount of bad press, which didn't help. Worse, Hayworth's fans felt that they had been severely burnt by "Fire Down Below" (1957).COMMENT: While Hayworth is top-billed, it is Sinatra who dominates the action in the title role. His acting is great, he exudes bounce and confidence and has the right amount of knocked-around savoir faire and heelish charm. He can still belt over the right song with aplomb, but some of the songs here are out of his range. Of course the same criticism can't be applied to Hayworth or Novak as they don't do their own singing. Both of these ladies would have benefited from stronger dubbed voices (especially Hayworth). Novak certainly looks good. Hayworth gives a great performance and can still dance with zing but she looks better with her hair down and the red tint used here is too rusty looking to be flattering. Hank Henry is a stand-out in the support cast. It's also good to see Elizabeth Patterson.Dorothy Kingsley has done a super job updating the script but has not managed to overcome its 3-act structure which tends to dissipate interest and keep the plot running just a mite too long. The plot itself is too thin and clichéd, beautifully dressed up and hung with all manner of zippy dialogue though it is, to sustain interest once the characters start to lose their appeal and their novelty. Sidney's direction has a sort of brash class and style perfectly attuned to the subject matter — it too becomes blander as the plot runs out of steam.Production values are A-1. Lush color photography, agreeable orchestrations. A few imaginative touches like Sinatra unexpectedly not reprising the whole "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered" song but just singing the first line.

MartinHafer When I read up on the original play for "Pal Joey" (1940), I was surprised how much it differed from this 1957 film. In fact, instead of a film version, it's more like the play was used for a starting point and that is all. Some of the songs have been retained but many were omitted and some were included from other plays! In addition, in the play, Joey was a heel from start to finish and his girlfriend was STILL married! Nice guy, huh? And, he was a dancer (Gene Kelly) not a singer. Here, Frank Sinatra sings beautifully in the lead but doesn't dance. And, while he is a womanizer and a bit of a jerk, he has buried deep within some decency--but he does a good job of hiding it through most of the film! Joey is a lounge singer and emcee at a San Francisco nightclub. There, he chases the nice girl, Kim Novak, and when he's just about won her heart, he drops her like a hot potato for a rich widow (Rita Hayworth). At first, Joey seems very happy--he gets to run his own club and is on top of the world. But this dream isn't all it's cracked up to be. What's next? See the film! Whether you like this film's plot or not, it's well worth seeing the picture because of its songs. Sinatra is in his prime and belts out some nice songs like "The Lady is a Tramp" and "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered". And, the lip synced songs by both female leads (Novak and Hayworth) are quite nice as well. As for the story, it's nice but I would wonder what a movie more like the play would have been like. The main character sure would have been a whole lot less likable! As it was, I liked the film and thought it an interesting character study for Sinatra--combining SOME of his real-life persona with Joey's. Well worth seeing and very well made.

secondtake Pal Joey (1957)This is a vehicle for Frank Sinatra to sing. And that's all we need, in a way. The movie has a plot, and two stellar actresses who are neither quite at their best (the overrated Kim Novak and the restrained Rita Hayworth). And it has some nice full Technicolor filming in and around San Francisco which is its own attraction. But Sinatra rules nearly every scene. He has his regular guy persona, perfected years ago for lots of musicals and even some dramas, with the slight tweak that he's a bit full of himself. Except we know it's an act just to survive. He meets chorus girl Novak and likes her rather a lot, and he meets high society and ex-showgirl stripper Hayworth and likes her rather less, but they seem to have some hot flashes anyway. And he needs her money to make it big in town.That's the plot, as the two women vie for his attention. Meanwhile a new nightclub featuring, yes, singing and dancing, is opening and so that becomes the center of all the swirling. It's all predictably held back from anything realistic, of course. I mean, Sinatra is this guy who's totally broke and desperate, but he doesn't really show it. (He says it.) When he swoops on stage at the first opportunity it's all in that fantasy world of possibilities that are what make musicals musicals. Those of you who are tempted to say, "Oh, come on!" you need to let go and just find the flow. Get used to the idea that it's a kind of parallel universe, slightly false and dreamlike on purpose. The improbable is meant to be just that because it's more fun that way!Meanwhile there's Sinatra the singer. He goes through a whole list of numbers, some of them rather famous, and he hums and sings bits of other great songs. These include "My Funny Valentine" which Novak performs in full on stage, and "Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered" which Hayworth performs to herself in her spacious bedroom. Both of the women's vocals are dubbed in by other vocalists, however.And yes, there are some really famous songs here. The composers are none other than Rogers and Hart, coming from their 1940 Broadway play of the same name (and originally starring Gene Kelly). Most of the songs originated there, but four, including "The Lady is a Tramp" and "My Funny Valentine" came from a 1937 musical "Babes in Arms," also by Rogers and Hart. The "charts" are by the great Nelson Riddle, who arranged Sinatra's most classic albums of the 1950s. Everything is in pitch perfect form here, and if you want a dose of pure Sinatra, the actor and singer, this is the place to start. Don't expect too much of a movie, but don't worry, either, because it's all solid and very enjoyable. And a dream you can really inhabit.

jc-osms I really wanted to like this colourful adaptation of one of Rogers and Hart's last and most successful shows and attracted by big names like Sinatra, Hayworth and Novak, thought I couldn't lose. Sheesh, was I wrong.Concerning ne'erdowell Joey (Sinatra's) self-obsessed attempts to get himself up the greasy pole to his own club in San Francisco and no doubt attendant fame and fortune, the film fails ultimately for a number of reasons. First Frank's character just isn't desperate enough, purportedly down on his luck, he always looks perfectly turned out, even before he becomes wealthy widow Hayworth's kept man. And the idea to give this hard-bitten Casanova a cute puppy dog is just wrong on so many levels. His character never seems to stop talking and often re-hashes the same stock phrases, which gets wearing after a while. As for Hayworth and Novak, both look fantastic, filmed in great clothes in great light, as befits two of the sexiest women to ever come out of Tinseltown, but the former lacks that dare I say it, Norma Desmond controlling, self-deluding and even slightly deranged conviction which would have made her character more rounded while Novak gets to play a whimpering simpering child, completely at odds with her overly sensual demeanour.Some of the scenes are ridiculously contrived too, like Novak's strip-tease, her later passing out on Sinatra when they're on Hayworth's yacht and Joey's dream sequence when both his loves sashay around him like bees to honey. Worst of all is Hayworth's "Sugar Mommy" backing out of the competition for Joey by personally fetching Novak for their hold-hands, run-at-the-camera, big love shot at the conclusion.On the plus side, as indicated, the stars all look great, Sinatra too, being in the middle of his classic Capitol series of recordings, even getting to quote one of his catch-phrases "Ring-a-ding-ding" at one point. The San Francisco locations are also easy on the eye and the musical numbers excellent, including "The Lady Is a Tramp", "My Funny Valentine" and "Bewitched Bothered and Bewildered" amongst them. Unfortunately, the movie dialogue too rarely matches the sharpness of Lorenz Hart's lyrics. Damon Runyan, this ain't.A missed opportunity them and I'm not sure I can tell quite why. Some shows may just work well on stage, I'm guessing this is one of them.