Ocean's 11 (1960).

Review #1709: Ocean's 11.

Cast: 

Frank Sinatra (Danny Ocean), Dean Martin (Sam Harmon), Sammy Davis Jr (Josh Howard), Peter Lawford (Jimmy Foster), Angie Dickinson (Beatrice Ocean), Richard Conte (Anthony Bergdorf), Cesar Romero (Duke Santos), Patrice Wymore (Adele Ekstrom), Joey Bishop ('Mushy' O'Connors), Akim Tamiroff (Spyros Acebos), Henry Silva (Roger Corneal), Ilka Chase (Mrs. Restes), Buddy Lester (Vince Massler), Richard Benedict ('Curly' Steffans), Jean Willes (Mrs. Bergdorf), Norman Fell (Peter Rheimer), and Clem Harvey (Louis Jackson) Directed and Produced by Lewis Milestone (#901 - The Racket and #1336 - The Front Page)

Review: 

See, the thing about heist movies is you have to make sure one really manages to collect either an interesting premise or a useful cast to generate excitement and the potential for a worthy payoff. This is a nice way of trying to dance around a movie that is probably the most star-studded mediocrity of its era. One cannot be too harsh to this film, if only because it was the penultimate work of Milestone as a film director, and his output had decreased in the 1950s (he directed seven features while shifting to television). This was the first film to feature a majority of what is dubbed the "Rat Pack", which was used to refer to a group of entertainers that made a bunch of films together along with appearing with each other in casino venues in Las Vegas (to be pedantic, it actually is the second "Rat Pack", since the first involved Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall) - in this case, the group (who once referred to themselves as "The Summit", no kidding) referred to Sinatra, Davis, Martin, Lawford, and Bishop, although there were also "mascots", which involved folks such as Angie Dickinson and Shirley MacLaine. Again, it's a silly name to refer to folks that already worked with each other quite a few times before this film (such as It Happened in Brooklyn, which had Sinatra and Lawford). Over the next 24 years, there would be a handful of movies featuring at least two members of the group, which resulted in features such as Sergeants 3 (1962) along with Robin and the 7 Hoods (1964); perhaps fittingly, the last time they appeared with each other was Cannonball Run II, a vehicle movie designed to feature as many name stars as possible. The idea for the film was told to Lawford in 1955, and he later bought the outline for $10,000 (of course, a different account involves him hearing from a director that had heard it from a gas station attendant before buying the rights in 1958) - tasked to write the story was George Clayton Johnson and Jack Golden Russell.

The only heist that this movie manages to pull is tricking you into believing it really needs to be 127 minutes. You could probably grab the script and tear a bunch of scenes out and probably come out of it with no real loss. This is a movie made to stoke the egos of folks who never seem to take this film seriously at any bit of time, and Milestone seems thoroughly outmatched to do anything other than make a plodding affair with a little bit of glitz and vignettes that creak and moans before eventually moving on to an actual heist that can't even land the payoff. Perhaps the best way to describe Sinatra's performance is to use the account stated in a book about him, in which he "would show up at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, do 20 minutes of work and then start drinking." Look, if you had to do a bunch of shows in the night and then do a bunch of filming in the morning for a film, who really wins out in the end? The "bare minimum" is a hard phrase to say about an actor who already has an Academy Award to his mantle, but there really isn't anything interesting to note about his performance beyond just saying that the charisma is lacking beyond corny phrases. The planning parts are okay, but it begs for something more than ad-libbing. Of course, the well might be a bit soiled by seeing a handful of movies with folks who seemed to be having a good time that had varied results. At least you get to hear Martin and Davis sing? Sure, Martin seems a bit too comfy at playing second banana, but at least "Ain't That a Kick in the Head" is somewhat fun to listen to. Davis suffers the most among the main group despite having the most interesting part to play in the heist, mostly because his time on screen doesn't register as much as it should (besides, the racial crack at the end is too lame to even mention). You might as well take Dickinson out of the story, because her presence is lacking to the point of comatose, packing zilch with Sinatra in attempts at playful combative chemistry that prove nothing to the actual film. Lawford might as well be replaced by a broom stick, if you think about it. The rest are here and there, essentially serving as dominos on a table with hastily-made legs that have no time for quirks. Honestly, the only interesting folks in the film are in small roles - Romero and Tamiroff (one used for leverage and the other used for comic relief). Taking nearly an hour to get to planning the heist and then getting near the 90 minute mark before actually executing it is a bit too much to ask for, no matter how much fun the folks seem to be having ad-libbing their way through. To me, you have two options with the heist: either it goes well, and they get away it...or it goes wrong. Honestly, by the time the last trick gets pulled, one just shakes their head at its mind-numbing futility. Well, I guess if one really needs a time capsule of easygoing folks in Vegas in the time before it became....well, Vegas, this might be the one to watch. If one is curious to see a bit of glitz to go with intimacy in a time long past and don't want to just look at a bunch of old photos of the city, this might be for you.

Overall, I give it 6 out of 10 stars.

Now, Voyager.

Review #1362: Now, Voyager.

Cast: 
Bette Davis (Charlotte Vale), Paul Henreid (Jeremiah "Jerry" Duvaux Durrance), Claude Rains (Dr. Jaquith), Gladys Cooper (Mrs. Windle Vale), Bonita Granville (June Vale), John Loder (Elliot Livingston), Ilka Chase (Lisa Vale), Lee Patrick (Deb McIntyre), Franklin Pangborn (Mr. Thompson), and Janis Wilson (Tina Durrance) Directed by Irving Rapper.

Review: 
"This has always been a motto of mine: Attempt the impossible in order to improve your work."

I think we all can say we have had our moments involving an ugly duckling. The feeling of inferiority or the feeling of isolation within having a lack of self confidence or missing people to help in that regard. Simply put, sometimes we just need help. The screenplay was done by Casey Robinson as an adaptation of the 1941 novel of the same name by Olive Higgins Prouty, the third in a five-book series of the Vale family. She had spent time in a sanitarium herself due to a mental breakdown sixteen years prior due to the death of one of her daughters. The depiction of psychotherapy in the book and film were thought of as pioneering for the time, and she was also noted for her philanthropic work. At the helm for stars is quite an interesting pair in Davis, Henreid, and Rains. Davis had lobbied hard for the role, which had been thought of for actresses ranging from Irene Dunne to Ginger Rogers, while directors considered had gone from Edmund Goulding to Michael Curtiz. Who better to helm the production than Hal B. Wallis, who was behind several hits for Warner Bros since 1930 with films such as The Letter (1940, featuring Davis) and Casablanca (1942, featuring Henreid and Rains). Rapper had started his career in Hollywood as a dialogue coach and assistant director in 1936 for Warner Brothers, and he made his debut in 1941 with Shining Victory, which had Davis in a cameo appearance. He directed her in four other films while having a moderate career in directing, with his last being Born Again in 1978.

Who better to sink into a tortured main role in terms of showing struggle and growth than Davis? She was always known for her intensity as a perfectionist, reading the novel and being involved in the wardrobe design for her character. She gives a dignity to this role that dominates the film in sincerity, a transformation that she makes thoroughly believable with chemistry to boot with Henreid, best signified by the sequence where they share a cigarette together after he lights two of them in his mouth (a scene that had been done in a few productions before but made notable here) and puts one in her mouth. Henreid proves to be a fair match for Davis, one with inviting charisma. Rains (described by Davis as her favorite co-star) pulls through with professionalism in his moments on screen (with are a bit scattered after the initial scenes), never seeming unbelievable at any moment. Cooper pulls in venom with ease for her clashes with Davis, which seem to be like a soap opera just as much as the rest of the film is. On the whole, the movie pulls through in tugging at the heartstrings (aided through Max Steiner's dynamic music, which naturally won an Oscar) for 117 minutes that succeeds most of the time in capable drama without becoming a complete soggy sponge of drama. It's a film with its own spirit of independence that one can still find useful today, where one only needs to look to the stars to find something to behold for themselves.

Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.