Pal Joey (1957)

Life in the Musical Theater

Pal Joey is thoroughly delightful. I'd forgotten just how much. Even though my favorite song comes from this movie, Frank Sinatra was much too old and didn't have Eddie Fisher's looks for an EF fanclub president like little old me. I certainly thought he was taller (like Michael Feinstein, big talent comes in short people); after all, he was already a star in the entertainment business and movies, not just on television. Though he was not 'bewitching,' he was a bundle of talent and versitility with lots of media attention and some gorgeous ex-wives.

To think that Hitch's blonde in "Vertigo" had music in her veins, Kim Novack was a good foil for Sinatra's antics on and off stage. But it took Rita Hayworth to put him in his place. She was the star from Knob Hill.

Watch and see how good the musicals were fifty years ago and see Sinatra at his best. Thanks to Carlos (not Mark), it was later that I learned to appreciate Frank's perfect enunciation as I aided in his quest for perfect English. No one since has come close to him with the exception of Feinstein, who so graciously sang 'But Not for Me,' a Gershwin song, to me in Nashville. What a night! November 5, 2008

Pal Joey DVD

I love this movie...such a classic, great soundtrack and acting! Both my husband and I have watched this over and over....pure entertainment at its best! Highly rcommend. October 12, 2008

Hollywood Whitewash

"Pal Joey" (1957) makes a sanitized translation to the big screen, with a trio of classic stars - Rita Hayworth, Frank Sinatra and Kim Novak - elevating an uneven, overlong musical. The film is worth seeing for Sinatra's signature tune "The Lady Is a Tramp" and director George Sidney's visual stylishness, yet lacks the hard-edged quality of the stage version. Thanks to the prudish Hays Office, "Pal Joey" emerges as another casualty of Hollywood censorship. June 20, 2008

Classic Rodgers-Hart Songs Provide Framework for a Swinging Sinatra in a Predictably Drawn Triangle

If Frank Sinatra had a signature role in his long movie career, this must be it because he plays one of his coolest cats in this fairly adult 1957 musical drama based on a book by John O'Hara. However, it's better remembered for the fourteen songs by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, many of which became Sinatra standards. Written by Dorothy Kingsley, the rather slight story has the crooner play womanizing nightclub singer Joey Evans who keeps losing jobs because cad that he is, he likes to fool around with married women. Joey lands in San Francisco and finagles his way into a job as singer and emcee at a dive called the Barbary Coast. There he meets innocent Linda English from Albuquerque, a chorine who refuses to strip and just wants to be a torch singer. In typical Sinatra swinging fashion, Joey flirts with her but plays hard-to-get. One night, both are recruited for a charity show held at a posh Nob Hill mansion. The hostess is Vera Simpson, a former striptease performer who has since become a wealthy society matron. Sparks fly between Joey and Vera but only after mutual acts of humiliation. He breezily moves in with her on her yacht, and she decides to fund his pipe dream, owning a sophisticated nightspot she dubs "Chez Joey". Never one to leave his cards on the table, Joey hires Linda to sing, and you can guess the rest as the inevitable romantic triangle takes the expected turns.

Directed by George Sidney (Anchors Aweigh, Viva Las Vegas), it plays out rather lugubriously with nary a surprise, but the songs are mostly gems. Sinatra knows how to play heels, though Joey never gets hard-boiled enough to develop a true edge. On the upside, he sings "There's a Small Hotel", "I Could Write a Book" and best of all, "The Lady Is a Tramp" to a guardedly smitten Rita Hayworth well cast as Vera. Even though at 38, she was actually younger than Sinatra, she cuts a coolish (and shapely) figure as a jealous patroness despite the unflattering camera angles. It's just a shame that the story doesn't respect her character much, especially at the very end. However, when she literally lets her hair down, it's a relief to see her old seductive self in post-coital bliss as she lip-syncs "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered" (sung seductively by Jo Ann Greer). As Linda, Kim Novak - a year away from Vertigo - fares less well as she looks tentative and oddly blank-faced during her big number, "My Funny Valentine" (sung sonorously by Trudy Erwin). But we all know it's really Sinatra we want to see perform, and from that respect, a lot of the movie plays out like one of his 1960's TV specials. The only extras on the 1999 DVD are a couple of trailers and talent files for the principals. An intermittent entertainment, it's definitely a product of a bygone era. June 1, 2008

the ultimate Sinatra musical

As other reviewers have noted, Frank Sinatra was at the top of his form when he starred in PAL JOEY, the film version of the celebrated Rodgers and Hart musical (originally staged on Broadway in 1940 starring Gene Kelly).

Based around the cynical short stories of John O'Hara, PAL JOEY is the story of womanising nightclub entertainer Joey Evans (Sinatra) and his various affairs, most notably with Mrs Simpson (Rita Hayworth), a widowed millionairess trying to escape her past as a stripper; and Linda English (Kim Novak), a naive showgirl whose heart is stolen by the caddish Joey.

The main reason why PAL JOEY works so well is the delicious score, which includes "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered", "I Could Write a Book", "Zip", and "That Terrific Rainbow". Orchestrated by Sinatra's frequent musical collaborator Nelson Riddle, the film version of PAL JOEY also interpolates several more Rodgers & Hart standards into the score ("My Funny Valentine", "There's a Small Hotel", "The Lady is a Tramp").

Rita Hayworth (in what turned out to be the final movie under her Columbia contract) exudes lots of steamy, repressed sensuality with her performance as the widowed society dame taken in by Joey's charms; and in a rare musical role, Kim Novak dazzles. Frank Sinatra, with trademark raincoat and jaunty hat, is his charming best as lady-killer Joey. Look out for talented Barbara Nichols among the showgirls.

The DVD for PAL JOEY sadly doesn't have much in the way of bonus materials, just a trailer and some talent profiles for it's main stars and director George Sidney. Still, for musical fans this is quite the treat. (Single-sided, single-layer disc). March 17, 2008

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