Product Details
ASIN : 6301587375
Customers who bought this goods also bought.
Editorial Reviews
From Amazon.com
First born in the pages of The New Yorker, then translated into a hit Rodgers and Hart Broadway musical, the title character of Pal Joey had undergone quite a transformation by the time he hit the movies in 1957. He was a singer, rather than a dancer, but more importantly he'd had his rough edges sweetly softened; the callous heel dreamed up by novelist John O'Hara was more of a naughty scamp in the film version. However, Pal Joey remains delightfully watchable for two very good reasons: a terrific song score and a surplus of glittering star power. Frank Sinatra, at the zenith of his cocky, world-on-a-string popularity, glides through the film with breezy nonchalance, romancing showgirl Kim Novak (Columbia Pictures' new sex symbol) and wealthy widow Rita Hayworth (Columbia Pictures' former sex symbol). The film also benefits from location shooting in San Francisco, caught in the moonlight-and-supper-club glow of the late '50s. Sinatra does beautifully with the Rodgers and Hart classics "I Didn't Know What Time It Was" and "I Could Write a Book," and his performance of "The Lady Is a Tramp" (evocatively shot by director George Sidney) is flat-out genius. Sinatra's ease with hep-cat lingo nearly outdoes Bing Crosby at his best, and included in the DVD is a trailer in which Sinatra instructs the audience in "Joey's Jargon," a collection of hip slang words such as "gasser" and "mouse." If not one of Sinatra's very best movies, Pal Joey is nevertheless a classy vehicle that fits like a glove. --Robert Horton
Customer Reviews
2 SUCH GORGEOUS WOMEN (2004-07-13)  not a sinatra fan, but Rita and Kim are gorgeous and you cant get enuff of them. KIm is esp. beautiful and Rita is touching as the aging beauty. I heard Doreen Woodbury commited suicide while reheasing this movie. I wonder what role she would have played?
Pal Joey- final cut (2004-06-16)  The 1957 film version of "Pal Joey" as featured on DVD is a gorgeous thing to behold, gorgeous women and scenery (San Francisco subbing for the Chicago of the play). On the down-side... too many superb songs from the play were reduced to mere dance or background music. George Sidney was a fine director for musicals, but we have to wonder what a more accomplished auteur might have done with the material. Billy Wilder almost made the film, but didn't want to use Rita Hayworth because at 39 she wasn't really old enough to play "older woman" to gigolo Frank Sinatra. However, Rita while still stunning, had endured a hard life. She looked @50 and Wilder should have thought twice about it. The film is 'zingy' and fun, but the play needs a more faithful remake, perhaps by Rob Marshall. Sadly, it doesn't appear that any of these great "cut songs" by Rodgers 'n Hart were actually shot. However, the dream number 'What Do I Care for a Dame?' was filmed in a much longer version (info. per the late Dorothy Kingsley). This footage exists somewhere in Columbia's vaults, and should have been included as an 'extra' on the DVD. Thanx, H
One of the best musicals ever. (2004-05-04) Everything works for me in this movie. There isn't a weakness to be found. The music by Rodgers & Hart (arranged by Nelson Riddle) is-- well, you know it's out of this world! Kim Novak and Rita Hayworth are beautiful (you knew that too) and Sinatra . . . Ah, Sinatra. Strictly speaking, he was a singer who acted, and at times incredibly well, but this film, as much as one of his classic concept albums, captures the essence of The Man. The hat is there-- tilted-- the tux, the overcoat over shoulder. And Frankie-- I mean, Joey-- uses all the ring-a-ding jargon that's just too cool for any of the other clydes to try out. Yet there's another side to this Frankie/Joey. He has a vulnerability that's also the essence of The Man. And a very subtle loneliness-- no loser, just a "bum" who's had some bad luck. He's sweet. Like the way he treats that cute little dog, feeding him his bagels with coffee and teaching him tricks. So, the movie's fun-- and funny-- without a fifteen minute ballet at the end. But it fits my category of "great" because it flows; it's smooth; the dialogue, the songs, they all come together marvelously. I especially enjoy the way George Sidney dwells on the little things, the small scenes in restaurants, on the boat, in the club. It feels unique for a musical. And the whole thing is shot with a certain crispness, from the opening titles to the long crescendo that is "The Lady Is A Tramp" (Frank and piano up to all the brass blaring away as he exits with Lady). Maybe it's just a personal thing, but with each viewing I'm utterly bewitched by every line, every camera angle. Even if you don't love it as much as I do, I think you'll agree it's as cool, amusing, and beautiful as they come-- and that makes it one of the best musicals of all time.
Diluted and dull (2003-11-18)  I do not like Sinatra, and as someone once said, Joey is the role he was born to play. A self-important little heel. I think he had a very slight singing voice (with orchestral delusions of grandeur, look at the arrangement of his "Softly, As I Leave You") and I think he was a megalomaniac. Also, before I drop the subject, the tune in this flick that floored all the other reviewers here ("The Lady Is A Tramp") was written for a woman and has many more, and many cleverer choruses, and was written for "Babes in Arms," not "Pal Joey." Rita Hayworth (whose character, Vera Simpson, was just rich on the stage) plays a former stripper, not a former singer. And her number, "Zip!" has words in it not even written by Hart! The plot of the show (par for Hollywood) was bowdlerized, rewritten and destroyed for the flick, and left simplistic and with most of its songs gone. Good ones too. I've read O'Hara's libretto and I've heard the score. The film is a colorful diversion (like the films of Porter's "Can-Can" and Loesser's "Guys and Dolls," both also with Sinatra, both also eviscerated and abridged, though Loesser fared best of the three), it'll kill an hour and a half, Rodgers' tunes are done well (as well as non-singers can do them), O'Hara and Hart are rewritten with only the bare bones left, but in 2003, who really cares anymore. Rodgers & Hart will be around when this shadow of one of their best shows (almost all their shows were their best shows, they were gems, but this one had a script by John O'Hara, sigh, what a waste) is forgotten. Watch it, feel good (if you can stand Sinata; Novak and Hayworth are talented and beautiful), and then forget it.
California Cold and Damp? Who Knew? (2003-05-25) I've been trying to catch up on my old musicals lately. It's a genre I didn't quite grow up with and have always been a little ambivalent about. Never could get a handle of those "walking down the street and bursting into song" musicals. But PAL JOEY is not of that particular mold. Most of the songs are "natural," in the sense that Joey is a nightclub singer. Rita Hayworth's number, "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered" is the only number that doesn't take place in a club setting, but then again people in love have been known to sing to themselves in their boudoirs, so that's OK too. Most of the reviews for this film stress the fact that the original Broadway play was considerably darker, and the main character much more of a louse than the cheeky nice guy Sinatra plays here. Given the era (the late 50s), this is hardly surprising, and it's easy to guess how the edgier theatrical version actually played, even if you don't know the "book." Sinatra is fine as the cheerful heel Joey. Rita Hayworth and Kim Novak are lovely and sexy as rivals for Joey's affections. Character actors like Barbara Nichols and Hank Henry milk their smallish roles for all they're worth. Director George Sidney was a veteran of several classic musicals, including SHOW BOAT, TIL THE CLOUDS ROLL BY and THE HARVEY GIRLS, so he's on familiar turf here, and it shows. The Rodgers and Hart score is great, but the numbers are not as many as you might hope. Still there's "My Funny Valentine," the aforementioned "Bewitched...," and, the highlight, Sinatra's definitive take "The Lady Is a Tramp." Well, worth 111 minutes of your time.
Look for similar items by category
Related Link
Powered by Amazon Web Services + Amazon Associates.
|
![]](http://resource.hanamoku.com/img/hanamoku_ca/00bar_top_right.gif){kind=small}
![]](http://resource.hanamoku.com/img/hanamoku_ca/00bar_bottom_right.gif){kind=small}
Goods, Product Information
