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PAL JOEY
Frank Sinatra fans will be in heaven with Pal Joey, a sparkling 1957 re-tooling of the 1940 Rodgers and Hart Broadway musical that is definitely a watered down version of the original stage piece, but revamped to fit Ol' Blue Eyes, it still provides solid entertainment value.
The 1940 Broadway musical actually starred Gene Kelly, who made three films with Sinatra, so Sinatra taking over for the film version seemed like a no-brainer. Sinatra plays Joey Evans, a womanizing nightclub singer who gets a job at a club in San Francisco and finds himself torn between two very different women. Linda English (Kim Novak) is a chorus girl at the club where Joey works and catches Joey's eye immediately but she won't give him the time of the day, which makes her all the more attractive. Joey and his band are hired to perform at a charity gala at the home of high society matron Mrs. Vera Prentice-Simpson (Rita Hayworth), whom Joey immediately recognizes as a former stripper known as "Vera of the Vanishing Veils" and finds himself drawn to her when she offers to finance his very own club called Chez Joey and you have what has become a staple of musical comedy: the romantic triangle.
What is different here is that Joey is really not a very nice guy and makes no apologies for it. Joey's character is established in the opening scene where he is being escorted by the police onto a train out of town for having the mayor's underage daughter in a hotel room. When asked about how he handles women he explains, "You treat a dame like a lady and a lady like a dame." And as much as Joey enjoys female company, he has no desire to be attached to a female either. Joey shows his true colors as he pulls away from Linda when he realizes he can make his dream of being a club owner come true with Mrs. Simpson and it is Joey's shabby treatment of these two women that becomes the draw of this musical.
The role of Joey fits Sinatra like a glove and he doesn't shy away from the negative aspects of the character at all...creating a three dimensional musical comedy leading man who doesn't always act the way he's supposed to. Rita Hayworth is as alluring here as she was 11 years earlier in Gilda and though she looks amazing, Kim Novak's wooden performance made it hard for me to understand Joey's interest in her. I found the chemistry between Sinatra and Hayworth much more interesting and it is their complex relationship that makes this musical worth investing in.
Of course, the iconic score by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart is a big drawing point as well. I never saw the stage show, but I have heard the original Broadway cast soundtrack and the original score was butchered, not an uncommon practice in bringing Broadway to Hollywood, but we still have "I Could Write a Book", "Zip", "There's a Small Hotel", "Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered", "The Lady is a Tramp", and "My Funny Valentine". The songs are well-performed, even if Sinatra is the only lead doing his own singing. JoAnn Greer sings for Hayworth and Trudy Stevens sings for Novak, but both actresses do lip-sync convincingly. There is a dream ballet near the climax of the film that seems out of place, but the film is watchable thanks to George Sidney's breezy direction and the talents of Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart, and Frank Sinatra.
Frank Sinatra fans will be in heaven with Pal Joey, a sparkling 1957 re-tooling of the 1940 Rodgers and Hart Broadway musical that is definitely a watered down version of the original stage piece, but revamped to fit Ol' Blue Eyes, it still provides solid entertainment value.
The 1940 Broadway musical actually starred Gene Kelly, who made three films with Sinatra, so Sinatra taking over for the film version seemed like a no-brainer. Sinatra plays Joey Evans, a womanizing nightclub singer who gets a job at a club in San Francisco and finds himself torn between two very different women. Linda English (Kim Novak) is a chorus girl at the club where Joey works and catches Joey's eye immediately but she won't give him the time of the day, which makes her all the more attractive. Joey and his band are hired to perform at a charity gala at the home of high society matron Mrs. Vera Prentice-Simpson (Rita Hayworth), whom Joey immediately recognizes as a former stripper known as "Vera of the Vanishing Veils" and finds himself drawn to her when she offers to finance his very own club called Chez Joey and you have what has become a staple of musical comedy: the romantic triangle.
What is different here is that Joey is really not a very nice guy and makes no apologies for it. Joey's character is established in the opening scene where he is being escorted by the police onto a train out of town for having the mayor's underage daughter in a hotel room. When asked about how he handles women he explains, "You treat a dame like a lady and a lady like a dame." And as much as Joey enjoys female company, he has no desire to be attached to a female either. Joey shows his true colors as he pulls away from Linda when he realizes he can make his dream of being a club owner come true with Mrs. Simpson and it is Joey's shabby treatment of these two women that becomes the draw of this musical.
The role of Joey fits Sinatra like a glove and he doesn't shy away from the negative aspects of the character at all...creating a three dimensional musical comedy leading man who doesn't always act the way he's supposed to. Rita Hayworth is as alluring here as she was 11 years earlier in Gilda and though she looks amazing, Kim Novak's wooden performance made it hard for me to understand Joey's interest in her. I found the chemistry between Sinatra and Hayworth much more interesting and it is their complex relationship that makes this musical worth investing in.
Of course, the iconic score by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart is a big drawing point as well. I never saw the stage show, but I have heard the original Broadway cast soundtrack and the original score was butchered, not an uncommon practice in bringing Broadway to Hollywood, but we still have "I Could Write a Book", "Zip", "There's a Small Hotel", "Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered", "The Lady is a Tramp", and "My Funny Valentine". The songs are well-performed, even if Sinatra is the only lead doing his own singing. JoAnn Greer sings for Hayworth and Trudy Stevens sings for Novak, but both actresses do lip-sync convincingly. There is a dream ballet near the climax of the film that seems out of place, but the film is watchable thanks to George Sidney's breezy direction and the talents of Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart, and Frank Sinatra.